Crook County journal. (Prineville, Or.) 189?-1921, September 01, 1910, Image 1

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    JU.
Crook County
J oia r oal
I
COUNT OFFICIAL PAPER,
PRINEVILLE HAS A FUTURE.
The Banking and Educational Center of an Inland Empire
The Diatributing Point for an
Immense Territory.
Randall It. Howard, oldest ton
i( J. W. Howard of Lower Bridge,
who wan rained in Prneville, re
cently made a lour of the Interior
of I he statu for variom newpaers
itnd miignrihti with which he i
connected. In th 1'ortland Daiiy
Journal of recent datu the following
article on Prineville apeared (roin
hia cn. 1 1 ii thoroughly awake
to the conditions here and in great
ly impressed hy the development
of Prineville. The article waa
Illustrated with a good photograph
of the main street. It reads ai
follow:
The moat conservative and sub
stantial town of central Oregon to
duy ia Prineville. rrineville haa
never had a boom, does not expect
one and don not want one. The
town haa been growing eteadily
since l.Hti7, and now Ii the largest
population center of central Ore
gon, not including the towna on
the extreme border of eastern Ore
gon. For many year the whole of
central Oregon wa known aa the
Prinev4Ue country. Tiiie was be
cnu.e rrineville waa the chief town,
and geographically almost In the
center of thia great area, north and
The
The
$1.50 YEAR
aouth. 'Stockmen and ranchers
living from 50 to ISO miles away
looked to Priuevillo for their sup
plies and for legal and medical
advice and for educational advan
tage. Consequently Prineville
had Id an early day stories and
business enterprises that would do
credit to a city, rrineville banks
became the sj nonym for soundness,
nene of them ever having been
affected by national disturbances,
l'rineville rchools have been a
credit to the great area that they
represent and today the Crook
County High School, located at
l'rineville is reported to pay
teachers the highest salaries to be
had in the state outside of Cortland.
Also the 1100.000 Crook county
courthouse, located at rrineville ia
the finest in eastern Oregon and
the finest in the state with per
haps one or two exceptions.
l'rineville has a remarkable
number of brick and stone buildings
considering that the town is G5
miles to the nearest present rail
road, and that it was 120 miles
from the railroad when many of
them were constructed. During
C. W.
JIXm Our Shoe
A rm Sale
For the nexf
1 5 Days
Shoes and Oxfords
For the next fifteen days we will sell at less than
cost our stock of Infants' and Children's, Misses and
Ladies, Boys' and Men's Oxford Canvas Shoes and
broken lines of footwear. .Pricea begin at 25c.
Several dozen pairs of $3.50 Oxfords at $1.50
Children' School Shoe. .
$1 per pair and up
Old Ladies V Low Snoes. .
50c and up
Men' Dres Shoes, good
enough for anywhere,
$2.50 and up
The remainder ol the slory will be
fold in our shoe room. See the
shoes. See the prices. Then buy. X
C. W.
PRINEVILLE, CROOK COUNTY, OREGON, THURSDAY. SEPT. 1, 1910.
the past summer about 20 new re
sidences have been completed, yet
there are no vacant bouses in town
and there have been none for four
or five years past.
Unfortunate indeed is the central
Oregon town of today that cannot
talk of railroad hopes or promise.
rrineville has had railroad hows
for the past 20 years and more. A
little more than 20 years ago the
citizens of l'rineville gathered
around a great bonfire to celebrate
the promised coming of the Cor-
value & Eastern railroad across
the Cascade from the Willamette
valley. liut the Corvallis &
Eastern came only as far as the
summit of the Cascades. Within
the past 10 yeais the railroad hopes
of the l'rineville country were
again kindled by the building of
the Columbia Southern railroad
south from the Columbia toward
central Oregon. The Columbia
Southern stopped on a bleak, rocky
plain 65 miles from rrineville.
The railroad hopes of rrineville
are again at its heights of expec
tancy, following the building of the
Hill and Harriman system up the
I)e;hulei and preceding the
definite announcement of the exact
location of the east and west roads
of these two systems.
RiilroW PMtikilitm.
Up to the present time rrineville
is on none of the definitely an
nounced central Oregon railroads.
At the worst, l'rineville will be but
18 miles off the main line of the
Elkins
Elkins
ftiotianW .
Hill and the Harriman north and
south roads. At the best l'rine
ville will be on ao east and west
road that would traverse a rich
country and that baa a presumably
feaaible approach from two or three
different direction!. Still another
possibility ia a branch railroad line
to Prineville that would give an
outlook for the product of the rich
Crooked river and Ochoco valleys
and carry to market the large sup
ply of limber in the McKay and
Ochoco mountains nearby.
