MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



GOOD ROADS COMMISSION WILL 

 BRIDGE THE MONGUAGON RIVER 



Lifting Out the Pipes Which Proved Inadequate. 



Wayne county's good roads commission is 

 building an iron bridge, 27 feet long and 18 

 feet roadway, over the Monguagon creek, be- 

 tween Wyandotte and Trenton. This bridge 

 will replace the two six-foot tubes that were 

 placed under the road about four years ago at 

 a cost of $2,300, the bill for which was set- 

 tled this spring by a payment of $1,000. Every 

 spring the waters of the creek have backed up 

 and overflowed many acres of land because 



the two six-feet outlets were not of sufficient 

 size to carry away the water. On one occasion 

 last spring the water was five feet higher be- 

 hind the bridge than toward the Detroit river. 

 The county roads commission will expend 

 about $1,000 in making the improvement. 



The bridge pictured herewith is used by the 

 Wyandotte cars to reach Trenton. One of the 

 large tubes, which will be replaced by a water- 

 way, is also shown. 



EARLE RETAINED AS PRESIDENT. 



The first annual meeting of the National 

 Convict Labor Good Roads Association was 

 held at Grand Rapids, Mich., July 22 and 23. 

 President Earle, in his annual address, said 

 that the membership of the association is now 

 500 and is growing steadily. George Clapper- 

 ton, of Grand Rapids, in his talk paid a high 

 compliment to Michigan's highway commis- 

 sioner, Horatio S. Earle. "Fifty years from 

 now, when he is dead and gone, someone will 

 be asking us for a penny apiece to build a 

 monument to the memory of the man who 

 started the good roads movement in Michi- 

 gan," said Mr. 'Clapperton. "If we're going to 

 build him any monuments I'm in favor of 

 building them now while he can see and appre- 

 ciate them." 



H. H. Gross, president of the Farmers' Good 

 Roads League, said, among other things: "The 

 country needs a larger debt. We ought to 

 spend hundreds and hundreds of millions in 

 internal improvements that would bring us 

 back ten dollars in increased valuation for 

 every dollar we put in." 



He advocated the issuance of $400.000,000 of 

 bonds by the government for aiding good 

 roads, apportioning the money among the 

 states according to population and miles of 

 roads. New York would get $25,000,000 and 

 Michigan $14,000,000. 



"It would cost each man, woman and child 

 just one and one-eighth cents," said he. 



He spoke about the campaign for good roads 

 in Illinois, saying he had been asked if he 

 would tax the homes of the widow and wash- 

 erwoman for good roads. 



"I certainly would," he said. "Her tax would 

 amount to about 13 or 14 cents a year, and she 

 would get that back in the extra tax she now 

 has to pay to the grocer for butter and eggs 

 every time the roads are bad and the farmer 

 cannot get to town with the product." 



Congressman Diekcman, Deputy Highway 

 Commissioner of Michigan; F. F. Rogers, A. N. 

 Johnson. State Engineer of Illinois; H. S. 

 Karle, C. C. Rosenbury. Bay City; E. W. 

 Mines, Detroit, Prof. W. O. Hotchkiss. Madi- 



son, Wis.; Hon. P. T. Colgrove, Hastings; J. 

 W. Bradford, Manistee; Royal J. Taylor, Che- 

 boygan; Hon. Curtis Hill, State Engineer of 

 Missouri, were among the other speakers. 



The resolutions adopted, Commend the 

 county road system for its value to farmers 

 and merchants; recommend the employment 

 of convicts in preparing road material; favor 

 state and national aid, recommending its in- 

 crease as the localities affected increase; com- 

 mend Mr. Earle's work as highway commis- 

 sioner; recommend that the government should 

 pay a substantial part of the expense of put- 

 ting rural mail routes in good shape as soon 

 as the localities through which they run take 

 action. 



Edward Hines, of Detroit, presented the re- 

 port of the nominating committee, indorsing 

 the following officers, and it carried: President, 

 Horatio S. Earle, Detroit; First Vice-President. 

 Isaac B. Potter, New York; Second Vice-Presi- 

 dent, Curtis Hill, Columbia, Mo.; Third Vice- 

 President, A. N. Johnson, Springfield. 111.; Sec- 

 retary, F. W. Boughton, Grand Rapids; Treas- 

 urer, The Michigan Trust Company, Grand 

 Rapids. 



