As water was two hundred to three hundred feet below the surface, welldigging was no small undertaking.

These "Water Holes" were some distance southwest of the present town of Daiton. Eventually such beaut ful lands were destined to become homes ; they were settled upon by homesteaders, many of whom are yet to be found in the prosperous community. At first wells were dug at rare intervals', but later the drill, the windmill, and the gasoline engine have solved the water problem.

The Burlington in 1920 projected its line

south from Uliance to the North Platte river,

establishing Bridgeport, then up the North

Guemse} It connected Bridgeport

1 lenver by way of Sidney. Th

on the divide were Dalton, Gurley and Huntsman.

Dalton led off in progress and enterprise, and was a town of growing importance in proportion to the acreage of buffalo grass that was plowed up, and the acres of wheat sown.

Dalton is located on one of the high points in the county and commands a beautiful view. Twenty -five years ago this site was a field of grass ; a wagon road leading from the river country wound through this territory, and the location was visited by a party of eastern men. as they passed over the divide in a freighter's wagon, for Sidney was then the first town south of Alliance. On reaching the "highest point," where Dalton, "Queen of the Prairie," today lifts her head, the men stood up and asked why the country was not fanned better and why better stock was not raised