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Maintaining
Early Roads "In winter it was nothing for the axle of the wagon to touch the mud most of the time while driving." Mary O. Carey, in "Talent Pioneer Saw First Mail Sack Delivered," Medford Mail Tribune, June 4, 1934, page C6 It's a far cry from the day when our roads were built by main strength and awkwardness, as the feller said. When the grades were built by hand, with the aid of scoop scrapers and later fresnos. When creek gravel (we had no rock crushers then) was hauled to the job with teams and wagons having 12-inch planks for sideboards and two-by-six floors, with handholds whittled on each end so we could raise each one up and turn it on its edge to dump the gravel under the wagon. Them were the merry days, fellers. The wonder is we managed to get as good road as we did with the tools at hand. Arthur E. Powell, "Musings," Central Point American, October 30, 1947, page 1 Road History
By RALPH WATSON Do you remember, or did you ever stop to think, that the bicycle is the grandpapa of the Oregon State highway financing system?
Did you ever hear of the Century Club, a bunch of strong-legged and sound-lunged, rugged pedal pushers who had achieved the distinction of pedaling their bikes for a "century run" (100 miles in a day); guys like Fred T. Merrill of Portland, Watt Shipp of Salem and a long list of others. Their favorite run was from Portland to Salem and return, or vice versa, during which endeavor they struggled up and coasted down the New Era Hill and other of the tough spots along the road. So manfully did they pedal and so earnestly plead, that the 1901 legislature took pity on their straining extremities and passed a law providing for the construction of "bicycle paths on either or both sides of all public highways of the state for the use of pedestrians and bicycles." To finance the construction an annual tax of $1 was levied upon "all persons riding bicycles." The bicyclist paid the $1 to the county clerk and received a tag which, the law decreed, "must be securely fastened to the seat post of each and every bicycle." Any untagged rider caught on the pathway or riding without the tag on the stern post after April 1 was to have a warrant issued against him with which the sheriff would seize the bicycle and sell it for the amount of the tax, and costs. The "object and intent" of the law, the legislature said, was "to provide for a highway separate from that used by teams and wagons." So that statute of 1901 was the precedent for and the granddad of the present system of automotive licenses, gasoline taxes, fines and penalties which were established a decade later and dedicated to the task of constructing the state highway system. Excerpt, Central Point American, September 1, 1949, page 3 When Road Work Was
Compulsory
By RALPH WATSON
Did
you ever hear that when the state was young "every male between the
ages of 21 and 50 years of age except persons who are public charges or
too infirm to perform labor" had to do two days' work on the public
roads of the county in which they lived, or pay $2 for every $2,000 of
taxable property they owned or go to jail and serve it out?
That was what the legislature of 1860 (the first legislature under state government) decreed. That same session slapped a $5 poll tax on "every negro, Chinaman, Kanaka, or mulatto for the use of the county within which he may reside." PAY OR JAIL The county clerk issued a receipt which was intended to be "a protection to such taxpayer from again paying the same to any other county." Failure to pay put the delinquent in jail and at work on the public roads of the county at the rate of one day of "faithful labor" for each 50 cents included in the total $5 tax. Back in those rugged days the county court divided the county up into road districts and appointed a road supervisor in each. The supervisor made "an alphabetical list of all persons liable to perform labor on the public roads" within his district on or before March 15th of each year and gave the list to the county clerk. The county clerk "affixed to each name the amount of taxable property owned by each. Then the supervisor notified each property owner to get busy "at 8 o'clock a.m." at a definite date and place and "give one day of work for each and every $2,000 assessed for state and county purposes," or pay $2 for each day so charged against him, or go to the county jail. BREAD AND WATER That system rocked along from 1860 to 1899 when the legislature got still tougher and provided that "all able-bodied persons" sentenced to the county jail "whether for a fine or to serve a sentence for a definite number of days" should be liable to work on the public roads, under the "full power of the county court," with the provision that those serving a definite sentence should work out the "full time" of the sentence at the rate of $1 a day. It was added that "not less than 8 hours shall be considered a day's labor." Any prisoner refusing to work was to be "denied all food other than bread and water until he signifies his willingness to comply," in which event he should make up for all lost time. It was not until 1901 that the legislature authorized the counties to levy, annually, not to exceed 10 mills on each $1 of assessed values on real property within the county with which to finance county road construction. It was not until 1919 that the legislature commenced to whittle off goodly percentages of the state highways road user funds, originally dedicated for construction of state main highway routes alone, and divert them to be used by the counties (now 19 percent of the total) and to the cities (first 5 and now 10 percent). STATE HAS LESS These diversions, while they have materially advanced the financing of county road and city street construction, have decreased available funds for main line state primary and secondary highways proportionately. In the period reaching from 1917 to July 1, 1949, a total of $9,572,828 of road user funds has been allotted to the cities of the state for their individual use in street building and upkeep, and now, under the semi-annual 10 percent allocation of the 1949 legislature, is advancing approximately $1,500,000 additional every six months. The counties since 1920 (to July 1, 1949) have been allocated a total of $62,771,101; a grand total contribution of state highway funds for local betterment of county roads and city streets, and proportionate reduction of direct property road and street taxes of $72,343,929. Medford News, September
30, 1949, page 8
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Bids for Gravelling the Medford Road
It is Ordered that the Clerk cause bids to be advertised for as follows.
