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Growth in the Garden

By Lynn Schnaiberg

Garden City, Kan.

The land, a patchwork of brown punctuated by irrigated green, bears witness to the stubborn determination of this town's settlers to carve out an existence in a desertlike corner of the High Plains. Despite the naysayers--and an average annual rainfall of just 18 inches--residents learned to bend the land to meet their needs.

They dug irrigation ditches to siphon water from the Arkansas River. Then they used pumps, first powered by windmill, later by gasoline or electricity. Eventually, deep-well turbine pumps allowed farmers to tap the Ogallala Aquifer below the earth's surface, and improved irrigation methods made this corner of southwest Kansas one of the nation's most productive agricultural areas.

Many here say it is that same relentless spirit that has kept the town's first public school open for more than a century. First built in 1886, Garfield has occupied four buildings--two of which...