The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1911-11-09


nouneement shat the Wichita Falls &
Northwestern railroad intends 20 build
north Of Beaver creek 70 Gate. instead
Of coming along the soGih side 81 the
stream. and thu. tapping much larger
area Of farming land" said County
Judge George II. Healy, who EAs an
Ofiahorns City VISITOR last week.
According 70 the Judge, the larger
portion Of the beet farming and graI-
ing land Is south Of the creek, and ~
there are no good crossings for traffic,
the railroad. placed a. IL has been sur
geyed, will not aid the bulk oi the
farmers in getting 10 market. How
ever, surveys are not railroads, and il
is possible that the engineering forces
Of the line may BE- persuaded 70 take
the southern route.
We have been boilding great deal
on the Wichita Falls 4 Northeastern"
said Judge Heaiy, ''4Dd We are snr-
ionsly aEaifing the construction OF
some trunk line that will enable us 10
ship our produce 10 Oklahoma City.
As il is, what we raise goes 70 Wichita
and Kansas City for the simple reason
that there Is DO direct line 70 Oklaho-
ma City that we can possibly reach"
A look at the map OF Oklahoma and
q little study Of the northwestern coun-
ties will show what an important por-
tiOn Of the state is cut Of from the me-
tropolis. and the enormous tonnage
that can be secured by any line thst
will tap this region. The Oklahoma
Northwestern railroad, q concern which
was Just chartered a few weeks ago, is
projecting line from Oklahoma City
10 Wood ward, and already has a sur
vey completed TO point near Mutual,
just few miles from Woodward.
The charter calls for a line OF $50
miles running through Oklahoma, Ca
madam. Kingtisher. Blaine. Dewey and
Wood ward counties. and the estimated
cost Of tne road is $4,000. This will
open up q vast territory that has never
been in touch with Oklahoma City, and
the Wichita Falls & Northwestern rail-
road will run through some Of the
states virgin counties, but its way
leads to Galveston, not to the capital.
Northwestern Oklahoma needs rail-
roads-and needs them badly. OF the
nine counties in that corner of the
state, five have never seen an engine
passing over their rolling prairies,
Cimarron. Beaver, Harper, Roger Mills
and Dewey. Ellis, Woodward and
Woods counties are trayersed by a
branch OF the Santa Fe, Woods county
also has the Rock Island and Frisco
while the Rock Island main line bi.
seets Texas county.
A little lesson in figures will show
how much railroad benefits county
To the west OF Texas county lies Gin.
arron, TO the Gast, Beaver county. Acre
for acre, there is no exceedingly great
difference in the soil OF the three. yet
in 1909 Texas county shipped out pro.
duce and livestock to che value Of 81.
032, $40, while the combined products
OF the other two was only t57s ,296. And
the acreage OF the three counties il
almost identical.
These nine counties had 10000 head
Of cattle and 200 head Of hogs to mar.
ket in 1910. How many OF them came
TO Oklahoma City2 Not one. How
many could Morris & Co. and the Sulz.
berger & Sons Co. use in their mAm.
moth plants in Packingtown? Every
one. That in itself is an item worth
considering.
But when 1t is realized thu the same
nine counties exported enough surplus
products in 1909 TO bring in the enorm.
Gus sum of sl3, ,O70, ,os7. then one really
hegins to grasp the significance of the
situation. Northwestern Oklahoma is
rich in possibilities Just now a plan
has been approved TO build a gigantic
reservoir and construct enough bitches
in Cimarron county to irrigate 100, ,O0C
acres Of formerly semi-arid land. In.
side OF a few years there will be no
"drouth belt" in Oklahoma. In reality,
there is none now, and Woodward
county had an exhibit at the recent
State Fair at Oklahoma City that start
led all, for it was among the best OF all
the counties in the state.
Wheat and corn they raise in this
section, and in no small amount at that.
The average yield of the nine counties
is 779 $50 bushels OF wheat and ga ,l47
bushels OF corn, and when it comes to
figuring on the prodigious quantities OF
milo maize, kafilr corn and broomcorn,
one has to stop in astonishment, for
nobody seems TO have been able to tell
the quantity yet.
While some OF these counties have
railroads, there are none of them on