293

NORTH PLATTE.

A Bustling City Midway in Nebraska Surrounded by Fertile Agricultural Lands.

Promising Auspicious Development in Commercial, Manufacturing, and Farming Interests.

The Home of Buffalo Bill, Who Resides Here on a One Hundred Thousand Dollar Ranch.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb, Dec. 24.--Special Correspondence.--In the hurly-burly of emigration westward one is apt to overlook the magnificent country and the magnificent lands which it has been my pleasure to note in Western Nebraska. I took a few days' rest on my western journey toward the land of the setting sun and stopped off at this active, stirring city. The farmer with limited means, and still better, the agriculturist with a secured competence, will find abundant opportunities for money-making in this section of the country. Lincoln County, in which I am temporarily sojourning, is quite large. It is inhabited by a number of wealthy stock-growers who have found stock-raising quite profitable, and also by an industrious thrifty class of farmers who have engaged in diversified farming and made it remnnerative.

Lincoln County has a population of 10,000, of which North Platte, the business center, has, I estimate, about 3,700 inhabitants. There are 2,500 square miles in the county. Its main products are stock, corn, wheat, oats, and hay. It raises also largely flaxseed, broom corn, and native and tame grasses. Its product of hay this year has been 40,000 tons, much of this product going into Wyoming and Colorado. Not withstanding the drought this season Lincoln County produced fully a one-hald crop of corn, exhibiting the fertility of the soil and its moiture-retaining qualities. The soil is generally a dark, rich alluvial clay and sandy loam, and produces anything that can be raised in the semi-tropical portion of the United States. The climate is delightfully pleasant, free from damp atmospheric condition. The mean elevation is 2,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Within a radius of forty miles of North Platte there are nearly 500,000 acres of land; free government land, subject to entry under the homestead, pre-emption, and timber culture laws, or in other words nearly one-fourth the surface of Lincoln County. There has been an increase of 400 per cent in values in grazing lands within the past five years, and improved farming lands have obtained a value ranging $10 to $30 per acre. The capability of the soil for agricultural products is unsurpassed in the State, and all intelligent persons know that Nebraska stands at the head of the list.

[illegible row]

NORTH PLATTE,

with its individual wealth of $5,000,000, has been made so by the generous wealth of the soil of its tributary sections. In 1886 its shipments amounted to $544,000. Its merchandise sales during the same period. $1,103,500, and its real estate transfers $1,438,000.

North Platte is a division headquarters of the Union Pacific Railroad. The round-house, general repair shops, and mechanical and manufactoring plants are located here. The total number of employees of the Union Pacific on the pay-roll in this city numbers about 450 persons, and the amount distributed annually aggregates $500,000. North Platte is regarded as of more than ordinary importance by the Union Pacific management, for the railway shops here are the largest and most complete of any in the entire system.

North Platte is 291 miles west of Omaha, and is located at the junction of two great valleys stretching into Wyoming and Colorado, making the city a natural pathway for railways. The Burlington and Missouri Railroad has already crossed with its extended ties of inter-communication the southern part of this county, from east to west, running through to Cheyenne, its present terminus.

The Duluth and Denver Railroad has been surveyed to this city, and, it is expected, will reach North Platte by 1889. The operation of this system will open the what fields of Nebraska, giving this State a direct outlet to Lake Superior for her grain, in competition with the Chicago markets.

There are some other projected systems, but none of tangible realizations at present.

Aside from the, vast products of Lincoln County there is the unorganized territory north of Lincoln and Logan Counties with prosperous farms and immense stock ranches that furnish North Platte with an immense volume of trade. There are still as before observed many hundred thousand of acres of land, and the Union Pacific, the great National highway of commerce, insures by its vast ramifying system a constant and unsurpassed market for all the products of the soil.

Even as a matter of speculation investments in Nebraska are sure to yield immense profits within the next decade, and the opportunities for the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, and manufacturer are grand in their boundless capabilities.

The personal and real valuation of the county and town is in round numbers $2,000,000; of the city itself, $800,000. The increase in values in four years has ranged from 200 to 2,000 per cent. Business property is comparatively low, and still the increase has been large and the profits gratifying to the owners of reality.

Taxation, exclusive of city taxes, runs 40 miles, upon a valuation of one-fifth the actual value.

Besides the large slopes of the Union Pacific there is in successful operation here a flouring mill with a daily capacity of 125 barrels, turning out a superior and highly prized brand of flour. A creamery has been contracted for with a capacity of 1,500 pounds of butter per day. It is to be in operation.

EARLY NEXT SPRING.

The capital has been subscribed by the leading citizens to the amount of $6,500. This creamery will be an undoubted success.

North Platte needs other industries, which are, I might say, an indispensable necessity. A beef-packing establishment on a small scale---say a plant costing $20,000---would prove quite profitable. The large herds of stock in this and adjoining counties, the splendid markets for the product, and excellent means of transportation to various points of consumption insure profitable returns on such an investments. A vegetable canning establishment would also be highly desirable. There is a track of land three miles wide and seventeen miles long, comprising 30,000 acres, with an irrigated ditch in the center, and having absolute control of the water from the North Platte River, insuring a uniform and abundant supply of water, which can produce a rotation of crops, immensely valuable in the operations of a cannin establishment. The Western markets, or I should say, the mountain markets, are the best in the world for canned goods, and these very mountains are at the gates of the North Platte Valley. The opening here is one that should not be left unutilized very long. Another flouring mill will pay. A few tanneries are needed. The large yield of broom corn ought to insure the establishment of a broom factory: and flaxseed, which is also a large product, should find immediate utilization in an industril way.

One of the absolute requirements of North Platte is a first--class merchant tailoring establishment. I am informed that 75 per cent of this trade goes principally to Omaha and Chicago, for the simple reason that there is a woful lack in this branch of industrial operations. Ten hands could be kept steadily employed during the entire year by a first-class merchant tailor.

There is no good reason why agricultural implements and wagons should not be manufactored here. There is a large and increasing demand for these products, and by the very nature of things there always will be. Nebraska is destined to become in time the greatest agricultural-producing State in the Union, and her population of one million to-day will ten years hence exhibit three millions, and twenty years hence six millions of inhabitants. A large portion of these will of necessity, and because of advantageous surroundings, till the prolific soil of this State, and the manufacturer of farming implements and wagons who begins operations now will find the field an extensive and profitable one with the lapse of a few years.

Fuel is obtainable from the vast coal fields of Wyoming at a reasonable cost.

Business is not overdone in any of the branches of trade and the merchants are all uniformly successful. Failures are unknown.

The favorable location of North Platte, midway between Omaha and Denver, and almost equi-distant from Cheyenne, warrants the belief taht this city in the course of time will become quite a large commercial center with a population of 50,000 to 75,000 inhabitants. It may take fifteen to twenty-five years but there is no doubt that North Platte will be the seat of a flourishing commerical and manufacturing enterpot.

THE UNION PACIFIC

have actually surveyed and bought the right of way for a branch from this city into Central Wyoming for a distance of 100 miles.

North Platte raied $4,000 cash for a flouring