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<br />294:j;
<br />
<br />-18-
<br />
<br />(2) More direct routes would be available for shipping farm produce, cattle,
<br />sheep, hogs, as well as refined beet sugar (Great Vlestern Jugar Co.), gloves (1'le1l8-
<br />Lamont Glove Co.), flour and other milling products (Fort I,jorgan Jiills), and manu-
<br />factured automotive garage equij::ment (Clark-Feather .ifg. Co.). These manufacturing
<br />" concerns, and those the City has reason to expect to add, would find these additional
<br />shipping routes most advantageous, since it would then be possible to ship produce
<br />and goods on the Union L'acific Hailroad lines \!ithout having to figure in handling
<br />charges at the trunk exchange terminals. ~imilarly, incoming materials for Fort
<br />iYiorgan manufacturing concerns and other operations could receive handling by more
<br />direct routes, a factor to be considered in computing transportation costs.
<br />
<br />(3) Hith the continued swift exransion of the so-called "Goodrich Bench", the
<br />higher land south of the Ifeldon Valley which is being developed under puinp irrigation,
<br />there is need for beet dumps particularly.
<br />
<br />(4) And, finally, there would be greater facilities for mail, express, and pass-
<br />enger service for the Morgan County area.
<br />
<br />Probably the most emphatic argument the Fort Morgan Chamber of Commerce can
<br />present in this brief would be some facts illustrating the steady growth of the com-
<br />munity and its potentialities.
<br />
<br />To go back to its early beginnings, Morgan County, as a whole, at the time of
<br />the early explorations of Long's expedition, was proclaimed a land of "hopeless and
<br />irreclaimable sterility". A few stock raisers began to establish homes in the 00uth
<br />Hatte River valley, which bisects the county east and west, in the early 60 's; in
<br />the 80's farmers began gradually to take up the government homestead land and commence
<br />cultivation of the soil. Around 1860 a fort had been estab:ished on the ~latte River,
<br />named Fort Morgan, in honor of Colonel Christopher A.; :C':':,':1, commander of the United
<br />0t<ltes troops garrisoned there. The town of Fort j,;o:--;:,,, ..<is fou;1ded in 1884, and in
<br />1889, Morgan County was formed from a part of huge :';eld '~o;,mty.
<br />
<br />Morgan County has an area of 823,400 acres, or about one-third larger than the
<br />Jtate of Rhode Island. Recent statistics show there are 320,028 acres of crop land
<br />in the county, of 1'!hich the Agricultural Conserva+,ion Association estimates 150,000
<br />acres to be under ditch or pump irrigation. Many thousands of acres, incidentally,
<br />which are included ~ this total, have been added in the past few years s~1ce REA
<br />began its expansion.
<br />
<br />Additional fisures -- as follows -- have been prepared to show in more detail
<br />the exransion of the community in the past fifteen years, approximately: Loans &
<br />Discotmts of Banks (By Years) in Horgan County.
<br />
<br />1935
<br />$1,010,065
<br />
<br />1940
<br />'..728,061
<br />
<br />1947
<br />;;;3,229,932
<br />
<br />1948
<br />::';4,352;711
<br />
<br />Bank Deposits in Morgan County (By Years)
<br />
<br />1935
<br />:W2,160,925
<br />
<br />1940
<br />'l>3,038,762
<br />
<br />1947
<br />:;P12,548,261-
<br />
<br />1948
<br />",14,075,304
<br />
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