"You will find it hard to believe that there stood at one time a fiercely-flourishing little city, of two thousand or three thousand souls, with its newspaper, fire company, brass band, volunteer militia, bank, hotels, noisy Fourth of July processions and speeches—all the appointments and appurtenances of a thriving and prosperous and promising young city—and now nothing is left of it all but a lifeless, homeless solitude.-Mark Twain-