MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



that the commission employ such trained ior- 

 esters and other assistants as may be neces- 

 sary; define their duties and fix their salaries; 

 said employes to be engaged under such civil 

 service regulations as the commission may 

 prescribe. 



Second, that it is the sense of this confer- 

 ence that the present forest fire warden ser- 

 vice of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota is 

 totally inadequate to meet the existing fire 

 hazard to both life and property, and that the 

 forest protection service, to become efficient, 

 must be greatly extended. To this end we 

 recommend an adequate forest patrol system, 

 maintained by the state, organized and oper- 

 ated by the commission referred to. 



Third, that the commission be authorized to 

 co-operate with the national government, the 

 several adjoining states and such associations 

 and organizations as the commission may 

 find necessary to best protect the timber re- 

 sources of the state. 



Fourth, that this conference is opposed to 

 a general slash burning law, as experience has 

 proven it unsatisfactory, impracticable and 

 dangerous. We recommend, however, that 

 the commission shall be given authority to 

 order the disposal of dangerous slashings 

 sufficient to establish a safe fire line around 

 standing timber or other valuable property. 



Fifth, that this conference advocates legis- 

 lation providing strict regulation of the burn- 

 ing of brush and debris in clearing land dur- 

 ing the dry season, such burning to be under 

 the direction of state fire patrolmen, under 

 such regulations as the commission may pre- 

 scribe. 



Sixth, that the burning of all debris on the 

 rights of way of the various railroads be under 

 the control and direction of the state forest 

 patrol. Further, that under special condiions 

 as directed by the state forest patrol the rail- 

 way companies maintain a patrol, properly 

 equipped, following their trains, also that all 

 railroad and logging locomotives and traction 

 engines must be equipped with the most prac- 

 tical spark arresting devices (subject to in- 

 spection and approval of the commission'). 



Seventh, whereas the building of lines 

 around exposed property, including settle- 

 ments, villages and towns, has proved a most 

 effective means for the control and extinguish- 

 ment of fires, we recommend that one of the 

 principal duties of the patrolmen, working un- 

 der the direction of the commission, should be 

 to establish such fire lines where necessary 

 for protection of property. 



Eighth, we recommend as the most effective 

 measures for preventing and fighting serious 

 fires, adequate means of transportation and 

 communication, to include trails, telephone 

 lines and lookout stations, and that the efforts 

 of the commission should be exerted toward 

 the construction and esablishment of the same 

 as rapidly as consistent. 



Ninth, the appalling sacrifice of life and the 

 continued great loss of state and private prop- 

 erty resulting from fires in our forest area 

 are^ a disgrace to our civilization and a most 

 serious drain upon our natural resources, and 

 we believe that the expenditure of such 

 amount as may be necessary to prevent these 

 losses is fully justified. 



We therefore recommend that the appropri- 

 ations by the state legislature to maintain 

 forest protection should be sufficient to pro- 

 vide for a forest patrolman for each forty 

 thousand acres requiring prtection, as well as 

 for the expenses necessary to successfully 

 carry out all of the measures suggested by 

 these resolutions. 



We recommend in addition to the patrol sys- 

 tem an auxiliary county fire fighting force to 

 be appointed by and under the direction of the 

 commissioner, to be paid by the state and 

 chareed hack to the county. Such expense ul- 

 timately to be borne by the counties or towns 

 in which the fires occur. 



Resolved, that as it is shown by statistics 

 that there are a large number of fires set each 

 season through the carelesssness of the genera! 



public, including campers, fishermen, hunters 

 and others, we reccmmend that a campaign of 

 education be carried on energetically through 

 every possible channel, to the end that this 

 hazard be reduced through a better under- 

 standing of forest conditions by all the people. 

 The proceedings of the meeting are being 

 oublished in book form and copies may be ob- 

 tained at small cost by addressing J. E. 

 Rhodes, National German-American Bank 

 Building, St. Paul, Minn. 



(CONTINUED NEXT MONTH). 



STANTON CITIZENS ENTHUSIASTIC. 



Stanton, Montcalm county, has made fine 

 progress in good road work during the past 

 three years and is without question far in ad- 

 vance of any other town in that section of the 

 state in road improvement. 



Six miles of state reward gravel road haxe 

 been completed, three miles running directly 

 west and three miles north from the city, and 

 they are as fine roads as can be found in the 

 state. The citizens of Stanton. by personal 

 subscription, have donated, in cash and mate- 

 rial, for these roads more than $2,000, the 

 farmers along the roads contributing the rest. 



In additfon to this, the city itself has built 

 during the same period more than two miles 

 of the same kind of gravel road inside the 

 city limits, so that within three years .more 

 than eight miles of fine gravel road have been 

 built in and adjacent to the city. 



Much of the good work accomplished in 

 road building should be credited to the energy 

 and hard work of Mayor M. W. Stevenson, 

 who during his four years of office has been 

 an enthusiastic and -untiring worker for good 

 roads, and has been largely instrumental in 

 arousing and keeping alive the sentiment in 

 favor of the improvement. 



CONNECTING LINK MAY BE BUILT. 