I it coma to the very worst.
some of the conservative citizens
of rrineville assert that tbey will
themselves build a branch railroad
line up the Crooked river valley in
order that rrineville may not be
left off the railroad map.
Prineville is pinning its railroad
hopes most largely upon the prom
isee of several recent event. One
of these is the sale of the immense
wagon road land grant which in
clude every odd section of a strip
of land six mile wide and extend
ing from the Willamette vallev
east through rrineville and on to
the Idaho line. This great land
grant, as is generally known, was
purchased by a St. Paul syndicate
which plans to make it the basis
of one of the largest colonizing
enterprises ever attempted in the
United States. The colonizers inti
mate in terms almost amounting
to a promise that a railroad will
parallel this land grant. Also it
is a generally accepted conclusion
Cor
Co.
that the Hill railroad interests are
Intimately related to and a part of
the St. Paul syndicate of colonizers.
Some of the richest of these grant
lands are located in the Crooked
river valley which can be penetrated
only by a railroad that must pass
through rrineville.
VUiU faa Itirmi Eintiris.
. Another straw in the same direc
tion is the very frank and supposed
ly earnest expressions of Louis
Hill in his recent tour of central
Oregon assuring the rrineville peo
ple of a railroad. The very recent
trip of Mr. Lovett, president of the
Harriman railroad system, through
central Oregon and rrineville may
or may not have significance.
The novelty of this trip wa the
fact that the party followed the
long abanded survey line of the
Corvallis & Eastern from rrine
ville acrosj the Cascade to the
Willamette valley. This old rail
road aurvey also closely approxi
mates the wagou road grant land.
Prineville is located where it is,
and it ia the conservative present
day metropolis of central Oregon
because of natural conditions which
have sot changed from the day of
the coming of the first resident in
1807.
The town is located at the junc
tion of two rich valleys, the Ochoco
and the Crooked river. These val
leys include some of the oldest set
tled and most fertile land of central
Oregon. Within all of the angle
of the Y which these two streams
form are broad and comparatively
level bench lands. Formerly these
bench lands were thought to be
practically worthless, but the farm
ing result of the past two year
seem to indicate that they may
prove to be more rich than the val
ley lands. Thus rrineville is
immediately surrounded by from
(0,000 to 100,(300 acre of fertile
agricultural land
Perhaps 10,000 acres of this body
of land is alreadv nartiallv i.
1 j
ngoted and some of the largest
crop of central Oregon are pro
duced. Most promising for the
future of rrineville is the definitely
established fact that this entire
100,000 acre of land can be ir
rigated. Seemingly all that is
necessary to fully realize this possi
bility is the capital and a promot
ing syndicate. The projects, con
sidered as a whole, have been in-
ve8tigated and favorably reported
on by government engineer and
seem entirely feasible. The plan
would be to conserve the water of
both the Ochoco and Crooked river
in some of the several natural res
ervoir sites that have been located
along their headwaters. Both of
these streams drain a large area of
high land with heavy precipitation
and the water supply is never fail
ing. At present, however, the
greater part of the water comes as
a spring freshet and
without accomplishing any good.
These two large streams could be
supplemented by smaller creeks
such as the McKay, which also
have a large freshet flow.
The most easily irrigated of these
lands is a body of from 30,000 to
34,000 acres immediately north of
Prineville which can be reached by
the waters of the Ochoco and other
minor streams. The waters of the
Crooked river can be made to irri
gate all of the lands of Crooked
river valley, reaching 12 miles be
low and as many miles above
Prineville. It is thought that the
remainder of the water could be
carried to a large body of land in
the Lamonta and ' the Culver dis
tricts, from 12 to 20 miles north
west of Prineville. Still another
large body of irrigable land lies
south and southwest of Prineville
on what has long been called "the
desert." Some of this land is al
ready being irrigated by water
from the Deschutes river, and
much more of it can and will be
irrigated. In fact this reclaimed
desert is some of the richest land
adjacent to and naturally tributary
to Prineville. Some of the best of
this land is what is known as the
Powell Buttes section, where large
crops are being raised by dry-farming
methods.
Considerable fruit is raised in
Continued on last page.
Zntrw1 lh pmtnfflfle mt PrlnfTllta,
Oracon, a HHxmd-claM matter
TRAINS INTO
Oregon Trunk Grade Aunot
The Harriman Road Ha Rail Laid
for Thirty Miles.
Oregonlan.
January 1, 1011, is the date now
set for the completion to Madras
of the two railroads building into
Central Oregon by way of the Des
chutes river canyon, and apparent
ly the two roads, in the race lor
the "top of the hill," will arrive at
the goal neck and neck.
