MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



WAYNE COUNTY ROADS, 



Roads in Dearborn and Springwells Township. 



State Highway Commissioner Earle standing in the ruts of Wayne 

 County's (Good Enough?) roads. Jim Pound said "The roads of Wayne 

 county are good enough." before the council committee. He spoke for 

 .\Ia\or Thompson and others. 



Detroit holds out a great inducement to farmers to stay away from 

 Detroit and buy their goods of the Chicago mail order houses. 



Woodhouse cigar and tobacco wagon and other teams turn into the 

 fields to avoid being drowned in the roads leading into the city of Detroit. 



Kalkaska county has good roads and has a valuation of less than 

 four millions, Wayne county has a hundred times more valuation and 

 a hundred times worse roads. 



Michigan 



State, Highway 



Department 



Wayne County roads, as they arc and ever shall be provided Mayor 

 Thompson has his way. 



'icmgen^ 



Highway 



De-partmenf' 



As Wayne county roads shall be if State Highway Commissioner 

 Earle has his way. 



Washington Was for Good Roads. 



(ienrge Washington, in addition to being the 

 'Father of the Country," was also the father 

 of the good roads movement in the United 

 Stales. He began the advocacy of good roads 

 as far back as 17(i(). and he never ceased to 

 urge the building of good roads. He blazed 

 trail for one from the Potomac to the Ohio, 

 and Hoisted in the building of what was 

 known as Kraddock's road. In 1802, three 

 years after Washington's death, congress 

 pas-ed a succession of laws looking to the im- 

 provement of the young nation's highways, es- 

 pecially those to the great lakes and the Ohio 

 valley region. 



Accordingly, the first stone road was built: 

 it was known as the National road, and 

 stretched from Cumberland, Md., the head of 

 navigation on the Potomac, to the upper Ohio. 

 It was extended onward to Columbus, O., In- 



dianapolis, Terre Haute, and Vandalia, then 

 the capital of Illinois. 



West of Wheeling, a less expensive method 

 than that of crushed stone was used. In 1821 

 the construction westward was stopped, owing 

 to political opposition. For many years the 

 government kept the road in shape, but grad- 

 ually it was relinquished to state and county 

 control. It is now, west of Wheeling, nothing 

 more than an ordinary road, but the east sec- 

 tion remains a fine, wide, crushed stone thor- 

 oughfare. 



Jackson's Stone Supply. 



W. 1" .Ward, of Jackson, says that the lime 

 rock beds in Jackson county will yield from 

 li.ooo.ooo to 0,000,000 cubic yards of crushed 

 stone, which would furnish enough crushed 

 stone for every street in Jackson county. 



There are also immense beds of gravel that 

 ought to be used when only a short haul to 

 the road. 



The city ought to purchase a quarry and a 

 crusher, the cost of which would not exceed 

 $10,000, in order to get their stone crushed by 

 convict labor. 



The state could erect a temporary building, 

 one to accommodate, say twenty-five men, to 

 begin with. As the quarry would not last to 

 exceed five years, the building should be so 

 planned that it could be removed and set up 

 at the next quarry. The total expense to the 

 state would he less than $10,000. 



There is need for a great deal of good roads 

 work in Branch county, and in Clinton county 

 as well. This spring the roads leading out of 

 Coldwater and those leading out of St. Johns 

 have been almost impassable. 