At an important meeting of the board of 

 supervisors of Baraga countv, a petition was 

 considered, the ultimate result of which mny 

 be the construction of the connecting link ; n 

 the iron-copper country highway, which ha<- 

 long been hoped for hv all upper peninsula 

 motorists. It appears that it would onlv be 

 necessary to construct twelve miles of mad 

 from Nestoria west to the east line of Coving- 

 ton township there is a road to Ontonaeon hv 

 a continuous passable highway from Munisin<r 

 to Ontonagon. There is now a roadway from 

 Munising to Marquette and from Marquette to 

 Nestoria. while from the ea c t line of Coving- 

 ton township, Baraga county, in order to have 

 way o* Sidnaw. 



township will vote bonds and carry out the ' 

 proposed road improvement, which means two 

 fine highways from Detroit to Mt. Clemens. 



ANOTHER MAN CONVINCED. 



"I have always been against bond issues, but 

 this time I am not. I am in favor of good 

 roads. Everyone is in favor of them. The dif- 

 ference of opinion is on the method of getting 

 them. 



"T look at it this way: We are certain to have 

 good roads if not now at some very near fu- 

 ture day and from the outlook for next year I 

 think it wise to get the roads now. We have a 

 good commission and the money will be judi- 

 ciously spent." J. E. Udd, Crystal Falls, Iron 

 county. 



MORE CONCRETE ROADS. 



By agreement of the Macomb county super- 

 visors in special session on a division of Er^ 

 township, about seven miles of new concrete 

 pavement on the lake shore road and six 

 miles on the Gratiot road are practically as- 

 sured. Erin township is divided by a north 

 and south line and that part bordering the 

 lake _shore will be known as Lake township 

 and includes all the summering places along 

 the lake. 



The township once voted to bond for road 

 building, but the vote was declared illegal on 

 a technicality. People of the western part of 

 the township opposed the improvement, but 

 it is now very probable that the new Lake 



MARQUETTE'S EXCELLENT WORK. 



The Marquette County Road Commission has 

 made a report in full detail of the work since its 

 organization, in 1905, with separate mention of 

 the work done during 1910. The report repre- 

 sents considerable clerical effort and clearly ex- 

 plains where every cent that the commission has 

 received has been expended. 



The total expenditures of the commission 

 amount to $162,807.50, ovei $41,000 of which was 

 during 1910. 



The commission has purchased and now owns 

 the following equipment: Two ten-ton steam 

 road rollers, one portable small crusher, one 

 twenty-four h. p. portable boiler with engine, one 

 600-gallon sprinkling wagon, one reversible road 

 machine, twelve wheel scrapers, two plows, six 

 dray scrapers, four spreading wagons, two dump 

 wagons, twelve steel wheelbarrows, one No. 

 Rand drill, one No. 1 Murphy air hammer drill, 

 two portable forges, two anvils, one large porta- 

 ble crusher, one air compressor, one air receiver, 

 one 22 h. p. hauling engine, four spreading cars, 

 two motors, one switch, one auto wagon, one 

 ditch scraper, one snow roller, three road drags, 

 small tools, lumber and camp outfit, etc 

 What Was Done in 1910. 



What is known as the Witch Lake road is an 

 earth road, two and three-fourths miles long, and 

 extends from the Michigamme river northerly to 

 the west side of Witch Lake. The bridge ovei 

 the Michigamme river on this road crosses the 

 county line and was built of re-enforced concrete 

 each county paying half the cost. This bridge 

 consists of two arches, each having a clear spar 

 of forty-five feet, and the roadway is sixteen 

 feet wide. Its total cost was $4,147.16. The total 

 cost of the Witch Lake road improvement, in- 

 cluding half the cost of the bridge, was $8,786.60. 

 With the exception of the bridge, the road was 

 built by contract by Gust Fredeen, of Norway. 



The earth road west of Ishpeming is 2,083 

 miles long and was built by Mr. Fredeen at a 

 total cost of $5,099.20. 



The Humboldt-Republic road is now in pro- 

 cess of construction. Contracts have been let; 

 for three small re-enforced concrete culverts and 

 the bridges have been built at a total cost of : 

 $1,926.50. A wooden bridge, crossing the outlet 

 of Lake Laurie, will be built in the spring, wood! 

 being used because it is located in a swamp j 

 where the cost of permanent abutments would 

 be large. 



Contract has been let to Zeno & Johnson, of 

 Chatham, for building one and a third miles be- 

 tween the Marquette line and Skandia, to unite, 

 with the Alger county road to Munising. The 

 estimated cost of this road is $4,000, and it must! 

 be completed by July 1 of this year. 



On the Harvey-Green Garden road 3.81 miles 

 has been macadamized. The average haul from 

 the quarry was 3.85 miles and the cost of finished 

 macadam" in place was $7,189 per mile. This cost 

 includes all preparatory work, such as building 

 a temporary road out from the quarry, opening 

 quarry, etc. Bridges and culverts on this road 

 cost $3,028.67, and grading $2,052, making the to- 

 tal cost of the road $32,457.14. 



Operation of Quarry. 



The total cost of operating the quarry last 

 year was $9,558.08, and as 10,745 cubic yards of 

 rock were put through the crusher, the average 

 cost per cubic yard of the crushed rock was 

 $.9127. The crusher was operated 152 days, dur- 

 ing which time there was lost in short delays a 

 total of fifty-two and a half days. Most of this 

 delay was caused by enough teams not being 

 available to haul away the rock as rapidly as it 

 was put through the crusher. 



The largest telephone exchange building in 

 the world is to be erected by the New York 

 Telephone Company, a subsidiary of the Bell 

 interests. The site will cost $2,000,000, the 1 

 building will be 25 stories high. 



