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Show TULE LAKE Fabulous Crops Being Produced On Dry 90,000-Acre Lake Bed ,- . . tmkM; . 1 iMnit-"i- ft - i.i. This Is a typical field of barley bar-ley nearlng maturity in the Tule Lake homestead area. The old shoreline of the lake can be clearly seen at the base of the hills In the background. It wasn't easy. The first homesteaders home-steaders lived in shacks and tents while they harvested a crop. Roads Modern pioneers have struck pay dirt in the now dry bed of a 90,000 acre lake near the California-Oregon border. Instead of rich ores, in the past five years they have taken $27,000,000 from the rich soil in the form of Klamath potatoes, malting barley and clover. The new farmers, most of them veterans of Uncle Sam's fighting forces, homesteaded and developed the area, after the waters of shallow Tule Lake had been drained by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. At first, even the surrounding terrain ter-rain was inhospitable. It lies on a 4,000-foot high plateau, rimmed by rugged mountains and the desolate Modoc lava beds. But the soil was fabulously rich, and needed only irrigation water and the hard work of the willing veterans to eventually transform the area into a prosperous, modern, N comfortable agricultural community. were bottomless mires of mud. There were no schools, no electric power, no telephones. Many of the faint hearted gave up, but most faced the situation and hung on doggedly. The town of Tulelake was incorporated in-corporated in 1937. Paved roads crossed the basin, power and telephones tele-phones were Installed, and homes built. Schools and churches went up, and a weekly newspaper began publication. THE FULL potential of the area still had not been tapped, so after World War II the veterans' quest for land culminated in the most publicized pub-licized lottery since selective service. serv-ice. Two thousand ex-servicemen from all parts of the nation sought 86 farms being offered for home-steading. home-steading. Other farms were home-steaded home-steaded In 1947 and 1948. Today there are plans for opening still another area of the old lake bed. Agriculturally, the homestead area is a sensation, despite its short growing season and often severe winters. Klamath potatoes have bten sure-lire and the Hennchen (malting) barley grown there has arawn premium prices almost every ear. Introduction of Alsike clover brought the homesteaders another i;ood cash crop. In addition the old lake bed raises onions, a if alia hay, tome seed crops, and livestock. The steady cash income from the homestead farm hn hrnnoht an equally steady and solid growth to the community. City officials like to point out that, despite its brief history, his-tory, Tulelake is not a boom town. Its permanent, modern buildings, wide paved streets, four hotels, theater, schools, civic and social organizations or-ganizations confirm that contention. As one of the west's most famous duck and goose hunting areas, the city is benefitted by a large influx of hunters every year. And the area even has an incipient oil boom. Today the entire area is prosperous. pros-perous. The homesteaders, from first arrivals to the Johnny-come-latelys of the years from 1946 to 1948, are doing fine. Merchants in Tulelake are more than prosperous. The homesteaders are grateful that the government offered them the opportunity to own their own farms, but they point out that they built their own individual successes. Farming under these conditions required know-how, courage, physical physi-cal strength, and plenty of just plain hard work. The Tule Lake home-steaders home-steaders had those qualities in abundance, plus a generous portion of the pioneering spirit which developed de-veloped the west |