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Show sT. ANTHONY FORGING RAPIDLY TO FRONT BY W. B, DUVALL . , ' I 1 S-BbJB ,AKE RIVER JUST BELOW THE BRIDGE, ST. ANTHONY, IDAHO. . Spviul to The Tribuno. ST. ANTHONY, Ida., .July 21 By oiffirJt,ie'r voe5 ast Novoinhcr the people is settiod permanently tho county scat , Qiiostion' in "Mie iSmpiro of Fremont " I'Jc'u favor of St. Anthony, and in eonse-q. eonse-q. ? quenco the new $50,000 courthouse is under construction and an era of im-I'i im-I'i provcnieut and progress is at hand, such "J.W'iis St. Anthony has nevor before known. 1UH Vlxcavalion'for the new $30,000 opera jyjiouse to ho erected b' local men has ybcen completed and several business ?fr ; clocks, soire vi them quite pretentious Iljina tjio activity and confidence maui-ifcst maui-ifcst on all hands is en indication of iJjlie lipallhful influence of having the jjounty seal, matter settled permanently and nettled riuhl. Having tho county geat temporarily, with its permanent location lo-cation uncertain, has for several years ttiecn an in.jurv rather than a benefit lo St. Anthony, f t H f Fremont counlv has been not. inaptly Jprinod the " ICinpirc of Fremont,'' fo'r it is jrcat. both in area and resources. It lies on the (.'astern border ol" Idaho, touching Montana on the north and 1 JVyoniing on the east. It is ninety-six iiiilcs in length from east to west, with an extreme breadth of about eight v fiuiles, and contains an area of 50oV jjiquaro miles, or approximately 3,223,000 ; acres, of whicli something more than i po.OOO acres are now' under cultivation. cultiva-tion. Tts physical features are interesting inter-esting and varied, and typical of the State, as within its borders arc found ; Jirnct ieallv all (he natural characteristics character-istics of Idaho. Jt includes tho upper : portion of tho Snaho river valley, with i portions of its rim of encircling" moun- "'fr i ' niesseu, not oniv with agri- Stlcullural, but with mineral and forest Jtlwcallh as well. 3I Fremont count v has within her bor-; bor-; '1&Iors il larger area of the Snako river 'AaWidd 1)0(13 t,IJUl ,UI" 0,uer Kouuty in 19 I The principal element of her wondcr-M wondcr-M ny iwtilo soil is u Volcanic ash car-'J car-'J a" ""usually large amount of m Pjant food. This, with the abundance ,Tpt moisturn from (lie mountains, dc-J dc-J M tfelnpcd a heavy growth of bunch grass Hv, ' .l i111 Pririlitive times fed the herds m ot wild game and later made fortunes "ir-ri ,,'an'1 '-':,it,(' owners. Krosion aRi1 ic mo'nl'ns and disintegration of ' ;j Uie lava combined with the vegetable a matter resulting from centuries of j!aonndant plant growth have formed a J 2n I1'0 Utility of which is not ox- 3r5fi?1ranywh.t'.ro- .iren' ,1,oro is ,ll j Hit for cultivation by reason of the I OlJ ' "csMjce ot alkali, and there is no .a bard pan" underlving the soil. Tn 'J ft0"5'-''!"1' of these favorable coudi-1 coudi-1 b8i -I 2 a,u Fr,-'mot become tho greatest - S n L Ir"de'g flinty in the VnnonLUie ?"uty for IMS exceeded ,000,000 buBhels. T'Venufnl is said lo ..S ,0""' ? the state. The winter -ft?! S S T'H ih"r 18 $ !l s"lerior qnal-naJferd qnal-naJferd ni,ArKds equal to the Dakota i 1 !lf6' J-remont county also rtctl -V tho Production of sugar bi-el s. H Vnn'-oS n-.vp,7 'l5'1 "vorago sugar KZ00 t0" wcrc aed bv tho 8ncai St0' u ,iSuar fiil08 5o5th X ofirS LS!-,h(on? )art of tho county went V1? Clones at Idaho Fal)H '..ul SnJJ Profitable and its dbrDlnnniout is .flfitfl "crecsing la,I(l values. Alia) fa s ifih C,Y' :uifl 1,1 tllQ oustern part: of kag'0(Jat hlttc' very little of i , Idaho (in fact, the first west ot the '.Koeky mountains) was established by Alexander Henry, in the omploy of the fissouri Fur eompnrrv, in 1800, on the north on Henry's fork by the Snake, and within the present limits of Fremont Fre-mont county. This post was abandoned aban-doned after being occupied about, a year. -It was considerably more than half a century later that the first, white settlements were planted in Fremont countv. . When C. IT. Moon, pioneer and foun- ' : r conL-; - tio-.v i : ' ; V ' ! t 'Non-Irrigated Wheat Field, Fremont County, Idaho, Estimated Yield, Thirty- Fivo Bushels Per Acre. I 'structures, are in different stages of construction. Tho recently created Yol-ilpwstono Yol-ilpwstono stake of the' ilormon church jhns the excavation ready and has let (the contract for tho erection of a $-10,-jpOO stake tabernacle. The tabernacle p on the south side of the river, while-$lic while-$lic court house and opera house aro on JJie norlli side. New cement sidewalks 'arc being laid on all the principal streets, new residences are being built, der of St'. Anthony, located here .Tune JO. 1SS7. there uero already several settlements