THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



263 



New Santa Fe Trail Under 

 Construction 



Completion of this Undertaking Means 

 Growth for Cimarron, Kansas- 

 Notes of the Work. 



Cimarron, an important point on the Old Santa Fe Trail, 

 is decidedly an important point on the New Santa Fe Trail. 



The name "Cimarron" is completely woven into the des- 

 tiny and history of that great highway of commerce that led 

 from Westport, now Kansas City, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

 The town in Kansas bearing the name was not then in exist- 

 ence ; but the river was. The name is suggestive to the old 

 pioneers who trod the trail. 



Near where the town of Cimarron, Gray county, Kansas, 

 now stands, the Old Santa Fe Trail separated, the main line 

 continuing west, through Garden City, Syracuse, and on up 

 the Arkansas valley to Lajunta, Colorado ; while the Cimar- 

 ron trail, the south trail, proceeded through Gray, Haskell, 

 Stevens, and Morton counties, and on into Colorado and 

 New Mexico. 



But these are the days of the New Santa Fe Trail. 



What is the New Santa Fe Trail? 



It is the greatest attempt at roadmaking in the entire 

 West ; and it revives all the tradition and sentiment and folk- 

 lore of the Old Trail. The New Trail is a turnpike, a modern 

 highway. 



It commences at Wichita, with a spur from Newton, the 

 two meeting at Hutchinson in the wonderful Arkansas val- 

 ley, and proceeds almost identically along the same line as 

 the Old Trail, running past the markers that the patriotic 

 orders, societies, women's organizations, and school children 

 have planted in commemoration of the Old Trail, to Lajunta, 

 where it turns northwesterly, still in the Arkansas valley, 

 and terminates at Pueblo, capital of the valley. 



The New Santa Fe Trail is a 450-mile modern Appian 

 Way. 



The New Santa Fe Trail is making the Arkansas valley 

 famous ; and it runs through Cimarron. Cimarron men are 

 actively identified in its making. 



The New Santa Fe Trail is actually building in each of 

 the twelve counties in Kansas and the six in Colorado through 

 which it passes. Men are at work in every county, using 

 King "split-log" drags, big graders, making sand-clay stretches, 

 putting a "crown" on the road to surface it and shed the 

 rain, putting in new cement culverts and bridges, straighten- 

 ing crooked places, and working through their townships, 

 through their counties, until the succeeding townships and 

 counties take the work off their hands. When Kansas stops 

 at the state line, Colorado begins ; and it is easier to build 

 good roads in Colorado, because the constitution of the state 

 permits it, while that of Kansas does not yet, though there 

 is a popular agitation favoring such legislation. Thus a 

 straight, continuous east-and-west highway through the fa- 

 mous Arkansas valley is formed, from Wichita and Newton 

 to Pueblo. 



The New Santa Fe Trail had its inception in the minds 

 of two Kansas newspapermen of the valley : C. H. Scott, 

 good roads editor of the Hutchinson News, and R. H. Faxon, 

 editor of the Garden City, Kansas, Telegram. Both had 

 been road enthusiasts, and both had worked in their locali- 

 ties. They conceived the idea of this highway more than 

 a year ago, then began to manufacture public sentiment. For 

 six months they made little headway, though continually at 

 work. Then, one by one, two by two, and finally, by scores 

 papers, commercial organizations, motor clubs, farmers' insti- 

 tutes, county commissioners, city councils, and other forces 

 came into the movement. 



The culmination was in January of this year, when more 



than 300 regularly-accredited delegates met in a conference 

 at Hutchinson, with Mr. Faxon as president and Mr. Scott 

 as secretary. They laid the plan for the highway, clear, terse, 

 effective, and with precise vision. It has not been changed 

 since. The state engineer of Kansas, a representative of the 

 government good roads office at Washington, and D. W. 

 King of Maitland, Missouri, of King-drag fame, addressed 

 the conference and resolutions were adopted that became the 

 Magna Charta in roadbuilding in the West. 



Colorado took hold at once, through its state highway 

 commission and its county commissioners. 



Frequent conferences and meetings of the permanent or- 

 ganization, which was the outgrowth of the Hutchinson 

 conference, have been held. Mr. Faxon is president and 

 Mr. Scott secretary of the permanent organization; and 

 there is an executive committeeman and publicity commit- 

 teeman from each county. 



The great, culminating event will be April 22-23, when, 

 from Hutchinson, Kansas, six or more motor cars will start 

 for Pueblo, the terminus of the Trail, on an endurance run. 

 Besides President Faxon and Secretary Scott, there will be 

 the Kansas editor of the Kansas City Star, one of the great 

 newspapers of the West that is giving columns of its news 

 and editorial space to this unique and typical Western move- 

 ment; Walter A. Johnson, managing editor of the Hutchin- 

 son News and representative of the Associated Press; and a 

 group of Topeka newspapermen, with a sprinkling of motor 

 enthusiasts and representatives of leading cars. 



The running time will be twenty-five miles per hour, and 

 the engines are not to stop enroute. Most of the cars will 

 go through direct ; some will be relayed. Arriving in Pueblo, 

 the capital of the Arkansas valley and terminus of the Trail, 

 messages will be deliverd from the mayor of Hutchinson and 

 the Commercial Club of that town to the mayor of Pueblo 

 and the Pueblo Business Men's Association. A meeting will 

 be held, the visitors will be given a hearty welcome, a good 

 roads conference will convene, Pueblo will be shown to the 

 visitors, and the greatest gathering in the West, in Colorado, 

 and in the Arkansas valley this year the Eighteenth Na- 

 tional Irrigation Congress will be put forth for the enlighten- 

 ment of the visitors. 



At the time this is being written, an inspection trip is 

 being made over the Trail, by the state engineer of Kansas, 

 W. S. Gearhart, and the officers and committeemen of the 

 Trail organization. 



The Trail will be complete by September, when the 

 Eighteenth National Irrigation Congress meets, at Pueblo, 

 the Trail terminus, and scores of irrigationists and other visi- 

 tors will go to the great gathering over this great highway, 

 by motor car. 



Cimarron, therefore, as in the history of the Old Trail, 

 is important in the days of the New Trail. County Commis- 

 sioner J. S. Herron is the member of the Trail's executive 

 committee from here, and Editor Elmer T. Peterson of the 

 Cimarron Jacksonian is member of the publicity committee. 



WILLISTON IRRIGATION PROJECT. 



Reports from the government Williston Irrigation Project, 

 North Dakota, indicate that the prospects there are brighter 

 than they have been since the work was initiated. The 

 farmers are organizing and outside influences are becoming 

 interested in the section. The Amalgamated Sugar Com- 

 pany of Ogden, Utah, have paid several visits to the project 

 and are very anxious to have the farmers consider the sugar 

 proposition. The company has forwarded about 600 pounds 

 of seed from Germany to be distributed free of charge to the 

 farmers so that they may give the crop a thorough trial. It 

 is proposed to build a plant as soon as the farmers agree to 

 plant 5,000 acres to sugar beets. H. W. Puckbee & Co., of 

 Rockford, 111., have sent representatives to acquire property 

 under this project and stated to the water users that they 

 are ready to furnish 100 bushels of stock peas to be planted 

 by thrifty farmers, thev in turn to return the seed furnished, 

 and the balance of the crop will be purchased by the com- 

 pany at from $1 to $1.25 per bushel. An alfalfa campaign 

 is also in progress, and it is believed that approximately 

 1,000 acres will be seeded to this crop this coming season. 

 Business men and banks in the city of Williston have agreed 

 to furnish the necessary capital on personal notes of the 

 farmers. 



