Rocky Ford enterprise., 1913-07-18
MARVELS OF
The VALLEY
What Ten Years Have Ac
complished Hereabouts
LAND VALUES HAVE IN
CREASED 100 PER CENT
A Resume of Conditions Reveals
Steady and Marvellous Progress
in the Arkansas Valley

Enterprise readers VIII feaQ
with interest a resume of condi-
tions in the Arkansas Valley for
the past decade. The article is
from the pen of John Stanley, ten
years ago an employe of this paper
and now identified with the Ord
way New Era, and is herewith
reproduced, eliminating such por-
tions as are not especially applic-
able to this section:
Ten years in a new country! So far as
physical changes are concerned, one might
as well wipe the slate clean and start
over again. Each year in growing
makes changes that are unacceptable
to former residents or visitors.
Such is the present condition of the
entire Arkansas valley as compared with
ten years ago.
Ten years have brought the division Of
Otero county. one of the largest counties
in the state in acreage, and the establish
ment of new county -Crowley-and its
county seat at Ordway, The machinery
of the new county has been properly oiled
and it is now well on its way to perman-
ency.
Pretty well grown up ten years ago.
with land values and reputation firmly
established, the entire south side Of the
river has not progressed as much as has
the north. side. Physical changes in
: Vulnerable may be noted about Rocky
: Ford and Manzanola, and land values
have taken 90 per cent jump.
Ten years have seen the building up.
fencing in and planting to growing crops
the greater part of all the land lying
contiguous TO all the older towns of the
valley. bitches have been extended, water
provided for and the farmers placed on
the road to prosperity. One does not have
to stretch the imagination much to see all
the land lying in every direction out Of
Ordway a habitation for prairie dogs,
cactus ana safe. and furnishing nothing
more for the upbuilding Of the country
than a range of scrawny cattle,
Ten years ago there was nothing but
vast prairie land between here and
Manzanola. with the one exception of the
widely known Boston Farm, Then this
ranch was the half way point between
the two towns, and the lonesome traveller
tired of his journey in either direction,
would welcome the sight of the line fences.
The land between Or6way and Rocky
Ford was little better. Then it was
necessary to ford the river at the point
from which the town got its name, ten
years furnishing the bridge over the
river near that point. A drive of equal
distance with that to Marzanola. the road
from Rocky Ford seemed longer because
there was no break in 1t. Then sections
were not laid out. and the roads did not
follow their lines. They we're built merely
by the travel that passed over them with
out any regard for seotiun lines, and were
in fact simply trails across the prairie.
Ten years have brought to the valley
that branch of the Santa Fe pushed out
across the prairie. through the, Ho'brook
country. a water supply and the building
up, magic like. OF large area of produc-
tive land and numerous towns. the towns
on this line have the best mail service in
the valley,
Land values in and about Ordway have
increased hundred fold. and the end of
that increase is not yet in sight. Given
water rights second to none in the state.
the land on the north side of the river
has proven itself to be as productive as