WSP01441

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 12/1/1971
• Author: Missouri Basin Inter
• Title: Missouri River Basin Comprehensive Framework Study-Volume VII-Plan of Development and Management-Appendix
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

The total value of farm products sold in the basin was
approxima tely 4.6 billion dollars in 1959 and 5.] billion
in 1964, with the average value per farm being $13,444
in the latter year. In 1964, livestock and livestock
products accounted for 70.6 percent of the total sales
from farms. The sale of livestock and livestock products
was greater than crop sales in all but the Upper Missouri
Subbasin. However, substantial amounts of the grains
grown within the basin are fed to livestock and marketed
as a part of the animal.
The manufacturing segment of the basin's economy
has been enjoying rapid growth during the last two
decades. Unfortunately, most of the manufacturing has
remained in the metropolitan areas with Denver, Kansas
City, Omaha, and Sioux City accounting for 70 percent
or more of the total manufacturing within the basin.
For the cities of 10,000 to 50,000 population, there
has been some progress in attracting manufacturing in
recent years. The trend that has helped most has been
the decentralization in the food processing industries.
Industries such as meat packing are becoming more
oriented to smaller plants located closer to the sources
of their raw materials. Also, there has been a small influx
of light industry, such as machinery fabrication and
electronics. Even though the growth of manufacturing
has been good in some of the medium sized cities, the
growth in smaller cities has been rather sporadic. The
plains portion of the basin has been particularly slow in
attracting new industries.

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Food Processing Plants Are Important Industries
in the Towns of the Basin

The "other commodity" segment of the economy
(mining and contract construction) has not been growing.
at a particularly fast pace. Within the mining segment,
the fuels industries experienced the slowest employment
growth while enjoying substantial production increases.
However, the proven petroleum and coal reserves

34

probably represent the greatest mineral potential in the
basin.
Contractual construction is tied to the general welfare
of the other economic segments and to their growth.
Again, the large metropolitan areas have dominated this
segment. This is to be expected, for they have had the
greatest population and industrial growth rates within
the basin.
The most rapidly expanding sector of the economy
and the one which accounts for the largest proportion of
employment, both nationally and in the basin, is the
noncommodity-producing group. In 1940, over I. J
million were employed in this segment, which amounted
to just over half of the total employment in all segments
of the economy. By 1960, the noncommodity-producing
employment had increased to 1.8 million, accounting for
6 1.8 percent of the total employment in the basin.
While the noncommodity sector contains some
induslries which are basic to many local economies and
are generative in that they support local employment,
the majority of employment in this sector is of the trade
or service variety. As such, it is typically composed of
the labor intensive industries which depend largely upon
the wealth produced by the more basic segments of the
economy such as agriculture and manufacturing. Only
when the noncommodity industries are supported by
money created outside of the basin do they add to the
basin's total economy. At other times, they simply
represent the re-expenditure of wealth created by some
other industry within the basin. Thus, they are in large
part dependent upon the economic health of the rest of
the basin's economy. These are the industries that
predominate in the economic bases of the smaller cities
and towns. The small urban areas within the plains are
<lImos! entirely dependent upon this segment of the
economy.
Table 6 gives the breakdown of the noncommodity
employment categories. As can be seen, the trade and
service categories predominate. Even though the govern-
ment and military category has had the largest per-
centage increase, the trade category has matched it in
terms of the increase in workers, with ] 00,000 in the
1950-60 decade. In the same time period, the service
category has increased by some] 63,500 workers. One of
the major reasons for the increase in the trades and
services has been a boom in the tourist industry during
the last few years.
There has been a widespread interest within the basin
in attracting the tourist dollar. In some favored locations
tourism is the primary industry and in many other areas
of the basin it is second only to agriculture. Tourism has
become a particularly important source of income for
many of the small towns and cities. Consequently, there
have been a number of conserted efforts to develop the
scenic, hunting, and fishing potentials and to provide the
services needed by the tourist. Throughout the basin,