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<br />Transportation, commerce, and industry prosper-- <br />Irrigation, commerce, and industry progressed <br />together in the valley. As irrigation was developed, parallel <br />growth of lumber yards, implement companies, crop storage and <br />processing establishments, grocery stores, and service trades <br />took place. <br />The Burliq:ton Railroad pIlshed through in 1900 and <br />linked the area with the eastern markets. Scottsbluff wae <br />established in that year at the railroad terminus with a <br />population of 450 people. Construction of project features, <br />starting in 1905, attracted craftsmen from all over the <br />country. As irrigation service became available, iITigated <br />homesteads were taken up by the hardy settlers who poured into <br />the valley in search of homes and land. In 1910 the first <br />beet sugar factory was built in Scottsblutf. That first <br />year the factory processed beets fram 3,500 acres. Since that <br />time over su billion pounds of sugar have been produced. In <br />1912 the Union Pacific Railroad extended the second rail line <br />into the valley. By 1914 there were 14 banks; by 1920, there <br />were 3 mQ1:'e. The year 1923 saw the start of the dry bean in- <br />dustry-now an $11,500,000 annual business in valley plants. <br />With each increase in business activity, wholesalers, <br />manufactu:rers, and new tradesmen came into the valley. Every <br />year saw new growth as the transformation of the prairie pro- <br />gressed. <br /> <br />14 <br />