Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1920 — DIRT CHEAP HAS LOST MEANING [ARTICLE]

DIRT CHEAP HAS LOST MEANING

Gary, Ind., Aug. 9.—“ Dirt cheap” has long lost its meaning in Gary, where the cost of covering the native sand with soil is estimated to date at $1,000,000. When home building started in Gary around 1906 and 1907, the cactus flourished. It has taken a mountain of dirt to drown out the sand and to make the parks, lawns and occasional gardens of today’s city. Approximately 500,000 cubic yards of earth have been brought in here, according to recent estimates. Low lands adjacent to the city have contributed generously but for years it has been necessary to cross the Illinois state line to bring dirt by rail from Joliet and Plainfield. The price of dirt is an item seriously considered by the prospective home builders here. Black loam has risen to $3 a cubic yard and the average cost of surfacing a lot is around S2OO. Sometimes a poor batch of material has been brought in from marshes and spread over thin by an economical householder, to find that in the hot summer suns his front yard is burning up. A fire department has been called out on more than one occasion to put out a fire in a man’s dirt.