362 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



NATIONAL FOREST ROADS. 



Previous to the establishment of the district organization the na- 

 tional-forest road work, handled by the Office of Public Roads and 

 Rural Engineering for and in cooperation with the Forest Service, 

 was carried on through an engineer representative at each of the six 

 western forest district headquarters, with the exception that no repre- 

 sentative Avas stationed at the Missoula office. Road construction and 

 maintenance under section 8 of the Federal aid road act, involving 

 the expenditure of a Federal appropriation of $1,000,000 annually 

 for 10 years, was entrusted to this office. Since January 1, 1917, 

 the present district organization of this office therefore has actively 

 conducted the engineering and construction in connection with forest 

 road work, except the minor projects under the 10 per cent fund and 

 a portion of the maintenance work, which have been executed by 

 the Forest Service. 



During the year requests have been made by the Forest Service 

 for reconnaissance surveys and preliminary investigations covering 

 approximately 4,587 miles, 2,435 miles bein^ for reconnaissance sur- 

 veys, and 2,152 miles preliminary investigations, distributed over 172 

 projects. 



The work completed is as follows: Reconnaissance surveys, 1,245 

 miles; location surveys, 202 miles; preliminary investigations, 652 

 miles; maintenance work, 119 miles; and construction, 37 miles. 



The large mileage covered by requests received from the Forest 

 Service for preliminary investigations and reconnaissance surveys in 

 proportion to the mileage of such investigations and surveys com- 

 pleted is due to the fact that most of these requests were filed near 

 the close of the fiscal year, at the time when the field forces of this 

 office were being organized for the work of the first season. 



One of the projects completed during the year is the Kamas-Stock- 

 more. This road is 38 miles in length, extends from Kamas, in 

 Summit County, to Stockmore and Hanna, in Duchesne County, 

 Utah, and furnishes a direct route from Salt Lake City, Park City, 

 Coalville, and Kamas to towns in the northern portion of the Uinta 

 Basin. 



The unfinished section of the Questa-Elizabethtown project, in the 

 Carson National Forest, N. Mex., was completed, and the road is 

 open to traffic. This road is a link in the route over the otherwise 

 impassable divide of the Sangi*e de Christo Mountains, which form 

 the backbone of the La Platte and Rio Grande River watersheds, 

 and provides a direct route from Cimarron, Raton, and other neigh- 

 boring towns into the upper Rio Grande Valley. 



Construction was completed over a short section of the Blewett 

 Pass project in Washington. This road is located in Chelan and 

 Kittitas Counties, affords communication between the Wenatchee, 

 Kittitas, and Yakima valleys, and offers the shortest connection be- 

 tween that section of the Sunset Highway extending over the 

 Snoqualmie Pass and Chelan and that portion between Wenatchee 

 and Waterville. 



The Rabbit Ears Rt)ad, in Colorado, a 10 per cent project, on which 

 work was started in 1913, a portion being clone each year since, was 

 completed, 2.1 miles having been constructed this year. This road 

 is about 20 miles long, and furnishes an important highway between 



