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The Bickleton News, Bickleton, WA., August 11, 1911, page 1

EASTERN KLICKITAT LAND

One hears much nowadays about land hungry people and the "back to the farm" movement. Much boasting and boosting is done in fruit lands that are alleged to be worth $1,000 an acre and over; irrigated lands that are said to bring fabulous prices and make their owners rich; and logged off lands that will be valuable farms - when a lifetime is spent in clearing them. There certainly is a growing desire among the people to possess a little land before it is concentrated in the hands of a few. Cheap land is growing scarcer all the time, and good land is hard to get cheap. Large owners of logged off lands in western Washington are organizing to dispose of their acreage on easy payments, and fruit and irrigated land organizations are boosting their high priced lands for all they are worth. But not so much is being said of the cheaper lands of Washington and Oregon - the un-irrigated grain lands -- where so many thousands of acres are awaiting the coming of settlers of small means.
Eastern Klickitat has much land that can be bought for from $10 to $25 an acre, which in a short time will be much more valuable. It is not widely known or advertised, but there are some far-seeing capitalists who have accumulated some of this land, and now what that the great Klickitat irrigation project, probably the largest in the United States, is coming to a focus, these men are beginning to look more closely into their interests. Only this week a capitalist from Colfax, Wash., was in Bickleton examining his holdings and getting correct descriptions. It is said several English capitalists are accompanying Engineer Rice of the Klickitat Irrigation and Power company on a tour of inspection over the proposed route of the canal. There are other signs of activity, and it cannot be long now till eastern Klickitat comes into its own, and will go forward by leaps and bounds. The wise ones will heed these signs and profit by them.