162 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (COUNCIL BLUFFS, DECATUR.) 



cost of about $90,000. Other noteworthy 

 buildings are 8 churches, 4 public schools with 

 property valued at $75,000 ; a convent school 

 that cost $50,000; a county hospital, $35,000; 

 an opera-house, $40,000 ; and a club-house, 

 $30,000. The Young Men's Christian Associa- 

 tion has a membership of about 300, and an 

 income of more than $3,000. It has a fine 

 hall, a gymnasium, and a free reading-room. 

 The county library, containing nearly 2,000 

 volumes, is open to the public. Three-quar- 

 ters of a mile northwest of the city are the 

 grounds of the Territorial Fair Association, 

 containing 80 acres of land, and furnished 

 with suitable buildings and a fine race-track. 

 Fort Eussell three miles west, has recently 

 been enlarged at a cost of $150,000, and is a 

 permanent military post, the largest in the de- 

 partment of the Platte. Twenty miles north- 

 west of the city is the Silver Crown Mining 

 District, the development of which was begun 

 in 1886. Several mines are now in operation 

 that will yield over fifty dollars to the ton. A 

 smelter having a capacity of thirty tons a day 

 lias been erected there, and a concentrator, 

 and about one hundred men are engaged in 

 the mines. Several of the mines are more 

 than one hundred feet deep, and it is the opin- 

 ion of mineralogists who have looked into the 

 matter that richer gold and silver ore will be 

 reached at a greater depth. 



Council Kiulls, the largest and oldest town in 

 western Iowa, with a population of 35,000. 

 Council Bluffs (a name given by the Indians), 

 began as an Indian trading-post, and then be- 

 came a settlement of the Mormons after they 

 removed from Nauvoo, 111., in 1846. When the 

 California gold discoveries sent emigration west- 

 ward this place became one of the main start- 

 ing-points for overland travel. It is at the foot 

 of and upon the bluffs forming the eastern 

 margin of the bottom-lands bordering the Mis- 

 souri, and is connected with Omaha, Neb., 

 immediately opposite, by a railway-bridge, and 

 a wagon-bridge across which street cars will 

 presently be run by electric motors. The busi- 

 ness and a large part of the best residence part 

 of the town is upon the level expanse at the 

 foot of the bluffs ; but many fine streets run 

 into the beautiful ravines that indent the high- 

 lands ; and upon their wooded crest is an ex- 

 tensive public park, the cemeteries, and the 

 reservoir of the water-system, supplied by 

 pumping (through settling-basins) from Mis- 

 souri river. The city hall and court-house, 

 the Federal building, and the high-school, are 

 stately edifices. Just outside of town is a State 

 institution for the instruction and care of deaf- 

 mutes which has 375 pupils. The city is well 

 paved, sewered, and policed. It is lighted with 

 gas, but the incandescent system of electric 

 lighting is extensively used. There are some 

 exceedingly handsome churches and society 

 halls, and a public library of 7,500 volumes is 

 well patronized. There are three daily news- 

 papers and several weeklies. As a railway 



focus, Council Bluffs has long been eminent. 

 This is the eastern terminus of the Union 

 Pacific system, and a western terminus of 

 the Northwestern, Burlington, Milwaukee and 

 St. Paul, Rock Island, Wabash, and Illinois 

 Central systems, from Chicago, while other 

 railways lead north to Sioux City and St. 

 Paul, and south to the cities along Missouri 

 river. All this centers in one great station. 

 These railway facilities make the city a flour- 

 ishing business point, the wholesale and job- 

 bing trade amounting in 1887 to $33,000,000, 

 of which one third was in agricultural im- 

 plements alone an item in which Council 

 Bluffs is exceeded only by Kansas City. Manu- 

 facturing is not so forward, the combined 

 products amounting to $4,000,000 a year. Sev- 

 eral railroads have extensive repair-shops here, 

 and one corn-cannery employs 400 men. Wag- 

 ons and carriages form another leading object 

 of manufacture. The public schools are well 

 managed and numerous, and the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church supports two academies ; but there 

 are no special institutions of higher learning. 

 The healthfulness of the town is high, and 

 many persons doing business in Omaha prefer 

 to make their residence here. A few miles 

 below the city a lake-like lagoon from the Mis- 

 souri forms a summer pleasure-place, where 

 hotels have been built, and boating and fishing 

 attract excursionists. 



Deeator, Morgan County, Ala., 25 miles from 

 the northern boundary, on Tennessee river, at 

 intersection of the East Tennessee, Virginia and 

 Georgia and the Louisville and Nashville rail- 

 roads. It is on the water shed between the 

 Gulf of Mexico and Ohio river, has an altitude 

 of 600 feet, and enjoys all advantages of the 

 valley of the Tennessee. It is in the cereal 

 belt, producing grains, blue grass, clover, etc.,. 

 a cotton region, and tobacco-growing country, 

 and the mineral resources are also unlimited, 

 including coal and iron in close proximity, 

 while timber of best quality abounds. Lime- 

 stone, asphalt, building-stone, granite and mar- 

 ble, manganese, glass-sand, and brick-clay are 

 available. The town was devastated during 

 the civil war. On Jan. 11, 1887 the date of 

 organization of the Land Improvement and 

 Furnace Company with 5,600 acres of town, 

 50,000 acres of mineral lands, and $400,000 

 capital rit contained fewer than 1,500 inhab- 

 itants. In one year, $900,000 had been ex- 

 pended in improvements, including industries; 

 and the population in July, 1888, was 7,500. 

 It has a street-railway, an electric-light and 

 telephone company, 1 daily and 3 weekly news- 

 papers, a water-works system costing $200,000, 

 and 2 banks (one National), with capital of 

 $100,000 each. It was surveyed by a land- 

 scape engineer, and the sewerage is of the 

 Waring system. Freight rates are competitive. 

 Other railroad lines, in addition to the two 

 trunk systems, are projected and construct- 

 ing. Navigation of the river is dependent on 

 completion of the works at Mussel Shoals. 



