6 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



$30,000 FOR GOOD ROADS. 



After four years of argument and pow-wow- 

 ing the electors of Erin township, Macomb 

 county, expressed themselves for a transforma- 

 tion of the Lake and Gratiot roads into first- 

 class macadamized highways. 



The township board will issue $30,000 in 

 bonds as the money is needed, thus saving in- 

 terest. 



The situation is now as follows: On the 

 Lake road there are two miles and a half in 

 Harrison, to the Mt. Clemens city limits, and 

 several miles in Grosse Pointe, unprovided 

 for. These distances are likely to be taken 

 care of promptly. In Wayne county it is a 

 matter for the county road commissioners, 

 while in Harrison it will be a matter for the 

 voters. On the Gratiot road there are three 

 miles and a half in Clinton and a quarter of 

 a mile in Warren, which will be up to the 

 voters of the townships, and about four miles 

 in Gratiot, the latter a matter for the county 

 road commissioners of Wayne county. 



The road commissioners of Wayne are hand- 

 icapped by the insistent calls upon them by 

 the roads out of Detroit, and they are build- 

 ing on all of them. They have brought the 

 Gratiot road up to the Gratiot township line 

 this year, and confidently expect to continue 

 the work on the Gratiot, Centerline and Lake 

 roads next year. 



The prediction is reasonable that within two 

 or three years there will be two finely macad- 

 amized avenues between Detroit and Mt. Clem- 

 ens. 



It is understood that steps will soon be 

 taken to submit appropriations in Harrison, 

 Clinton and Warren. 



A MODEL ROAD. 



Seldom is there a piece of road built by 

 town or county anywhere that will compare 

 with the macadam bed of trap rock laid on 

 the Washington street extension. With a 

 slight raising grade from its edges, which are 

 twenty feet apart, it finds its maximum height 

 in an eight-foot rounding plateau, designed for 

 the regular driving path. That the road was 

 put there to keep its form is evidenced by the 

 care in laying the 'body, which is composed 

 of three layers of the trap rock. The first lay- 

 er was quarry chips as taken from the mass 

 rock in pieces of a pound or more weight, 

 mostly in a flat or slately form. Over the chip 

 rock was laid the reduced rock from the 

 crushing mill, irregular in form and of an inch 

 or more diameter. On this was placed a layer 

 of rock that has been reduced to about the 

 size of marbles, which is crowned by a sprink- 

 ling of the macadam dust. The roadbed in 

 the center has a rock depth of about ten 

 inches. The length of the road is 5,500 feet. 



On the eastern end of Washington street, 

 which carries a steep grade, tar macadam has 

 been laid, with the intent of holding the sur- 

 face firmly in place under the stress of heavy 

 cartage or the flow of water during storms. 

 The tar used was obtained from the Pioneer 

 Iron Company's black substance, which is 

 said to be far superior for the purpose than 

 coal tar. which has often been used for such 

 work. It has been demonstrated by the re- 

 cent rainstorms that the tarry macadam is im- 

 pervious to water, while the roadbed holds up 

 under the weight of heavy loads like new as- 

 phalt, and hardly displays the tracks of the cart 

 tires. Marquette Correspondence. 



DELTA COUNTY ROAD WORK. 



Complying with the provisions of the state 

 law passed by the last legislature the Delta 

 county road commissioners have made up a 

 schedule of the work which is intended to be 

 carried out next year and which schedule will 

 be submitted to the board of supervisors for in- 

 dorsement. Following are the highways which 

 the commissioners expect to improve next 

 season and the amount that is to be spent on 

 each: Bark Piver road, south from the vill- 

 age of Bark River to the county line, $4.800; 

 Bay Shore road, $2,000; Marquette county road, 



$2,400; Portage road, $800; Rapid River road, 

 $2,000; Cornell road, $2,000. Under the law 

 the commissioners are required to designate 

 the purpose for which the annual tax is levied, 

 naming specifically the work that is to be 

 carried out, together with its approximate cost. 

 This schedule is submitted to the board of sup- 

 ervisors, which has power to accept or reject 

 any part of it. The proposed tax for road- 

 building purposes in Delta county has been 

 fixed at the rate of two mills. 



BOYS MAKE GOOD ROADS. 



A plan for keeping county roads free from 

 stones, by organizing boys in road districts for 

 the work has been promoted by P. T. Colgrove 

 of Hastings, vice president of the Michigan 

 Roadmakers' Association. The scheme has al- 

 ready proven valuable by actual experiment. 

 He has obtained from the highway commis- 

 sioners of each township the names of pro- 

 gressive boys in each road district. These 

 boys met in convention in Hastings. They 

 elected their own officers, and made 

 their own plans of carrying on the work. It 

 will be the duty of boys in certain districts to 

 keep the roads in their vicinity free from stones 

 and pebbles. They will receive their compen- 

 sation from the fund which the promoters of 

 the plan will raise by public subscription 

 among the farmers and business men of Hast- 

 ings. By impressing upon boys the necessity 

 of keeping roads in good condition, it is 

 thought that a movement will be started which 

 will insure a steady growing interest in good 

 roads which will bear excellent results in the 

 future. 



A convention of delegates will soon be call- 

 ed to form an experiment organization. After 

 suggestions have been given them, the boys 

 will be allowed to plan their work themselves. 

