MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



11 



A M ERJC AN 



This brand on 

 every sheet. 



None genuine 



without this 



brand 



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To those 9O.OOO Taxpayers who want a 



Road Culvert Which Can Not Rust 



'"TH ROUGH the Agricultural Dep't at Washington, you have made a demand 



for a rust-resisting material, which you can use for roofing, road culverts, and 



agricultural purposes. Engineers and Chemists the world over endorse American 



Ingot Iron as the material you have asked for, and Ingot Iron Pipe as the culvert. 



You owe it to yourself to investigate the product resulting from your own demand. 



Write for information regarding Ingot Iron Pipe, the culvert which can not 



rust, collapse, or he injured by the frost. Address, 



MICH. BRIDGE & PIPE CO., 



Dept. T. LANSING, MICHIGAN 



Kalkaska County's Good Roads Camp, established by the County Road Commissioners, and which greatly 

 facilitates the building of state reward roads in that county. Courtesy Hon. Frank Hamilton, road commissioner 

 Grand Traverse County. 



men will dear the hundreds of acres about 

 llonghton and Higgins lakes. While the saws 

 are tearing into plank-, the la.-t timber in the 

 Missaukee-Roscommon country, Xels Michael- 

 *on's city will spring up amid the jack pines. 

 Streets will appear where there are only sur- 

 ir's stakes today. There will be railroad 

 yards and a depot. Inducement* will be held 

 forth to homesteaders to come in and culti- 

 vate the land behind the woodsmen. 



The new city of Michaelson lies in the cen- 

 ter of a circle of almost trackless wilderness 

 and .stump lands fifty miles in diameter. The 

 Michaelson mill brought the railroad to this 

 center. Next it will lead to a village, a town 

 and a city. With this market and its railway 

 and postal facilities at the very center, the 

 sixty-two mile circle of free farm lands will 

 be the logical place of pioneer settlement in 

 the lower peninsula. 



The territory upon which Michaelson will 

 depend for its support is little known out- 

 Mde the few sportsmeli who penetrate the fast- 

 5es of the Houghton and Higgins lake 

 country in search of shooting and fishing 

 grounds. It lies almost in the center of the 

 upper half of the lower peninsula of Michigan, 

 practically on the ridge of the great divide 

 between the watersheds of the Muskcgon, 

 which flows westward into Lake Michigan, 

 and the Au Sable, which lead- eastward into 

 Lake Huron. 



It i* one of the traditions of thi* fine coun- 

 iry that in one of its swamps two streams 

 find their source in the basin of a little spring- 

 hardly six feet in dameter. One of these tiny 

 stream* flows to the east and one to the west. 

 Hach join's with the larger streams, and tin- 

 water of the same spring goes both toward 

 the rising and setting sun. and is divided im- 

 partially in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, 

 at points nearly three hundred miles apart. 

 (Irand Rapids Press. 



WHEN WILL THEY WAKE UP? 



The last report to be issued by former State 

 Highway Commissioner Horatio S. Earle 

 shows that counties in the northern section of 

 Michigan are taking the most active interest 

 in the good ruads movement, and are conse- 

 quently getting the bulk of the rewards made 

 by the state. Incidentally the richer and more 

 densely populated southern counties pay the 

 bigger portion. This is because the southern 

 counties are chary of their road taxes, and arc- 

 doing but little road building in proportion to 

 their wealth and population, when compared 

 with the northern counties. Not because the 

 roads are not needed in the southern part of 

 the state; they are much more so than in 

 the northern portion. But the southern coun- 

 ties already have roads to all parts of the coun- 

 ties, and if they are not the best of roads and 

 are only passable for a part of the year, it is 

 the policy of the officers to make them do 

 rather than increase the taxes and jeopardi/c 

 their offices by building new ones. 



The northern counties, on the other hand, 

 have the problem of building new roads con- 

 stantly before them, and have been quick to 

 see the advantage offered them by the state 

 reward system and profit by it. They are 

 building good roads that will lasi for all time, 

 if properly cared for. and getting back from 

 the state about one-third of the cost of their 

 highway-. 



Take for comparison the cases of Wayne 

 and Saginaw counties. The assessed valuation 

 of Wayne at the time of the report was $297.- 

 4 :>:>. :>(;<;. That of Saginaw $41.1 li;.::i;7. Wayne 

 pays nine times the amount of state tax that 

 Sagin.iu does, Vet Saginaw built $1 ('>,*'.."> I n 

 worth of state roads on which she drew re- 

 wards to the amount of $4'.V.'39, or ahum one- 



fourth of their cost, while Wayne spent $177,- 

 .'i82 on her roads and only came in for $5,116 

 in rewards, a little over one-thirty-fourth of 

 their cost. 



Or take Kalkaska, with her $3,271,178 of as- 

 sc.-scd valuation and $30,902 spent for road 

 building. She 'came in for rewards to the 

 amount of $7,322 over one-fourth of their 

 cost. 



So it "goes all through the list. Kent, with 

 $105,113,404 of assessed valuation and $109,825 

 spent on roads, gets no reward; Washtenaw, 

 with $38,782,603 asisessed valuation and $53,- 

 171 spent on roads, gets no reward; Macomb, 

 with $26,805,235 assessed valuation and $55,710 

 spent on roads, gets $2,000 reward, while Bay 

 county gets $14,017 in rewards to $36,188 in- 

 vested: Tuscola gets $10,018 to $32,606 in- 

 voted, and Mason gets $10,910 to $39,870 in- 

 vested and besides they get the roads. 



BOYNE CITY WANTS BETTER HIGH- 

 WAY. 



Boyne City business men are taking up the 

 question of better country roads leading into that 

 city. In a ride clear across the state to Alpcna 

 the worst road encountered is between Boyne 

 City and Boyne Falls. This is by no means the 

 worst road leading into the city, either. Hoyuc 

 City is much the best market for farm produce 

 in that part of the state. Higher prices prevail 

 there than in any town in that vicinity. The far- 

 mers can well afford to haul their crops to that 

 city from a reasonably long distance for the bet- 

 ter prices which they receive provided the roads 

 are not against them. Every improved roads adds 

 to the value of every piece of land tributary to 

 it. If the farmers are wise they will jump into 

 the project while the thing is ripe and join hands 

 with the business men in an effort to improve the 

 bad conditions which now exist. 