For the Gravelling [of] Eighty Rods of the Public Road leading from Jacksonville to Medford, beginning where Said road enters the lands of John R. Tice on the west boundary thereof, the graveling to be placed in the Center of the road and the road to be built as follows--A ridge of Earth 10 inches high to be plowed on each Side of the proposed graveling having Twelve feet Space from ridge to ridge and having a gutter on the out side of each ridge--the twelve feet Space between Said Ridges is to be filled with coarse Gravel taken from the Thomas field adjoining Said road to the full height of the ridges and the road to be Crowning in the Center, the whole work to be done to the satisfaction of the County Court, and upon acceptance by Said County the Contract price to be paid in County Warrants to be let at Decr. Term 1885 of Said County. Jackson County Commissioners' Journals, November 6, 1885 GOOD ROADS are the one element lacking to make a paradise of Rogue River Valley. Owing to the adobe and alluvium formations, the work of redeeming the highways from the condition of pioneer days is slow and irksome, although very material progress has been made in many sections within the past five years. Local trade and traffic are and always will be largely dependent on wagon transportation in this mountain-girt valley. The recent storms have brought the roads into their annually recurring state of impassability, and the serious check it puts upon business in almost the entire county suggests the thought that the subject of road building should properly engross a large share of attention from Oregon's legislators, and be one of the chief studies of agriculturist and merchant alike for the next few years. The material of which roads should be constructed is abundant in this valley; but the knowledge of how and when to prepare the roadbed and apply the topway of gravel or stone is evidently not so prevalent as to be at all epidemic among our road supervisors. Road building is a science, and the state should make it its business to train men to proficiency in it. There is a great work ahead for our agricultural colleges, if they can bring Oregon out of the slough of despond in which its valley inhabitants are plunged for three months out of the year; a work that can best be compassed by teaching the supervisors that a half mile of well-drained, properly constructed, permanent roadbed fitted for travel each year, will give us good highways tenfold sooner than the present system of spreading the same amount of work over twenty miles of inferior roadway. Democratic Times, Jacksonville, December 12, 1889, page 2 The roads are usually poor, formed, on the hillsides, of the surface soil, with an occasional sprinkling of rounded river gravel, which does not pack. The rocks are mostly friable sandstones and shales, or an exceedingly refractory diabase, and do not afford good road-metal. A further explanation of the wretched highways is afforded by the fact that the farmer gets all his heavy hauling done just after harvest, while the roads are still sunbaked, and in the rainy season, when they are mostly quagmires, he has nothing to haul; or, if he has, betakes himself to a broad-runnered wooden sledge, which glides over the mud almost as easily as if it were snow. The rainy season, by all accounts, is trying to those unused to isolation and intellectual torpor. For reasons above indicated there can be but a minimum of moving about on the country roads and little sociality. Those in more easy circumstances go to the towns; the others exist until the seed-time comes. The conditions foster lethargy of mind. The coast may be reached by several stage lines, one of which starts west from Roseburg for the Coos Bay country, while another, over a better road, crosses the mountains by a moderate divide and descends the valley of the Umpqua. The ride by the latter is picturesque and interesting, and, with a comfortable coach (which is not provided), might be recommended to tourists. As it is, however, the hotels in most cases are far from meeting the most elementary requirements of cleanliness and good food, while the stages are merely rough covered wagons, with hard seats and insufficient springs. The omnipresent dust is a factor not to be ignored. Excerpt, "W.H.D.," The Nation, September 9, 1897, page 201 Apparently W.H.D. didn't travel farther south than the Umpqua basin. HOW ROADS ARE BUILT IN THIS COUNTY
Many Miles of Elevated System-- Either Side Is Dumped into Center-- No Repair on Roads--Bridge in Danger.
