MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



AUTO MANUFACTURERS AND GOOD 

 ROADS. 



The following excerpts are from an article 

 in a recent issue of the Detroit News-Tribune, 

 regarding a trial tour over the route selected 

 for the annual century run of *he Automobile 

 Club of Detroit. They reveal a condition of 

 roads in the neighborhood of Michigan's 

 metropolis that is not encoaragmg to the 

 automobilist tourist, and at the same time 

 afford the automobile interests a chance to 

 reflect that hey have done very little toward 

 the improvement of Michigan highways. In 

 fact, they have almost ignored the country 

 road, the very foundation on which their fu- 

 ture business, i. e. the universal use, of auto- 

 mobiles must depend. 

 The News-Tribune says: 

 "Friday morning at twenty-two minutes 

 past eleven the 'pathfinder' left the Hotel 

 Cadillac, E. S. George driving; Mr. Workman, 

 of the Packard Company, as first lieutenant; 

 Smith as mechanician; W. C. Rands playing 

 the part of a 'bag of sand,' and the writer as 

 scorer. The run out Michigan avenue was 

 smooth sailing, until the car left the pave- 

 ment. Then began a series of bumps that 

 none of the party will forget for many a long 

 day. The road to Ypsilanti is in worse shape 

 than it was last year, and those who com- 

 pleted the tour of a year ago haven't forgot- 

 ten those culverts yet. There is scarcely a 

 rod where the going can be called even fairly 

 good. 



"Michigan has never had a reputation for 

 being a good roads state, but it is next to im- 

 possible for one who has not covered the 

 route to imagine that such bad roads exist. 

 The Detroit to Ypsilanti run was one series 

 of jams, bumps and thumps, quickly followed 

 by black and blue spots. 



"The road test was a screaming success, as 

 four aching backs, cramped necks and stiff 

 bodies generally readily testified. Every 

 member of the party that made the trip was 

 willing to testify before the committee that it 

 would be inhuman to ask the club members 

 to travel that route in a contest. In fact, it 

 would be impossible for any number of con- 

 testants to cover the distance v/ithout a num- 

 ber of more or less serious accidents. The 

 course simply could not be marked so that all 

 would avoid the many dangerous culverts, 

 and just the ordinary bad roads would be far 

 too great a strain upon the competing cars. 

 "As Mr. George said after alighting at the 

 club house and rubbing a few of the aches 

 out of his body: 



" 'Any man who can figure that it is worth 

 the risk of a three or four thousand dollar 

 car to negotiate that run in four hours is a 

 lunatic.' " 



The condition of roads described in the 

 News-Tribune is common to most parts of 

 Michigan at present. It is manifestly impos- 

 sible to sell automobiles for use on such 

 roads, and a road that is well righ impassable 

 for a high-powered touring ca-% is more than 

 impossible for a heavily loaded truck. 



The condition that thus confronts automo- 

 bile manufacturers is one that needs serious 

 attention. There are in Michigan less than 

 1,000 miles of paved- streets, in cities and vil- 

 lages. Contrasted with this are about 68,000 



miles of dirt and miscellaneous roads in the 

 country. 



Unless these country roads are improved, 

 there is absolutely no market in the country 

 :or power trucks, and little inclination to pur- 

 chase large touring cars. 



The automobile managers have so far 

 failed to realize that they have it in their pow- 

 er to open a great market for themselves by 

 an intelligent support of . the good roaas 

 movement. 



GOOD ROADS NOTES. 



Contracts for the construction of the new 

 Hamlin road have been let, and it is expected 

 the highway and bridge across Lincoln lake 

 will be completed by August 1. Frank Cos- 

 tello and A. Sterling, of Scottville, have been 

 awarded the job of filling in the lake from 

 the south side, and Jacob Bjorglund will fill 

 in from the north side, while the Joliet Bridge 

 Company, of Saginaw, will construct the 

 bridge. It will be of steel, with a concrete 

 floor, and rest upon steel abutments five feet 

 above the water line. The bridge will have 

 a span of 100 feet. Ludington Chronicle. 



The most important matter to come before 

 the Houghton county board of supervisors at 

 their regular meeting was a petition from a 

 number of settlers living in the Otter Lake 

 district, Portage township, to build a road 

 six miles long from Otter Lake to the county 

 road. The settlers, numbering about forty, 

 claim that there is no proper road to the 

 district in question. The farmers claim that 

 they are practically unable to market their 

 products owing to these conditions, and ask 

 the board to help them build the desired 

 road. 



In th e past five years Mancelona, Antrim 

 county, has expended $23,000 in the building 

 and improvement of roads. The township has 

 voted $6,000 for good roads this year. 



CANADA'S NEW MAP. 



