MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



CRUSHED TRAP ROCK CHEAP. 



Crushed trap rock in quantities ranging 

 from 100,000 to 200,000 tons at $1.75 a cubic 

 yard at the dock is the substance of an ar- 

 rangement which has been completed by 

 State Highway Commissioner II. S. Earle 

 with President C. A. Wright of the Kewee- 

 na\v Central Railroad for distributing the 

 stone over the state tor road-making pur- 

 poses. 



"You can say to the Detroit newspapers 

 which said I was crazy when I made the 

 statement that I could get crushed trap rock 

 in the harbors of .Michigan with convict labor 

 for $1.50 per cubic yard the same new-paper 

 which said that if 1 could get that rock for 

 $3 J would be a benefactor to the road build- 

 ing interests of the state that I wonder what 

 they think of this arrangement to get the 

 stone at $1.75 with free labor," says .\lr. Earle. 



Commissioner Earle explained that he has 

 closed a deal through the president of the 

 Keweenaw Central Railroad to get tnis stone 

 from Bete Grise bay by boat, delivered to any 

 port in the state. The arrangement is under- 

 stood to have been made possible by the fact 

 that the owners of the railroad seek to build 

 up the terminus of their road at the bay by 

 having coal boats ply between the .Michigan 

 mines and Bete Grise bay to supply a big in- 

 dustry along the line of the Reweenaw road 

 some distance from the bay. These boats, it 

 i- said, may be induced to land the coal there 

 if they can be reloaded for return with the 

 road-making stone, which is to be had by 

 the thousands of tons. 



Some time ago Commissioner Karle pro- 

 posed the location of a prison on Bete Grise 

 bay for the purpose of quarrying stone foi 

 road-making purposes with convict labor, 

 such as it done by certain other states in the 

 union, and in connection with this propositii ui 

 made the statement as to the $1.50 price per 

 cubic yard. 



Wayne county is said to be paying this 

 year $3.50 a cubic yard for this stone, and has 

 a contract for all stone used this year; how- 

 ever, next year, Commissioner Earle has the 

 promise of the contract. Trap rock crushed 

 stone is used most popularly for the upper 

 course of macadamized roads, from the fact 

 that it is exceedingly hard. Used over a 

 limestone second course, it packs into an 

 even surface of great wearing qualities. The 

 price of Si. 75 i- -aid by the commissioner to 

 be the cost price of the stone at the (marries. 



NEW HIGHWAY IN HILLSDALE. 



After considerable agitation lasting over a 

 period of several years a highway has been 

 r.ssiired the residents of Jefferson township, 

 Hillsdale county. The road will be only a mile 

 in length but the short cut will mean the sav- 

 ing of several miles for many people in the 

 northwestern part of the township. The road 

 has been surveyed by County Surveyor George 

 Marks and work will begin in the near future. 

 The highway will run north and south on the 

 farm line between the farms of G. T. Oliver 

 and Milton Sutti>n. The road is the contin- 

 uance of an old highway running north and 

 south about twelve miles and terminates in the 

 highway encircling Pleasant lake. 



MANY ROAD APPLICATIONS IN. 



With 561 applications for state rewards for 

 roads on file Highway Commissioner H. S. 

 Earle opines that his successor, Townsend A. 

 El}-, will have a good opportunity to keep 

 busy this summer. It is calculated that each 

 one of these pieces of road will require from 

 three to five inspections, which means that at 

 least 1,500 inspections must be made. This 

 amount of work will keep at least five men 

 busy for months making inspections as fast 

 as time and distance will permit. 



SUBSCRIBING ROAD FUNDS. 



Two or three pledge-papers circulated for 

 assistance in good roads building in Barry 

 county were freely signed. One has enough 



subscribed to secure a mile of read iionii 

 from the city limits i.f Hastings to the Hast- 

 ing- township line, where it will connect with 

 the mile already built on the north. Another 

 mile is on the Carlton Center road, from tne 

 old Andrus place to the town line; then 

 farther north in Carlton is another mile, 

 which will make three miles of graveled roads 

 out of Hastings to the north. Those parts of 

 the roads which have been graveled are hard 

 and dry, notwithstanding heavy rains. 



times have been as high as two mills, but that 

 is insufficient to meet the demands if all the 

 roads adopted by the board of supervisors are 

 to he made first class. 



NEW COMMISSIONER WILL HAVE 

 CLEAN SHEET. 



When Highway Commissioner Ely steps 



the offices of the highway department of 



Michigan the morning of June 1, he is to find 



it "slick and clean," in the language of Com- 



ner Earle, and present indications are 



that he may have some work on his hands 



getting hold of the raveled ends of the office 



work. 



Ac< rrding to the declaration of Commis- 

 sioner Earle. there will net be an employe in 

 the place: the office will be in "apple pie" 

 order; everything will be in its place, but no 

 itiate the new office force. 



Mr. Earie says that every employe in the de- 

 p- rtmert has a better offer than the state can 

 give in the way of salary and that there is no 

 incentive for any to remain. A tabulation of 

 tin- situation :s Mr. Earle has it figured out is 

 as follows: 



Salary from Salary 

 lion. State. Offered. 