Io the Deschutes canyon, on
both si deb of the rivir, the work in
progress has now taken on the
appearance of a real railroad. The
Oregon Trunk Line grade is almost
fully completed for the distance of
110 miles from the Columbia river
to Madras, but the laying of rails
has been delayed by difficulties
encountered in constructing ferry
facilities on the south shore of the
Columbia river near the mouth of
the Deschutes.
The Oregon Trunk Line is ship
ping its rails from the east via the
Hill roads, which deliver them at
a point on the North Bank road
opposite the mouth of the Des
chutes. From there the steel will
be transported across the river bv
ferry on loaded cars. On the south
shore of the Columbia a long wing
trestle ha been constructed into
the river and an incline is under
construction up which the loaded
b j-f i
The above Is a photograph ot Hamilton's Water Lift, which was
invented and patented by W. H. W. Hamilton, of Prineville. The pump is
made on the plan of the old endless chain pump, with the exception that
the pedals on the chains fit In the shaft with a quarter Inch play Instead of
fitting tight, the vacuum produced by the motion of the pump making Its
operation very successful. This pump saves S3 per cent of the power
usually required to raise water. The one shown above Is Jn successful
operation on Mr. Hamilton's California farm.
cars will be run to reach the grade
of the Oregon Trunk. Steel is al
ready arriving and the work of lav
ing rails will begin about Sep
tember 10. It is announced at the
offices of the road that there will
be no interruption in this work
after it commences, other than
short delays pending the construc
tion of several steel bridges, the
material for which must be carried
in by rail.
On the Harriman side of the
river rails have now been laid for
a distance of about 30 miles, and
with the exception of a few days'
work yet to be done in the tunnel
at Ox Bow, near Sherar's bridge.
the grade is ready for the rails to
the point where the two roads will
jointly occupy the same line for a
distance of 12 miles. This point
begins about 72 miles from the
month of the Deschutes. Beyond
the 12 miles of joint line, where
the roads again separate, the Harri
man grade is practically completed
into Madras. Were it not for this
12 mileB of join) road the Harri
man line vould probably beat its
rival into Madras, but under the
terms of the agreement the Oregon
Trunk is to lay the rails on the 12
mile section. Thia it will be
unable to do until its own track-
laying reaches that section of the
work. It is Eaid the Harriman
road is now seeking to have the
VOL.XIV-NO.38
MADRAS JAN. 1
Completed for the Distance
agreement modified bo that it will
lay the joint track.
By the beginning of the new
year, therefore, the greatest ob
stacle to trade relations with cen
tral Oregon will have been removed,
for with trains once running to
Madras, the nescesity for hauling
frieght over the worst wagon road
in all the interior will bae been
removed.
Within one year' time, it pre
dicted, the fame of the scenic attrac
tions of the Deschutes railroads
will have spread far beyond the
confine of Oregon, while the ob
stacle that have been overcome
in construction work will have
become revelations to those who
travel to the interior.
In railroad building the Des
chutes canyon will present condi
tions unique in the United States.
Two railroads will be in operation
in the bottom of a wild, rueeed and
unproductive canyon, paralleling
each other therein for a distance
of 75 miles, at time) not more than
300 feet apart. Although occupy
ing opposite sides of the river for
most of the distance, at one point
the roads are tunneling side by
side through a high rock peninsula.
V- J
At this point, which is known as
the Ox Bow, and is near Sherar's
bridge, the Oregon Trunk Line
leaps the river. Trains will pass
directly from a steel bridge into a
long tunnel, emerging on another
steel bridge by means of which
they will regain the west Bide of
of the river. The Harriman road,
occupying the east side of the river,
bores through the same promon
tory and only a few feet distant
from its rival.
At intervals enormous cliffs or
castellated bluffs leap skyward
from the rails and frequently (be
solid rock cliffs actually overhang
the tracks. From the time the
traveler to central Oregon enters
the Deschutes canyon, only three
or four small cultivated tracts of
land will meet his gaze until
after a journey of 100 miles
the trains emerge through a gap in
the bill to the plains of the interior.
For Sheriff.
To the Republican voters of Crook
county, Oregon :
I harnhv annnnnnA mvnnlf aa a pan, 11.
date for the office of SheriH of Crook
county, subject to the approval of the
republican voters of the connty at the
primary election to be held September
24, 1010. Millard T. Thiplhtt.
, Bend, Oregon.
For Sale.
Both alfalfa, and orn.ln hn.v tnr anta
at the J. O. Powell pliice, near town,
to feed tecf cnttle that are leliig
driven to market. 'Phone Stroud &
Cross, cither 'phone, or call nt the
much. 7-14- tf