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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1912)
64 THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE Nebraska : Land of Opportunity, Reached Directly by the North Western Line ,CROSS the state of Ne braska the lines of the Chi- )Mt1 cago ana rsorin western aSJ Railway from Omaha, and from a point opposite Sioux City, con verge with the line from the Mis souri river near Blair, and extend along the Elkhorn and Niobrara val leys to its western boundary. A comparatively recent extension of the North Western Line reaches north from Norfolk to Winner, S. D., on the eastern boundary of the Rose bud Indian reservation, in South Da kota, while shorter lines extend northward to Wynot, Crofton and Bloomfield. South of the Platte river three diverging lines extend from Fremont to such Important points as Lincoln, Seward, Geneva, Superior, David City, York and Hast ings, so that the Chicago & North Western Railway system traverses the entire length of the state from east to west, and also Its breadth from the northern to the southern state line, providing direct commu nication between the entire northern portion of the state and Omaha, Council Bluffs, Kansas City, Sioux City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Peoria, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Du luth, Milwaukee, Chicago and the east. Opportunities for Business Opportunity to work. Opportunity to earn a competence. Opportunity to educate your family. To the man who, under the ad verse conditions of high prices for land, high taxes and heavy interest fates, finds the burdens of farming in the east undesirable; to the man who desires that his children shall find opportunity to establish them selves in the world; to the farmer who desires to secure fertile lands cheaply, or to the merchant who is seeking for a new opening In the west, the possibility of obtaining a new home Is a question of untol i im portance, and the sp'endiJ orortuni ties offered by the great and growing state of Nebraska should be Investigated before those desiring to make a change of location should settle. Nebraska In 1904 congres3 passed an act knon as the Kinkaid bill, under the terms of which large tracts of public lands in north western Nebraska, reached by the line of the Chicago & North Western Railway, were thrown open to settle ment. The principal feature of the Kinkaid bill is that the ap plicant may, in the ter- ritory named, make entry under the homo- I '" v. -MIL MKT :1 v4 A Source of Wealth in Nebraska stead laws for 640 acres (one square mile), instead of 160 acres of land. The purpose of this is to enable the homesteader to use his land profita bly for grazing purposes. There are large quantities of these unallotted public lands in Nebraska, situated In the northern part of the state, through which the Chicago & North Western . Railway passes di rectly. The lands affected have been open to the homesteader in lots of 160 acres for many years, but have not been heretofore taken up to any great extent because of the fact that a . quarter-section is not suffi cient to use profitably for cattle raising purposes. The rainfall in this part of the state is not sufficient for successful farming except by the advanced methods of scientific dry farming, and it is on this account that the Kinkaid bill has been passed, with the result that a Nebraska cattle ranch, one mile square, absolutely free, is the offer which the govern ment makes to every man or head of a family in the United States. From the 8,500,000 acres of these lands anyone desiring to become pos sessor of a section of grazing land should have no trouble in finding a tract suitable to his taste, and now that the practical merits of dry farming methods have become estab lished clearly, the value of these lands for agricultural purposes has become much greater than ever be fore. As an example of the quality of the lands, Rock county actually ships more hay to market via the North Western Line from the town of New port than is shipped to market from any other one point anywhere in the world, while one of the finest potato raising districts in the west has its shipping center at Gordon, in Sheri dan county. Such towns as O'Neill, Long Pine, Valentine, Rushville and Chadron are well equipped with stores, banks, schools and churches, and the whole region Is well populated. Public Lands Subject to Homestead The following public lands in Ne braska in counties reached by the North Western Line are subject to settlement under the homestead laws under the Kinkaid bill: Holt, 12,000 acres. Rock, 4,000 acres. Keya Paha, 38,040 acres. j. .,f:V -14 rxv u Thorough-Bred Cattle on a Wyoming Ranch Sheridan, 164,286 acres. Sioux, 417,620 acres. Boyd, 700 acres. Brown, 81,450 acres. Cherry, 1,015,582 acres. Dawes, 9,000 acres. You can make your filing at Val entine or O'Neill at any time, these points being reached by the direct train service of the Chicago & North Western Railway from Chicago, Mil waukee, Peoria, Des Moines, Omaha, Sioux City, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth and all points west and northwest. Every man or unmarried woman over the age of 21; every married man under the age of 21, every widow, every minor orphan child of a deceased soldier, or any person who i3 the head of a family by adoption of a minor child, not already owning more than 160 acres of land and who is citizen of the United States, may homestead 640 acres of this land for the same fee charged by the govern ment for 160 acres in other states. The amount of this fee is $14. A man, for instance, with three sons and two unmarried daughters (all past the age of 21 years) may take up six sections 3,840 acres of this land in a compact body, mak ing a first class cattle ranch, which will cost them nothing but the re quired residence of five years. Should he wish to receive his deed before the end of five years he may, at the end of fourteen months, pay $1.25 per acre and receive his deed. The Kinkaid Bill Lands The healthful climate, the well- endowed system of public schools. the growing towns and prosperous farms and the steady increase in transportation facilities and in values of land make Nebraska's future well worth careful examination bv the. man who, with small capital, desires to establish himself to make a home ror his family, to secure an education for his children and to make certain a competence for the days to come. That portion of the state in which are found the lands that are available un der the terms of the Kinkaid bill is hardly available for agricul tural purposes except in a very limited de gree, the rainfall being 'insufficient. Irriga tion is being practiced to an extent, but irri gable lands are not open for settlement under the provisions of the act referred to. Stock raising, there fore, is .the principal industry. There is no finer gra7ing land in the world than that found on the uplands of western Nebraska. The buffalo grass af fording excellent pas turage from early i; the spring to late au-