Commissioner $2.500 $5.000 



Chief Engineer 1.800 2.000 



Chief Clerk 1.200 1.50(1 



A-sistant Engineer 900 1,500 



Stenographer 700 800 



Clerk 480 600 



Totals $7,600 



? 11. 400 

 7,609 



Balance $3,800 



"Why should the employes in this office, in- 

 cluding myself, remain in this office and do- 

 nate to the state services for which have been 

 offered elsewhere $3,800 more than the state 

 is able to pay?" says Mr. Earle. "Governor 

 Warner will find the department ready for his 

 new appointee, and the new appointee will 

 find the key in the hands of the superintendent 

 of -tale buildings. He can walk in the next 

 minute after the stroke of midnight May 31, 

 and no sooner. 



"I will hereafter be the unofficial highv.-av 

 ci mmissicner of the United States. I will 

 'ave offices in Detroit, but the length and 

 th r-f the United States will be my field. 

 \ ;:ni going to look after Michigan along with 

 ( ther states." 



NO NEW ROADS IN CHIPPEWA. 



According to the plans outlined by William 

 Godfrey, county road commissioner, the work- 

 on the highways in Chippewa county this year 

 will be concentrated where it will do the most 

 good. Xo new roads will be opened except 

 where absolutely necessary, the work already 

 mapped out in unimproved districts being suffi- 

 cient to keep a large force of men busy for 

 the next five years. Mr. Godfrey says the 

 county roads are in excellent condition, con- 

 sidering the weather. 



"I have a difficult job ahead of me," says Mr. 

 Godfrey. "We have about 360 miles of road in 

 the county system but under the present 

 method of appropriations it will be impossible 

 to make it all first class highway. My plan 

 will be to do good work as far as I go. I don't 

 believe in spreading the work over a large 

 territory and doing none of it well. We have 

 a lot of stone in the county that can be used in 

 making- roads and it will be necessary to pur- 

 chase another crusher in the near future." 



Under a one mill appropriation, which raises 

 about $12,000 for road purposes, the commis- 

 r has about $33 per mile to expend in im- 

 proving the highways. The appropriations at 



MARQUETTE COUNTY ROADS. 



\\ork on the main highways of Marquette 

 county for the present season has already be- 

 gun. Two crews are at work, one on the 

 Chocolay highway, in the eastern end of tne 

 county, and another on the road between Hum- 

 boldt and Republic, where about two miles of 

 the roadbed was improved last year. The 

 work was started at a point where it was left 

 off on the Republic end and will continue 

 through to Republic. It is likely that after 

 finishing the Republic end the crew will be 

 transferred to the Hiumboldt end, though the 

 commission has not yet reached a decision as 

 to this. 



The work on the Chocolay highway will be 

 done similar to that completed last year on the 

 main thoroughfare between Xegaunee and 

 Marquette. The work will be started at a 

 point about where the old state road strikes 

 the Chocolay township line. The crusher anJ 

 other machinery is being operated by elec- 

 tricity, furnished by the Marquette city plant. 



WOULD HAVE DIRT ROADS 

 IMPROVED. 



The new state highway commissioner ol 

 Michigan. Townsend Ely, will pay more at- 

 tention to improving common dirt roads 

 without going to the expense of macadamiz- 

 ing or graveling them than did his predeces- 

 sor, Horatio S. Earle. In a late talk with 

 Governor Deneen, the latter told Govern- r 

 Warner that in the past 10 years the Illinois 

 suite highway department, while building 

 many hundreds of miles of macadam and 

 gravel roads, also improved thousands ol 

 miles of ordinary dirt road at a comparatively 

 small expense per mile, these dirt road im- 

 provements being in every county, whether 

 thc county had adopted the good roads sys- 

 tem or not. The policy in Michigan has been 

 to ignore the dirt roads unless the local dis- 

 tricts were willing to put up $500 to $1,000 a 

 mile or more for macadamizing or graveling. 

 Commissioner Ely favors the Illinois system 

 of doing something in the way of road im- 

 provement in every county. 



EXTENDING CARO'S STONE ROAD. 



W irk en the extension of the stone road 

 leading from Carp to Pattison's corners in 

 Ellington township, Tuscola county, is in 

 progress and everything points to an early 

 completion of the first job under the direction 

 of the commissioners of the road district 

 composed of the townships of Indianfields, 

 Aimer and Ellington and the village of Caro. 



From the end of the existing stone road to 

 Pattison's corners is a distance of 9,500 feet 

 and the stone pile is located nearly at the 

 half-way point, making the haul of crushed 

 stone and water as short as possible. Struck 

 by the great difference between the hard, 

 smooth highway of the section built two years 

 ago and the part about to be built, along 

 which horses were toiling to drag light 

 buggies through the mud, J. H. Beckton took 

 photographs of both recently and will have 

 in them an object lesson second only to the 

 actual experience of traders over them. 



GRAND TRAVERSE COMMISSIONERS. 



Hon. Frank Hamilton of Traverse City and 

 C. H. Estes of Bates are the members of the 

 c tir.tv road commission of Grand Traverse 

 county. The commission has organized and 

 is preparing to push some good road work 

 this year 



Pittsfprd township, Hillsdale county, has 

 appropriated $2,100 for repair work and $1,050 

 for improvement work for this season. As 

 the bridges in the township are in excellent 

 condition practically the entire sum will be 

 expended on highways. 



