PARK AND CEMETERY. 
179 
ROAD and TRAIL BUILDING in the NATIONAL PARKS 
( Concluded ) 
An address before the National Park Conference by 
E. A. Keyes, Inspector, Department of the Interior. 
In Europe the system of constant main- 
tenance is generally used, while in the 
United States the method of periodic re- 
pairs seem to be more commonly used, 
although in the United States both methods 
have their advocates. 
I believe in our national parks it will be 
found advisable to adopt a combination of 
the two above-mentioned systems of re- 
pairs — that is 1 to say, after the snow and 
ice have cleared away in the spring the 
entire road system should be given a care- 
ful overhauling and that slight continuous 
maintenance will have to be applied 
throughout the season for which the park 
is open to the public. 
In the construction of this class of road 
throughout the national parks there is very 
little which can be said, except that stand- 
ard widths and limited grades should be 
established. It will be impracticable, of 
course, in this class of road or trail to use 
rock as a surfacing material, but I believe 
that the lines' should be carefully located 
by instrumental work, so as to select the 
easiest grades, and I believe it would be 
well as fast as these trails are located to 
have a progress map upon which they can 
be immediately plotted. This would 
greatly facilitate tourists in getting around 
through the parks, as well as for admin- 
istrative purposes. 
It is thought that a width of about six 
feet would ordinarily be sufficient for these 
trails. This width, of course, could be in- 
creased at the precipitous points, where the 
grade of the trail might also be decreased 
somewhat in order to give a feeling of 
more security to the tourists and to lessen 
the danger. It is also deemed advisable 
that these trails at the precipitous points 
should ordinarily be in-cut — that is to say, 
by benching back rather than to build out 
a dry rubble wall, the grades, of course, 
to be the best it is possible to obtain and 
reach the points of interest. In this class 
of construction I believe it would be wise 
to adopt some form of light equipment 
which could be packed on animals’ backs. 
It is probable that the question of what 
shall be the proper width of tires to be 
used on the roads of our national parks 
has presented itself to some of the super- 
intendents and it is therefore thought that 
remarks on this subiect will not be out of 
place. Tt is very essential that the wagon 
in passing over the road should help to 
make and preserve it rather than to de- 
stroy the road, and, therefore, in so far 
as the road alone is concerned and within 
reasonable limits, the broader the tire the 
better for that narticular road. Ouoting 
from N. S. Shaler, formerly president of 
the Massachusetts State Highway Com- 
mission r 
“The matter of width of tires has been 
a subject of much remark. There has, 
indeed, been no end of idle talk concern- 
ing this matter, much of it directed to 
the point that our American builders have 
shown a lack of judgment in building with 
narrow tires, while they should provide 
their vehicles with broad treads such as 
are in use in Europe. The fact is that in 
this, as in many other matters in which 
our people have departed from ancient and 
Old World customs, they have been led 
by wisdom and not by folly. This will, 
on a little consideration, be made evident. 
Where there is no definite pavement, as is 
the case in ninety-nine one-hundredths of 
the American roads, the wheels have in 
muddy weather to descend into the earth 
until thev find a firm foundation on which 
to rest. In so doing they have to cleave 
sticky mud, which often has a depth of a 
foot or fnore. If these wheels were broad 
tired, the spokes would also have to be 
thick and the felloes wide, so the aggre- 
gate holding power of the mud upon the 
vehicle would be perhaps twice what it is 
at present. Tt is useless to talk about the 
advantage of a broader tread for the 
wheels of our wagons until we have a 
thoroughly good system of roads which 
they are intended to traverse. Any laws 
looking to this end would be disobeyed 
because of private needs so general they 
would amount to public necessity. When 
the roads of a district are made good, only 
as' to main lines of communication, the 
side roads and farms still demand the pe- 
culiar advantages afforded by the narrow 
tire.” 
Ouoting a little further from the same 
authority : 
“The best argument against the enact- 
ment of laws concerning broad tires is 
found in the fact that the numerous and 
long-enforced English statutes on this mat- 
ter have of late years been abrogated, a 
century of experience having shown that 
they are difficult to administer, and gen- 
erally disadvantageous.” 
The Massachusetts Highway Commis- 
sion, after an elaborate discussion of the 
matter, says: 
“It is a matter of doubtful expediency 
to endeavor in the present state of our 
highways, by general legislation, to control 
the width of tires and diameter of wheels.” 
The above-quoted articles are entirely 
logical with reference to the highways of 
our states and counties, but are not en- 
tirely applicable to the roads of our na- 
tional parks, for the reason that there are 
not so many conflicting interests con- 
cerned, and I believe that the adoption of 
some standard width of tire tending to 
preserve the roads should be carefully con- 
sidered. 
Although there is not much difference 
between the tractive power of broad and 
narrow tires, the latter are much more 
destructive to the road, but in deciding 
upon the proper width of tire there are 
other factors beside the road that should 
be considered. Other things being equal, 
a wagon with broad tires is not so easily 
managed as one with narrow tires, and 
for this reason might prove dangerous on 
some of the roads of the parks; but it is 
believed that it would be well to investi- 
gate this matter from actual trials with 
wide-tired vehicles. 
One of the most important problems 
in connection with road construction and 
maintenance in our national parks is the 
suppression of dust. In some of the parks 
this is bad enough now, but when the mo- 
tor vehicles are admitted it will be worse, 
and at the same time the damage to the 
road will also be worse than is now 
found from the use of iron-tired vehicles. 
A general discussion of the causes and 
effects of this subject will not be entered 
into, but' in a general way it is thought a 
few remarks would be applicable. 
The dust problem in our national parks 
must be handled in one of two ways. 
First, by constructing the roads in such 
a manner by incorporating such materials 
in the aggregate as to reduce to a mini- 
mum the formation of dust ; or, second, by 
treating the surfaces of the existing roads 
with materials which will give the same 
results. The latter may be either by the 
use of water or some of the known emul- 
sions. While neither of these methods can 
be said to be entirely satisfactory at the 
present stage, yet I believe where the ma- 
terials are used in the proper proportions, 
and both materials and methods of con- 
struction are better understood, that by 
the first method, that is to say, an oiled 
macadam road, which is constructed by 
the incorporation of an oil which has an 
asphalt base during construction, good re- 
sults may be obtained, and it is believed 
that in those parks where the dust is 
especially troublesome that a short piece 
of this class of road should be actually 
constructed as an experiment. 
The heavy oil with an asphalt base, such 
as is found in our western states, has a 
very binding quality and is superior for 
this purpose to our eastern oils, which have 
a paraffine base. On account of its greasy 
nature, oil with a paraffine base has very 
little cementing or bonding nualitv and is, 
therefore, unsuited for road construction. 
Those narks in the vicinitv of Bakersfield. 
Cal., where probablv the best oil for road 
construction is found, should certainly 