in the county, at Roxburg aud at other points in" the southern part of tho county, but none as fur north as St. Anthony, .Mr, Moon at once lo:nted the townsito and named it St. Anthony, and was the moving spirit of a company .which proceeded to take out of the Snake river a few miles above tho lownsilc the St. Anthony elope and uaturai drainage ot bout tiics-.' sections is so good that there is practically prac-tically no swampy land. 4 . The location of St. Anthony is ideal. The view in every direction is unobstructed. unob-structed. The North Fork of the Snake ilows through the center of the town in a scries of rapids, with u total fall of thirtv feet in a distance of about a third 'of a mile. At. the Bridge street, crossing tho stroam is confined by natural barriers to a width of about forty feet, with a depth of sixty feet, while a short distance below its width is nearl3r ten times as great and. ex-j ex-j cept when the stream is in Hood, a man can safely wade from shore to shore. The town'site slopes gently to the riv-! riv-! or from both sides, affording perfect i drainage. Tito water supply of the I town is from the river and is abundant abun-dant and of good quality. Two clee- ?,r:c light and power companies do busi- ncss in the town, the plant of one being be-ing located within the town limits and tho other near Idaho Falls. Both are ; opera! e:t by water power from Snake river. There are throe banks, two i newspapers, two largo grain elevators, a flouring mill with a capacity of 2;50 barrels per day, and all lines" of mercantile mer-cantile business aro represented by more than sixty establishments. The area from which the trade of the town is drawn is very large. The Tdaho industrial-training school, a state institution, institu-tion, is located just west of the town in a liandsomo building, amid productive produc-tive ami well cultivated fields. The population of St. Anthony is about 2;100. The post office receipts for tho past yar considerabh' exceeded S00fl and the ollice has been advanced to the second 'dnss. Wural free delivery routes starting from this point cover a large part of tho contiguous territory. Fremont county is great not only in nrea bud- natural resources, but is "rapidly "rap-idly becoming so in population and in wealth. There are now on the tax rolls the names of 7.100 faxpayers, indicating in-dicating a population of from 26,000 to .10.000. while tho assessed v.t hie sun. O. S. L. Depot and Grain Elovator of Miller Bros.. St. Anthonv. Trfnhn canal to irrigato .10,000 acres on what has sinco been known as the Fgiu bench. It was the first large canal in this section, being thirty -two feet on the, bottom, forty-live feet on top and designed to carry ,-;o,00() inches of water. Mr, Moon platted a toVvnsite and built a dwelling on tho site of his present residence. In the old fram'o dwelling on tho corner north, now occupied oc-cupied as a restaurant, was kept a general gen-eral store and the canal office was in the small log building now standing a block east and in tho opposite side of the street from tho Riveruido hotel. In 18SU M. .. Gray, Frank Vv, Ross and .Mr. Wyatt became associated in the ownership of the canal, lownsilc and store. 1 1 having been found that there was a technical illegality in the procedure pro-cedure in platting I he first townsite, the work was done again in IS90, when tho town was lnid out as it. now exists. ex-ists. Tn JSM, when Fremont countv was created from a part of Bingham, St. Anthony was made the county seat, and this was tho beginning of tho growl li of the town. The St. Anthony ditch first showed tho possibilities of that magnificent stretch of sub-irrigated country known as tho Fgin bench, west and southwest of St. Anthony, and comprising about 55,000 acres. It is said to be tho largest larg-est and best suit-irrigated tract in tho United States. This land is especially adapted to I he successful cultivation of sugar beets. Sub-irrigation, as tho word implies, is irrigation from beneath and uot by flooding the surface. Water in the ditchou sinks into tho ground until un-til it reaches the stratum of gravel and rock beneath, Tho soil being sandv and porous and underlaid by grave) the water gradually permeates the entire area and rises until it reaches the roots of vegetation. This form of irrigation irriga-tion is easily controlled by regulating tho flow in the ditches. Often an entire S0-acre tract is sufficiently irrigated by running water in tho ditches on two Bidet; of it. Much of t lie land on the opposite side of the Jiver, known as the Wilford and Salem benches, is also a sub-irrigatod uecliou. Tho general J posod to bo about 40 per cent, of tho 'cash value of taxable property is $7,-oj $7,-oj 0,000. 1 y ' |