 Interest in the project has been roused in other 

 townships in the county and no doubt the or- 

 ganization will soon be enlarged to include 

 the whole county. Actual experiment has 

 proven that boys will do this work conscien- 

 tiously. 



SAGINAW GETS HER SHARE. 



John W. Ederer, county road commissioner 

 of Saginaw county, has made his annual re- 

 port to the supervisors. He says: 



The total amount of macadam roads built 

 this season that are practically finished at this 

 date is nineteen and sixty-seven-one-hun- 

 dredths miles, and as we expect to build at 

 least one and one-half miles more this season 

 it will make a grand total of 21 miles of 

 stone road that has been added to the County 

 Road system during the year of 1908. The to- 

 tal expenditure for all purposes for the nine 

 months ending Oct. 1st, were $76,097.60. 



I am pleased to report that every foot of 

 macadam road built during my term as County 

 Road Commissioner has been accepted by the 

 State Highway Commissioner and the reward 

 therefor has been received by the county. Dur- 

 ing the present year the county of Saginaw has 

 received the sum of $14,533.00, and $2,837.00 

 are due and will be forwarded as soon as the 

 cost sheets are filed, making a total of $17,370 

 for this year and possibly four miles more will 

 be ready for inspection before the end of 

 the year, on which the county will receive $4,- 

 000.00. I have no figures available to show 

 what percent, this is of the total appropria- 

 tion of the state, 'but I think you will agree 

 with me that Saginaw county receives its share 

 of the state reward for good roads. 



PREACHING COUNTY ROAD SYSTEM. 



A good roads meeting was a feature of the 

 Grand Traverse County Fair held at Traverse 

 City this fall. Road Commissioner John W. 

 Bradford of Manistee spoke on the county 

 oad system as against the trpvnsp'n svstr-i 

 showing how much better the work could 

 be carried on under this system than by any 

 other. He declared that the farmers nvsun- 

 derstood the system thinkine that the com- 

 missioner would go out into the county, take 



all the money provided for good roads and 

 spend it on building one road. He described 

 Manistee county's working of the system, de- 

 claring that that county had the longest strip 

 of good roads in the entire state, a stretch of 

 25 successive miles of fine roads having been 

 built under the system. 



"As for the work itself," he said, "we take 

 roads that are hard to build, that townships 

 cannot build, the highest grades and swamps, 

 and make good roads of them." 



FOUR TRUNK ROADS PLANNED. 



With a total of $21,385.94 to be used in 

 highway work next year, Messrs. Haggerson, 

 Nadeau and Law, road commissioners, of 

 Menominee county, are planning extensive im- 

 provements to the county road system. By 

 the time the work is completed next year, the 

 county will have four complete trunk roads, 

 known as the Menominee-Delta county road, 

 the Bay Shore road and the Cedar River- 

 Stephenson and Wausaukee road. Plans have 

 been completed for four miles of macadam 

 roadway upon which state awards will be 

 sought. These four miles will be located in 

 different portions of the county. 



BAY WILL SPEND $50,000 ON ROADS. 



The board of supervisors of Bay county are 

 strong adherents of the stone road idea. The 

 board has increased the road tax levy to two 

 mills on the dollar, which will produce at least 

 $50,000 for Bay county roads next year. The 

 county road commission requested an appro- 

 priation of $48,000. 



PROFITING BY GOOD ROADS. 



Shelby township, Oceana county, has built 

 three miles of crushed stone road this season 

 as its contribution toward good highways in 

 Michigan. The principal trading point in the 

 township is Shelby village, a place with a pop- 

 ulation of 1,200. Some years ago the lumber 

 industry disappeared from the vicinity of Shel- 

 by and the people were forced to go to the 

 soil to find their wealth. 



The people living in the village soon reason- 

 ed it out that if their place was to grow and 

 prosper that it would be necessary for them 

 to make it easier for the farmers to come to 

 their town than to go to Hart, the county 

 seat, which is but six miles away to the north, 

 or to New Era, which is but five miles to the 

 southward. So the village people and the 

 township people agreed upon a good roads 

 program and began constructing macadam 

 highways from the village as a radiating cen- 

 ter to the township boundaries. Not only 

 that, but the townships adjoining Shelby on 

 the east and west were induced to go into the 

 good roads work and to extend the Shelby 

 crushed stone roads. 



Today level, hard highways reach out in 

 the four directions from Shelby village and 

 serve as a continual invitation to the farmers 

 to come to Shelby with their produce and to 

 do their trading. It is now such an easy mat- 

 ter to go to town that the farmers get there 

 with more frequency than formerly. 



- ONE OF THE BEST IN STATE. 



The two miles of stone road voted by the 

 citizens of Winsor township, Huron county, 

 at the last annual township meeting has been 

 completed and accepted by the state highway 

 department. The cost was $5,479. This is very 

 low as the average cost of stone roads in 

 Michigan according to the state highway de- 

 partment is $4.600 per mile. Sebewaing built 

 one mile this year which cost $4,400. The 

 Winsor road is one of the best in the state 

 according to a statement made by the deputy 

 highway commissioner, who recommended 

 Highway Commissioner Geiger very highly. 



The petition for the county good roads sys- 

 f pm hns been approved by the board of sup- 

 ervisors_pf Calhoun county. The board recom- 

 mended that the question be submitted to a 

 vote at the spring election. 



