MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



11 



Lake Superior 



Genuine 



TRAP ROCK 



F'or Road Making and Fireproof Con- 

 crete. 



Rail and Lake Shipments. 



Write for prices. 



MARQUETTE STONE CO., 

 Marquette, Mich. 



ROAD BUILDERS WANTED. 



Many different localities throughout Michi- 

 gan are writing the State Highway Depart- 

 ment, asking for names and addresses of con- 

 tractors and practical road builders who can 

 and will enter into a contract, or will take 

 charge of and superintend the building of 

 state roads. All persons who desire to make 

 contracts, or wish to be employed as super- 

 intendents, should send their names and ad- 

 dresses to the State Highway Department, 

 Lansing, Mich. 



Best Road Material 



OUR HOBBY 



Crushed Granite and Gravel 



SCREENED TO SUIT 



WRITE US 



THE HENRY MERDIAN CO., 



43-44 Peninsular Bank Building, 

 Phone Main 6251 DETROIT 



WHAT IS A GOOD ROAD? 



Discussing the question, "What Is a Good 

 Road?" F. E. Rice, of Millington, who has 

 helped to build some Tuscola county good 

 roads, says: 



In the light of twentieth century require- 

 ments, a good road must have the following 

 features 



First, it must be smooth and remain so. im- 

 posing the least possible resistance to traffic. 



Second, the material composing it must be 

 lasting and not affected injuriously by rain or 

 frost 



Third, it must be good and usable at all 

 times. 



A road that is good at certain seasons only. 

 and bad at others in varying degrees depend- 

 ing upon weather conditions cannot be classed 

 as a good road even if it be so at times. Such 

 a road has only the virtues of a balky horse. 

 It cannot be depended upon and it more than 

 likely fails when it is most needed. 



Practically speaking, a good road good 

 every day in the year is a road surfaced with 

 macadam or gravel. These are the only ma- 

 terials that are sharp enough to be generally 

 used. A macadam road is usually more ex- 

 pensive than one made of gravel, but it is cor- 

 respondingly better, the crushed rock being 

 angular in form and more uniform in size, if 

 the road is properly made, requires less re- 

 pairing, wears belter, shells water better and 

 lasts longer, although the sand gravel with 

 the sand sifted out M> that it will test !)() per 

 cent of pebbles of the proper size will con- 

 solidate and make a more lasting road than 

 the lime stone macadam. 



The material of which a road should be 

 built depends largely upon the cost and ac- 

 cessibility of materials. In a general discus- 

 sion of the subject of good roads, stone or 

 gravel roads are meant unless otherwise 

 specified. 



Farth roads carefully drained and properly 

 dragged after each rain ran be kept in good 

 condition much of the time. Such highways 

 cannot be regarded as good roads as they 

 periodically fail. 



The road from Millington village two and 

 three-quarter miles west to the town line, 

 built three years ago, has never received one 

 dollar'-; worth of repairs in the form of ma- 

 terial, simply a little floating in of the edges 

 at intervals during the rainy season and in 

 good condition at this writing this is classed 

 as a "good road." 



A layer of stone or gravel upon a roadway 

 serves two purposes. First, to resist the wear 

 of passing wheels and animals. Second, it 

 serves as a roof over the earth to keep it dry 

 and firm. A hard road, to be serviceable, must 

 be \vatertight and shed the rain. Therefore 

 the roof must be crowned, that is. high in the 

 middle and sloping gently cither way, so that 

 the water falling on the roadway will quickly 

 drain off. If tiie road is too flat to readily 

 shed the water, or there are low places where 

 the water stands, or, in other words, "if the 

 roof leaks." the road breaks up and goes t 

 pieces. 



Use gravel with a large content of pebbles. 

 The only thing that makes a gravel road bet- 

 ter than an earth road is the pebbles (real 

 -tones) which it contains. Therefore, use 



sand enough to fill the voids between the 

 jebbles, and you will have a road that will 

 stand with only a small cost for repairs. 



With good roads the farmers live better, 

 dress better, go out more, are better buyers 

 and more liberal spenders. 



The city resident lives upon the products 

 if the farm, and he wants an adequate supply 

 regularly and at reasonable prices. With bad 

 roads this is impossible. A shortage occurs 

 and up go the prices. 



The middlemen make a strkc speculating 

 upon such conditions. 



Let us have good roads. 



BETTER ROADS MUST BE BUILT. 



A good roads enthusiast in New York state 

 takes Governor Hughes to task on his recom- 

 mendation to 'the legislature that motor ve- 

 hicles be required to pay a big license tax, 

 to be devoted to road maintenance. The gov- 

 ernor says, after pointing out that so!) miles 

 of state roads were constructed last year: 

 "The difficulty of maintaining our highways 

 has been so largely increased by the use of 

 motor vehicles that I recommend for your 

 consideration the advisability of imposing a 

 substantial license tax for the privilege of 

 operating motor vehicles within the state, the 

 proceeds to be devoted to highway repair." 