In 1904 the military men of Canada began to 

 agitate the question of making a better map of 

 the country. They said that no existing map 

 gave just the information that would be es- 

 pecially needed if the Dominion should ever 

 have the misfortune to be invaded by a hostile 

 army. Really first rate maps of Canada, they 

 said, should show all the roads and even the 

 paths and trails, the elevations and depressions 

 of the surface, or, in other words, the land 

 forms, all the drainage, including the brooks 

 that unite to make the rivers or swell their 

 volume, the' distribution of all the forests and 

 even the location of the houses, excepting in 

 towns, where they are crowded too closely to- 

 gether to be shown on a general map. 



All such facts are of great importance in 

 planning a campaign, in selecting a line of 

 march, in provisioning an army or in choosing 

 favorable ground on which to give battle. The 

 thought is much more pleasant that such maps 

 have their great usefulness also in the pursuits 

 of peace. The art of making maps has been so 

 perfected that an immense volume and variety 

 of useful information may be expressed on 

 them: and the Canadians thought it over and 

 decided to make one of these fine maps of the 

 settled parts of their country. 



So the surveys division of the Department 

 of Militia and Defense was organized and the 

 work of making the surveys on which to base 

 the map began. It was started on a modest 

 scale, and thus far only $20,000 a year has been 

 expended on the survey. More than 6,500 

 square miles have now been surveyed in south- 

 ern Ontario, beginning in the region between 

 Niagara Falls and Detroit, and the work is 

 now to be pushed .toward Montreal. 



The Canadians decided that at first they 

 would not make the work so expensive as that 

 of our topographic survey. It is enough to 

 say here of their methods of work that while 



they are thoroughly scientific, they are not 

 carried as yet quite to the point of refinement 

 and exactitude which we maintain in our sur- 

 vey. The Canadian surveyors working near 

 our border have had the advantage of being 

 able to tie their survey to our own, and so 

 many points of accuracy are ready made to 

 their hand. They are aiming to attain closely 

 approximate accuracy, so that the resulting 

 maps will excellently serve all practical pur- 

 poses. It is only just to say that the remarka- 

 ble maps they are now producing prove that 

 they are reaping this result. 



The five or six map sheets thus far produced 

 are a delight to the eye and a gratification to 

 all who know what good maps are. The car- 

 tography is in the best style, and the scale, one 

 mile to an inch, is as large as that used by any 

 government in its general map of the country, 

 excepting in the new map of France, of which 

 only a few sheets have yet been produced. 

 Everybody knows that on so large a scale the 

 refined processes of up-to-date cartography 

 can clearly express a great amount of inform- 

 ation; but it will surprise many to learn that 

 in the variety and abundance of facts which 

 the Canadians are recording on these sheets 

 they are abreast of any other nation and in 

 some respects they are leading the way. 



By the use of ingenious symbolism, plain 

 and simple, and therefore not tiresome, much 

 information never seen before on similar maps 

 is given. All countries on their mile to the 

 inch maps show the position of residence out- 

 side of city limits, but the symbol on the Can- 

 ada map for a dwelling place in black means 

 that it is a wooden house, or in red, that it is 

 stone or brick. If your horse casts a shoe as 

 you jog along these sheets point you to the 

 nearest blacksmith shop. They not only show 

 the churches, but also whether they are v^ith 

 or without spires. This may seem trivial fora 

 map, but the fact might be important in mili- 

 tary planning; and all through the country you 

 see the position of the schools, hotels, saw- 

 mills, grist mills, quarries, cliffs, cemeteries, 

 lighthouses, telegraph offices and telephone 

 stations. Conspicuous elevations are in fig- 

 ures, and you may recognize the forms of the 

 land by the contour lines, all points on one 

 line being on the same elevation above the sea, 

 with a difference in elevation of twenty-five 

 feet from one contour to the next. Every 

 clump of timber large tnough to be called a 

 grove is in green, and many other facts are 

 presented in order to give what every first-rate 

 map on a large scale should supply a good, 

 faithful picture of a part of the earth's surface, 

 with the conspicuous cultural features that 

 man has imposed upon it. 



ESCANABA RIVER DRIVE. 



The I. Stephenson Company had a double- 

 header drive on the Escanaba river this spring, 

 owing to the fact that last year's drive was 

 held up by low water. The drive started from 

 a point 55 miles up the river, and 7,000,000 

 feet of logs were landed in the booms at 

 Wells, where the company's mills are located. 



The days of large log drives in the rivers 

 of that section of Michigan are past, although 

 there will be small drives each spring for 

 some years to come. In the early days of 

 lumbering in Michigan and Wisconsin the 

 drives were immense and drivers were as num- 

 erous as the lumber-jack. 



Operations have been resumed for the sea- 

 son at the Dollar Bay saw mill, and once more 

 the concern is running to its fullest capacity. 

 Many delays were encountered this year, one 

 of which was the late season, and had it not 

 been for this reason, the mill would have been 

 running some time ago. The machinery re- 

 ceived during the winter has been installed, 

 and at the present the mill is equipped on a 

 par to any mill in the county. The cut has 

 not yet been estimated, though it is expected 

 to be an enormous one. Shingle, lath and 

 planing machines have been installed, and it 

 is probable that a framing mill will be placed 

 in later. 



