The Delta independent., 1916-01-28
DELTA MAN WRITES THINGS
FOR RAILROAD RED BOOK
ARTICLE by John A. curtis)

1t is but few years since, by uni
versal consent, continuous "open
season" was declared on the boomer
(the natives have a name far more
descriptive, though less elegantly but
the sun still shines and the moon and
stars pop out with the same brilliance
and degree of usefulness; potatoes,
corn, sugar beets and sauerkraut,
peaches and cream. apple pie and
cheese, cattle and sheep on the more
than thousand hills, as we'll as the
luscious bacon sprout in all the val
legs, are with us yet, as well as all
the tributary adjacent and necessary
fixings.
Delta is a city of $500 people, the
county seat and principal town of
Delta county, and is located on the
broad gauge line of the Denver and
Rio Grande railroad, 375 miles from
Denver.
Delta has water works (mountain
water) sewers, electric lights, tele-
phones, miles of cement sidewalks
fine schools, and such an abundance
of churches that most everybody can
play safely. In addition, there are
the usual number of stores of all
kinds
The whizzing and tiZiky flivver and
the automobile are cared for by nu-
meorus garages, while coal from the
nearby mines is delivered for SO and
81 per ton. Every residence has its
lawn and flower garden, and the Wo-
mans club and the w. c. T. U. keep
the streets and alleys clean and censor
the books in the Public Library. AL
together, Delta is a good place to live
and raise a family. Pool and billiards
are the limiting margin of sin: sa-
looms have been unknown for so many
years that the rising generation hears
of them only through the Sunday
School. Three commissioners guide
the destinies and use the finances Of
the city, and Halloween and Fourth
of July are the only dangerous days.
Austin is a village of about $50 pop.
ulation on the North Fork branch of
the Denver and Rio Grande railroad,
and is the railroad point for the entire
Surface Creek region. 1t has water
works, electrict lights and such other
facilities as are incident and neces
sary. 1t looks out southeasterly into
the mouth of the Black Canon of the
Gunnison river, while half mile to
the east is the famous medical springs
one dose of which is frequently suffi-
ent.
agricultural and stock-growing section,
Austin is destined to be of much i'm
portance in Delta county's future his
tory. t-
The Surface Creek country is all
that portion of the county that ex-
tends northward from Austin to the
crest of Grand Mesa, the famous hunt
ing grounds of the Ute Indians.
| AS a farming, Embarrassing, stock
growing and home-making region it
comprises about 100 square miles, all
watered by the numerous streams hav-
ing their source on the Grand mesa,
and supplemented by its hundred res
ervoired lakes.
The farming region varies in alti-
tude from $500 to 1900 feet, and
produces the products common to the
states from Texas to Minnesota. Ce-
daredge is a town of three thousand
population. the supply point and the
center of the upper part of the mesa.
AS usual, it has all the many
desirable things of a well regulated
village 1t is on the main auto road
from Delta to Grand mesa lakes. From
Cedaredge to the lakes by auto road
miles being a six per cent grade, and
climbing the steep mountain slope
being climb of nearly 1000 feet In
) altitude, making a change in climate
equivalent to a trip from Denver 10
Alaksa Trout-mountain. brook and
} rainbow fill all the lakes and streams
} SO that with the climate. the grassy
parks the wooded slopes and natures
flower beds. ii has long been sum
} per resort for all the neighborine
country, and with the completion OF
its road system the coming season
916-connecting it with Glenwood
Springs, Grand Junction and the Sar
Juan via Delta, this mountain of 8
} hundred lakes" will be accessible by
auto and fishing and its incidents vii
then make a reality of the finest pipe
dream of Isaat Walton. inventor Of