Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Mr. H. S. Kirk, one of the earliest settlers, recalls his <br />fi:'st years when the fa=ers ate jackrabbits in the winter and <br />gathered up the surveyor's grade stakes to burn for fuel. He <br />had come to the valley as sUgerintendent of schools at <br />Tcrrir.gton, Wyoming--then a town of 600 people. Realizing <br />the potential in farming under irrigation, he bought a farm <br />and started growing sugar beets. Although bad weather caused <br />the loss of his first crop, his perserverence and eventual <br />success at irrigation farming provided the means to rear six <br />children and give them college educations. One of Mr. Kirk's <br />sons farms the home place now. Pioneer Kirk's experience is <br />typical of thousands of new settlers whose opportunities to <br />create new wealth of their ovm were occasioned by the <br />Reclamation Act of 1902. <br />The growth of opportunities and wealth created in <br />the North Platte Valley by the reclamation of arid lands is <br />charted in statistics which s!Jan the 50 years from its in- <br />ception to the present day (table 1). <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />20 <br />