ROAD NOTES. 



^ The village of Grosse Pointe Farms, Wayne 

 County, has voted bonds to the amount of 

 $39,000 for the purpose of improving the 

 Kerby, Moran and Moross roads in that town- 

 ship. 



The work of rebuilding the Baraga County 

 mad from L'Anse to Baraga has been com- 

 pleted. The county has a new rock crusher 

 that, is- doing, excellent work. Plans are being 

 made to secure a large supply of stone from 

 farmers in the county which will be crushed 

 during the winter, and next year all of the 

 roads in the county will be improved. 



The work of improving Oceana county roads 

 is progressing satisfactorily. Most of the work 

 out of Shelby has been put on the stretch of 

 about two miles to the Peter Roth corners. 

 This is a stone road. It has been an especially 

 heavy stretch of road. One man said, before 

 the improvement of the highway was begun, 

 that if heaven were located on the road there 

 would be few people get there because of its- 

 condition. 



GOOD ROADS FOR TUSCOLA. 



Frank E. Rice, of Millington, is circulating 

 petitions for the submission of the question of 

 the county good roads system to the voters of 

 Tuscola county next April. He is meeting 

 with good success, nearly every man ap- 

 proached signing the petition with little argu- 

 ment. 



Mr. Rice is an enthusiast on the subject, and 

 has a right to be, for he supervised most 

 folks say he built the seven miles of state 

 reward roads of which Millington boasts. His 

 township voted against the adoption of the 

 proposed good roads district which was in- 

 tended to provide a good road across the 

 county, but this proposition is different, and 

 Mr. Rice says he believes the people of his 

 township will heartily favor it. 



Business men of Escanaba and Gladstone 

 have called a halt on the Delta county road 

 commissioners, and the improvement of the 

 Bay Shore road of that county is held up tem- 

 porarily at least. The commission has decided 

 to have the consulting engineer of the state 

 highway commission consult with County En- 

 gineer D. A. Brotherton and some other en- 

 gineer, and the three will then make some 

 recommendation as to the best methods of 

 handling the bay shore road so that the pro- 

 posed improvements will be permanent. 



Higgins township, Roscommon county, has 

 the good roads fever and will vote next month 

 on a proposition to bond for $10,000 to build 

 state reward roads, 



T. A. Farrand is circulating a petition in 

 Van Buren county, asking for the submission 

 to the voters of that country the question of 

 bringing it into the county road system. 



Coldwater township. Branch count}-, is mak- 

 ing a splendid highway out of the Marshall 

 road, and "while the work is not yet completed 

 enough has been done to demonstrate the gen- 

 eral character of the work. The road has been: 

 not only widened in some places, but it has 

 been given a good crown so that it will shed 

 the water, and one of the bad hills cut down 

 considerably. With this improvement com- 

 pleted the direct road to Girard will be in ex- 

 cellent condition, and this stretch, together 

 with that part of the Union City road which 

 Girard township recently built past Morison's 

 Lake on to Reed's Corners, are splendid exam- 

 ples of the kind of roads Branch county should 

 have in all townships. 



The highway commissioners in the vicinity 

 of Vassar, Tuscola county, have an excellent 

 bed of gravel at their disposition. An island 

 of wash gravel has formed in the river half a 

 mile above Vassar, which contains many thou- 

 sand yards of the pebbles. With a short pon- 

 toon bridge teams could be driven from either 

 shore on to the island and wagons loaded 

 direct, with an easy grade to the banks. It 

 would be impossible to find any cleaner or 

 better gravel for road purposes, as every par- 

 ticle of sand or soil has been washed out of it. 



The Eastern Michigan Edison Company has 

 begun the work of reforesting its lands in Wash- 

 tenaw county. The company is setting out 200,000 

 red oak and white pine trees along the flowage 

 rights on the Huron river. 



John Parks, Henry Parks and Onezime Dion 

 of Lake Linden, William Ethier, Henry Garon 

 and Sam Magret of Hubbell, and several other 

 timber speculators are on their way to the Pa- 

 cific coast where they expect to pick up large 

 tracts of standing timber. 



