10 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



I F YOU WA NT 



BUILD 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Dumping and Spreading Wagons 



AND ROLL 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Road Roller. 



[Write us for Ways to Save Money in Road Building. 



Port Huron Engine 6 Thresher Co. 



Port Huron, Mich. 



$90,000 WANTED FOR ROADS. 



A petition, signed by a large number of tin- 

 principal taxpayers, was presented to the Al- 

 ger county board of supervisors asking the 

 board to call a special election, at which shall 

 be submitted to a vote of the people a propo- 

 sition to bond the county for the sum of 

 $90,000, the proceeds to be used for county 

 road purposes. 



This money is required chiefly to improve 

 the county's trunk highway, from Munising 

 to Chatham, which needs macadamizing in 

 order that it may become more than barely 

 passable, as it now is, because of the obstacle 

 presented in the shape of mile after mile of 

 deep sand. 



$20,000,000 FOR ROAD WORK. 



Members of the legislative committee of the 

 State Good Roads Association will submit a 

 proposition to the legislature of Washington 

 to amend the constitution, authorizing the 

 state to issue bonds of $20,000,000 for state 

 road work. The purpose is to complete as 

 rapidly as posible the various road projects 

 now under way. If the bond issue meets with 

 opposition, the legislature will be urged to 

 increase the levy for the highway fund to 

 one mill. 



DELTA'S ROAD WORK. 



County road work in Delta county has a 

 fair start, but is yet only in its infancy. Dur- 

 ing the past three years considerable work 

 has been done, and several fine stretches of 

 macadam are the result. With the interest 

 that has been aroused and the great amount 

 of satisfaction that the roads already ma- 

 cadamized have given, the work is not likely 

 to stop, and it is expected that within several 

 years the county will be traversed fr6m north 

 to south and from east to west with fine ma- 

 cadam roads. The present plans of the road 

 commissioners contemplate the completion of 

 the macadamizing of the road leading south 

 to Menominee county and north to Marquette 

 county, also the macadamizing of a road from 

 Masonville township north to Alger county 

 and east to Schoolcraft. 



IMPORTANT ROAD -BUILDING WORK. 



One of the biggest road undertakings ever 

 authorized in Menominee county was started 

 late last fell and will be continued this year 

 and possibly the following year by Crawford 

 & Sons nf Cedar River, who were awarded a 

 contract to build a macadam highway from 

 Stephenson to Cedar River. The work is ex- 



pected to cover a period of three years, 

 or at least the contractors will receive their 

 remuneration in three separate installments. 

 The "work done this year was principally that 

 of opening up new rights-of-ways through the 

 woods in order that some long bends in the 

 highway may be taken out. These changes 

 will cut out several miles of the distance be- 

 tween the two communities and will also open 

 up some new farming districts. The macadam 

 work will be started early in the spring. The 

 road formerly in use was on old turnpike. An 

 immense amount of material will be needed to 

 give the highway a good body, as it traverses 

 some of the heaviest swamp lands in the 

 countyi 



PREPARING FOR YEAR'S WORK. 



Wexford County Road Commissioners Chas. 

 K. Haynes, of Cadillac; Fred Usewick, of 

 Aiuioch, and Edgar Stanclift, of Boon, are 

 putting in much time this winter preparing the 

 profiles of the work to be done on four state 

 award roads the coming spring and summer. 

 As soon as weather conditions permit the 

 work will be taken up on the roads in the 

 hope of getting it all done next season, which 

 the commissioners have no doubt they will be 

 able to do. It is a matter of much interest 

 that at the spring session of the board of su- 

 pervisors the road commissioners will be 

 elected for terms of five, four and three years. 

 Because of his experience and thorough 

 knowledge on the question of good roads it 

 seems already settled that Mr. Haynes will be 

 re-elected, and for the five-year term. Messrs. 

 Usewick and Stanclift also ought to be re- 

 elected. 



GOOD ROADS ENTHUSIAST. 



What is believed to be one of the finest 

 pieces of roads built under the state highway 

 appropriation plan, has just been completed by 

 George Klank, a prosperous farmer, who re- 

 sides near Sparta, Kent county. He has fin- 

 ished a strip of road', one and one-half miles 

 ling, running south from Grandville avenue in 

 Grand Rapids, that is considered the finest 

 specimen of road and the best illustration of 

 up-to-date road-building to be found anywhere 

 in Western Michigan. The new road, which 

 is known as the Clyde Park avenue road, is of 

 clay and gravel construction and compares 

 very favorably with the roads that are being 

 built in Grand Rapids under municipal super- 

 vision. In fact, it is considered equal to the 

 average city street that is not paved. 



Mr. Klank is a wealthy farmer of Sparta 



and has developed the idea that he can suc- 

 ceed in greatly improving the road conditions 

 in this part of the state by giving his personal 

 attention to such work. He will resume his 

 road-building operations in the spring and 

 with the fine record he has so far established 

 expects to increase the reputation of Grand 

 Rapids and Western Michigan for its high- 

 ways. 



PREFERS GRAVEL ROADS. 



.Mason county has lung prided herself on 

 her splendid stone roads, and justly so. Mani- 

 stee's stone roads have been held up as an 

 example to pattern after at every good roads 

 meeting- in Michigan. Stone roads being a 

 sort of fetich, it is little wonder that Super- 

 visor Squires, of Sheridan, caused a sensation 

 at the January meeting of the board of super- 

 visors by presenting a resolution that the 

 building of stone roads in Manistee coun:\' 

 be abandoned. He argued that they are of 

 too expensive construction; that they are too 

 short-lived, and that gravel roads should be 

 built instead of stone roads. There is an 

 abundance of gravel in Manistee county, and 

 the cost of road building would be cut in 

 two if gravel highways were constructed in- 

 stead of stone. 



TURNS DOWN COUNTY ROADS. 



The board of supervisors of Oakland county 

 has refused to submit the County Road Sys- 

 uiii to tlu- taxpayers. It is said that flaws 

 were found in two of the petitions. The su- 

 pervisors as a whole are opposed to the 

 County Road System and a correspondent says 

 that their pleasure was manifest when the re- 

 port of the committee which was appointed to 

 scrutinize the petitions reported that there 

 were flaws in two of them. The advocates of 

 good roads will see to it that the next peti- 

 tions are so absolutely perfect that the board 

 will be compelled to allow the taxpayers to 

 decide the question for themselves. 



Branch county will vote on the adoption 



i if the county road system in April. 



The business interests of Saginaw, after 

 careful deliberation and discussion, have rec- 

 ommended to the Board of Supervisors of 

 Saginaw county that a road tax of $3 per 

 $1.000 of assessed valuation be levied for the 

 next three years. If the board acquiesces, the 

 lax levied will be sufficient to complete Sagi- 

 naw's stone roads. 



