158 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (FERGUS FALLS, FLINT.) 



by fire in 1889. A United States land office is 

 located here. Durango is known as the Smelter 

 City ; 2 smelters running night and day employ 

 450 men all the year round. One of these, which 

 has been in successful operation since the city 

 was founded, in 1881, employs 300 men, and has 

 6 blast furnaces, treating 800 tons of ore a day. 

 The plant covers 160 acres. The company is 

 capitalized at $2,000,000, and has a monthly pay 

 roll of $30,000. Its shipments of bullion and 

 matte during the year 1892 were 10,326-69 ounces 

 of gold, 1,097,385-67 ounces of silver, 6,059,059 

 pounds of lead, and 1,089,552 pounds of copper. 

 The other smelter, capitalized at $500,000, is one 

 of the 4 plants of its kind in the United States 

 treating copper by a new process known as Bes- 

 setnerizing. Ore-sampling works (auxiliary to 

 the smelters), which date from 1891, employ 30 

 men in handling 15 cars of ore a day. Next to 

 the smelting, the coal industry is most impor- 

 tant. The mountains and foothills surrounding 

 the city for miles contain vast coal beds, which 

 can be mined at small cost. The present output 

 of the mines is about 300,000 tons annually ; 

 $2,000,000 capital are invested, and about 300 

 men are employed. Four large lumber firms, 

 with mills near the city, operate planing mills in 

 Durango, and disposed of lumber to the amount 

 of $200,000 in 1892. Two machine pressed-brick 

 and several hand pressed-brick companies em- 

 ploy 100 men in turning out 100,000 bricks a day, 

 and there are 3 large limekilns. Two flouring 

 mills have a combined capacity of 200 barrels a 

 day. A foundry and iron works, 3 wagon fac- 

 tories, and 2 breweries, one having its own ice ma- 

 chine and turning out 18,000 barrels of beer year- 

 ly, complete the list of large establishments. Fine 

 building stone is found on all sides of the city. 

 In four months from Aug. 6 to Dec. 6, 1892, the 

 2 railroads brought into the city 7,228 loaded 

 freight cars and took out 2,582. Of this amount 

 2,546 were cars of ore and 732 of merchandise. 

 Much traffic is also carried on by wagon. There 

 is a board of trade. Nine miles from the city are 

 natural hot springs. A Keely Institute is located 

 here. The valleys and mesas around Durango 

 form one of the richest agricultural regions of 

 the State, having an inexhaustible supply of wa- 

 ter for irrigation. The average yield of wheat 

 by irrigation is 25 bushels an acre, and from 60 

 to 100 bushels of oats. Fruits of all kinds are 

 raised. The United States Land Office has dis- 

 posed of 102,000 acres of land under the pre-emp- 

 tion, and given away 50,000 under the homestead 

 laws. It has sold about 7,000 acres of coal land, 

 at $10 to $20 an acre, according to the distance 

 from a completed railroad, and has issued re- 

 ceipts for about 3,000 mines of gold and silver. 



Fergus Falls, a city of Minnesota, of about 

 5.000 inhabitants, beautifully situated in a fine 

 farming country on both sides of the Red River 

 of the North. It is the county seat of Otter 

 Tail County. The increase in population from 

 1,635 in 1880 to 3,772 in 1890 was 130-7 per cent. 

 Many of the business buildings are of brick, as 

 are also the county buildings, courthouse and 

 jail, the City Hall, and 3 fine school buildings. 

 The schools have an enrollment of 1,000 pupils, 

 and prepare students for the State University. 

 The churches are, respectively, Methodist, Pres- 

 byterian, Congregational, Baptist, Catholic, and 



Lutheran. There are 3 national banks, with a 

 paid capital aggregating $250,000. One daily 

 and 3 weekly newspapers are published, one of 

 the latter in the German language. Gas and 

 electricity are used for lighting. An abundant 

 supply of pure water is pumped by water power 

 from the river, above the city. The population 

 is largely American, from New England and the 

 Middle States, and the foreign portion of both 

 city and county is mostly Scandinavian. Fer- 

 gus Falls has two through lines of railroad, the 

 Great Northern and the Fergus Falls and Black 

 Hills branch of the Northern Pacific. There is 

 also a branch of the Great Northern, which runs 

 north along the valley of Pelican river. The 

 largest industry in the city is the flour mills, of 

 which there are 5, with an aggregate capacity of 

 2,000 barrels a day, employing about 100 men, 

 with a capital aggregating $250,000. There are 

 also 2 sash and door factories, a wagon factory, 

 and a woolen mill which employs 40 persons, as 

 well as minor concerns. The third hospital for 

 the insane is here. The streets are of gravel, 

 and dry and clean. The well-equipped fire de- 

 partment numbers 40 men. The city possesses 

 abundant water power. A flood in the river at 

 this point is altogether unknown, and a rise of 1 

 foot very rare. The reason for this unvarying 

 flow lies in the peculiarity of the country in 

 which the river rises and through which it flows, 

 its course being through a succession of hikes. 

 The city has many advantages also as a health 

 and\ pleasure resort, as it lies in the center of 

 the most picturesque part of the State, known 

 as the Park Region. To one traveling here in 

 any direction there is always a view of one or 

 more lakes of pure clear water, with a gravelly 

 beach and grove of trees. Most of the lakes are 

 well stocked with pickerel, pike, bass, and white- 

 fish ; and for hunting during the autumn 

 months there are prairie chickens, wild ducks, 

 and geese in abundance. 



Flint, a city of Michigan, the county seat of 

 Genesee County, on Flint river, in the heart of 

 one of the most prosperous agricultural sections 

 of the State. It is 64 miles northwest of Detroit, 

 on the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad, and 

 33 miles south of Saginaw ; 66 miles from Port 

 Huron, on the Chicago and Grand Trunk Rail- 

 road ; and 49 miles from Lansing. The main 

 lines of these railroads intersect almost at right 

 angles here, and the city is also the terminus of 

 a third branch road. In 1880 the population 

 was 8,409, and it increased to 9,803 in 1890. The 

 first settlement was made here in 1819, but it 

 was not until 1836, when the Government land 

 office was opened, that the place assumed any 

 proportions even as a trading post. In 1845 

 there were 193 resident taxpayers, and in 1855 

 the city was incorporated. The valuation of 

 property is $3,432,471 real and $829,507 per- 

 sonal, making a total of $4,261,978, a gain of 

 $150,000 over 1892. The rate of taxation is 

 $1.10 on $100. There are 8 miles of paved 

 streets, and others are graveled, lined with shade 

 trees, and illuminated by the Vanderpool tower 

 system of electric light in addition to gas. The 

 drainage is excellent, and is supplemented by a 

 complete sewerage system. Water is supplied 

 from the Flint river by waterworks of the Holly 

 system, completed in 1883 by a company with a 



