Letter from Fr. Luke Sheehan

Page 1

HOTEL NEWLY REFITTED. SPECIAL ATTENTION TO COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS. BARBER SHOP AND BATHS IN CONNECTION. EVERYTHING FIRST-CLASS. HOTEL BEND HUGH O'KANE, MANAGER. BEND, OREGON. 12-9-19 BEND is situated in the very heart of the Deschutes Valley, on the banks of the Deschutes River where the vast pine timber belt meets the irrigated lands. No other town in all Central Oregon is so well located for economic development, no other can approach it in the beauty and healthfulness of its surroundings, and none will be half so much benefited by the coming of the railroads. A great irrigation segregation has its headquarters at Bend. At least twenty billion feet of timber is tributary to the town, whose milling in itself assures a great future. The Deschutes river in the immediate vicinity offers some 25,000 horsepower for the operation of the mills and plants of the future. The Oregon Trunk Railroad is building to Bend. Practically all the grading from the Columbia River is completed, and cars will be running early in 1911. Bend will be the terminus of this road for a considerable period. The Harrisman Deschutes Road already is building into the Bend country. The east-and-west line of the Hill road branches off from the Columbia-Klamath line at Bend. Bend, then, is situated at what will be the most important junction point in Oregon. Immediately adjacent to Bend are some three hundred thousand acres of irrigated land under the Carey Act segregation of the Central Oregon Irrigation Company. This land is PKER. Perpetual weather rights cost $40 an acre. Forty acres means independence, eighty acres brings wealth. Every product adapted to the temperate zone thrives in the rich volcanic soil. The land is easily worked and watered. It offers the greatest irrigationist's opportunity to be found in the Northwest. Come and investigate for yourself before all the big cheap-land chances are gone. From Bend settlers are located on 320 acre homesteads on the vast area of sage brush lands to the southeast. Here is found the biggest and the last big chance for the land hungry to get free Government land that is worth the having. The railroads are coming. Hurry and get in on the ground floor. Central Oregon is the greatest homeseekers' and investors' proposition in all the West today. Bend is the pivot point of Central Oregon. It is destined to make a magnificent city. Those who come to Bend now and to the country around Bend, will win wonderful rewards for their foresight. And when you come to Bend remember that the Hotel Bend IS THE PLACE TO STOP the towns people will you a $100 or less We are likewise negotiating the purchase of a building in Princeville to transform into a Church. We have also received a donation of $500 from the C. Ex Society for Princeville. In Echo the people have promised $1500 a son or we are nearly struck a church & the C. Ex. Society has already given $500. We are only waiting the movement of the Railroad company to select a site. Pilot Rock has re…