Ritchie, Jr., and Mark Spanogle became president and local financier agents for the company and the law firm of Ritchie and Canaday. attorneys for the organization. The company started operations by buying eight farms of eighty acres each in the Bridgeport Irrigation district. They then planned good improvements for these farms and placed them for rent to responsible tenants on good terms. This company then laid plans not only to foster the sale of land in the Belmont district but to steadily increase the acreage to cultivation and in other ways develop this fertile valley. This move bore particular importance to the fact that the Belmont lands had been unoccupied for years and greatly retarded the growth and development of Bridgeport.

The North Side Irrigation Project The irrigated portions of western Nebraska are becoming recognized as being among the most important agricultural sections of the United States. In recent years, the production of crops by irrigation has gone forward in Morrill county by leaps and bounds, and farmers who are practicing this S3-stem of agriculture are experiencing prosperity. Irrigation is in its infancy in this county, which is destined to become one of the most productive agricultural counties of the state.

It is our belief that Morrill county can rightfully boast of possessing the youngest irrigation district in the state. The Northport irrigation district was created by an election held on the 22nd day of September, 1017, at which the electors of the district were able to express by ballot their wishes,