Then there has been some co-operative effort in marketing and buying that deserves honorable mention.

Outside of the railroad towns in both the north and south portions of the county, there were early established country stores. There were Albanv, Adaton, Hunter, Grayson, Lavaca, Mirage and many other places, some of which still maintain stores, and some of which are abandoned. S. Dewey who was early at Mirage closed out his business after a number of years.

One of the desires of early mercantile enterprise was to get into the close proximity of the Indian Reservation. In this respect, Gordon has always had the advantage.

Bootlegging among the Indians has always been followed by some of the lawless dispensers of liquor, and for that reason the reservation had its boundaries extended some distance beyond the point where the Indian allotment ceased. Into this neutral zone, the trader and trafficker wished to operate. It was. not permitted. As late as 1904, a homesteader named Charles Nines tried to open a store, but lost his homestead. President Roosevelt was made acquainted with the facts, and he set aside the section of land. Legally this may have been questioned, but what is the use of a poor homesteader fighting the United States. He gave it up.

Hay Springs Today

Hay Springs has nearly six hundred inhabitants, has three churches, two banks, two grain elevators, a potato market house, opera house, electric lights, water works and Beaver Valley telephone. It has the Northwestern railroad, Western Union telegraph and American express. It is on the state highway from Norfolk and Sioux City to the Black Hills, and at the junction of a state road leading south to Alliance, Scottsbluff and Denver. Several rural telephone lines radiate out from the town; to Grayson, Moomaw, and White Clay.