It is pointed out that the motor car is be- 

 coming a big factor even in farm life. Farm- 

 ers are becoming the principal buyers of mo- 

 tor vehicles, because the economy of such 

 vehicles is apparent where time saved in bring- 

 ing light produce to market or in going to 

 town for supplies is worth money. 



The governor's critic concludes: "As motor 

 cars are already used extensively on state 

 roads by commuters and summer residents, 

 and by physicians, salesmen and other pro- 

 fessional men who have dealings with farm- 

 ers, and as, further, there is a prospect of an 

 agricultural revival which would make the 

 farmer also an automobile user, the real prob- 

 lem is not how to get revenue for road re- 

 pairing, but how to build durable roads at 

 a reasonable cost. The state is now invest- 

 ing millions in new highways. It would be 

 a pity if these are to be no better suited to 

 the growing automobile traffic than the barge 

 canal will be to modern commercial needs 

 if, in other words, they are to be obsolete as 

 soon as finished." 



This problem confronts the highway com- 

 misioners in every state in the Union. Roads 

 should be built that will stand the automobile 

 traffic. 



FAVOR CHEAP ROADS. 



Important street improvement is already be- 

 ing planned by the board of public works of 

 Grand Rapids for this spring and if the wishes 

 of Members Christ and Widdicomb are 

 adopted by the board radical changes will be 

 made in the method of construction of all 

 gravel streets that are to be laid in the future. 



The two members have gone on record as 

 favoring a cheaper grade of construction for 

 second-class gravid street work. They favor a 

 thinner top course of gravel than has been 

 used by City Engineer Anderson in the past 

 and base their contention on the ground that 

 where such streets are laid the construction 

 should be in accordance with the traffic that 



9 expected to pas over and not build the road 

 ilong the same lines where traffic would be 

 icavier and demanding a better grade of con- 

 struction. 



Members Christ and Widdicomb believe 

 that all second-class gravel streets should con- 

 form to the property before which they are 

 .aid. consequently a thinned top course of 

 gravel would be sufficient to adequately care 

 tor the traffic it would accommodate. 



Opposition to this plan is made by the city 

 engineer. He is of the opinion that w.ere he 

 a small wage earner he would seek to have 

 the best paving or street improvement work 

 laid before his property that was possible to 

 secure. He would not desire a thinly coated 

 gravel street which would have a tendency to 

 rut deeply when the wet spring season arrived, 

 causing the road to go to pieces. 



THE OLD NILES HIGHWAY. 



The old Niles and Kalamazoo road was the 

 main artery over which the great emigration 

 from east to west passed in southern Michigan 

 in the years from the early '30's up to the 

 building of the Michigan Central in 1S4S. It 

 followed the present territorial road from 

 Kalamazoo to Paw Paw, where Daniel O. 

 Dodge had established a mill and a hotel; 

 thence to Charleston on Little Prairie, where 

 Jonathan Goble had established a hotel called 

 the Brown Eagle, and where there were two 

 stores and a blacksmith shop run by the father 

 of Mrs. Fred Corber, of Dowagiac; thence into 

 Wayne by Selah Pickett's hotel at the present 

 Mann's corners; thence by James McOmber's 

 hotel in the north part of the 'present Do- 

 wagiac; thence across the raging Dowaginc 

 where the present bridge now stands, near the 

 Carl Hentschel place, and on by Summerville 

 to X'iles. 



Deeds of property in this days were bounded 

 by this road, and it was a sandy, lonesome 

 thoroughfare, especially in the night, as the 

 forest trees came clear to its borders and 

 the howl of the wolf and the hooting of the 

 o.vl could be heard its whole length. In the 

 daytime one encountered the old-fashioned 

 stage coach at almost every turn, and the 

 little hotels usually showed life and hospi- 

 tality. 



It was no easy task to hew out this road, 

 and the Dowagiac Herald has a record of 

 the clearing of one section of it, at least, that 

 part from the Dowagiac river to the placid 

 Peavine, a distance of three miles. This was 

 cleared in 1:!4. under the direction of Rich 

 McCay. then highway commissioner. Robin- 

 son J. Dickson. then eleven years old, his 

 brother Fd., about fourteen years old: Joseph 

 Stretch and his son John and Henry; Bill 

 Taylor and John Clifton all dead now ex- 

 cept Robinson J. Dickson started in one 

 morning in is:>,4 at the Peavine and cut the 

 underbrush all the way from there to Do- 

 wagiac, getting done at sunset. There was 

 no bridge across either creek, and, owing to 

 the fact that fires ran over the openings every 

 year, there were but few trees. 



They cut the road sixteen feet wide, and 

 ate their dinner on the way, and there was 

 not a house from Mitchell Robinson's, across 

 the Peavine, from where they started, to Jim 

 M c( (mlier'.s hotel a mile this side of the Do- 