A
careful study of the roads of Jackson County will convince the most
skeptical that the system of construction is fundamentally wrong and
the necessary repair work is almost wholly lacking. Road building, as
practiced by the present county court, consists in dumping a pile of
rock in the center of the roadway, scooping out the earth on either
side and piling it in the center. When the embankment, which resembles
a railroad grade and has been facetiously termed "Dunn's elevated,"
reaches a height of from four to six feet above the surrounding
country, loose rocks and gravel is dumped on top and the road is
complete. It is left to travel to wear a smooth surface, with the help
of the weather. Nothing is done to keep it in condition thereafter.
Miles of such road traverse Jackson County. The "elevated' is too narrow to admit of two teams passing. It has no uniform surface and no established grade. It is uneven, full of chuckholes, ruts and hogbacks. The crushed rock surface, the hardest possible on a horse's hoofs and equally hard on automobile tires, is left for these same hoofs and tires to grind to powder and pulverize to smoothness; as a result, there are miles of road practically untraveled except when the rains have made the adjoining land untravelable. When there is any chance of getting off the "elevated," everybody does so. There is no necessity for making the embankment so high. A roadbed half as high and twice as wide would be far more practicable. If a uniform grade was established, a smooth surface put on and a small amount of work done once in a while to keep the road in order, it would revolutionize the roadways of this county. A "Dunnized" Roadway.
There
is one piece of roadbed of which Judge Dunn is proud, and of which he
has boasted. This is the road constructed last season in the
Big
Sticky section. This road, like all the others, is an elevated. But
farmers, rather than travel its crushed rock bed, run the risk of
turning turtle on the sticky land adjoining. One can travel a mile
without reaching a place where two teams can pass. If a loaded wagon is
ahead of your buggy or auto, you must poke along behind it, for you
cannot pass it or turn out of the elevated without toppling over.This roadbed is new, yet there are ruts and chuckholes already making their appearance, even before a smooth surface has been worn. There are hogbacks and hollows where there ought to be a level grade. And those who live along it say that the structure is faulty, and as the roadbed settles, it will spread. It is one of the hardest roadbeds on horse and auto and even wagon that the county possesses. Jacksonville Turnpike.
Take
a 20-mile drive from Medford. Start for Jacksonville over the most
traveled road in the county. When you strike the "elevated" you strike
as rough a highway as any section can show. Here we have an old road
"Dunnized." In stretches, several hundred yards in length, two feet of
loose gravel and crushed rock has been dumped in the center of the
narrow bed, waiting for travel to pound it into shape, six feet higher
than the fields adjoining. It is almost impossible and no effort is
made to even rake the large cobblestones out of the way. The result of
the "improvement" makes a far rougher road than existed before. The
unrepaired road is smoother, but full of troubles. So rough is the
highway that many Jacksonville people prefer to take the roundabout way
of driving over an ungraded road to the south, traveling nearly twice
as far to reach Medford.On the west side of the valley, turn toward Central Point. Here is a road almost wholly neglected. Here and there we strike a bridge or a culvert. These are almost invariably higher than the roadbed, so that a bump on either side is assured. Now and then a stretch of "elevated" is reached and unused, so that going around is far easier travel. A stretch of road that two years ago was one of the best in the county has become bad through neglect. Bear Creek Bridge Unsafe.
Passing
through Central Point, over as rough a strip of road as any section can
show, the Bear Creek bridge is reached. On each approach is a small weathered
unpainted board with a legend
scratched upon it, to the following effect: "Warning. This bridge is
unsafe for travel." The sign is a small one and would not be noticed by
the ordinary traveler. Attorneys assert that it is not sufficient
warning to save the county from damage suits in case of disaster.Looking at the bridge, the reason for the warning is apparent. The two large piers that support the bridge at the east end are out of plumb. The floods of a year ago undermined the piers at their foundation, and they lean a foot or so from the perpendicular. The result is that the bridge is unsafe, and has been for over a year. If a freshet had occurred this winter, it would have carried off the structure. A comparatively small amount of money would save the bridge, yet the money is not spent, and nothing has been done in over a year to save the taxpayers from building a new structure after the first flood at a large expenditure. Any loaded team may send the structure crashing, and the taxpayers will be called on for heavy damages. Cobblestone Highway.
Proceeding
east toward Eagle Point, some long stretches of rough-surfaced
"elevated" are encountered. Just before the "desert" is reached is a
stretch paved with loose cobblestones the size of a man's head. The
stones are scattered all along the surface. A little work would render
it possible to go faster than a walk, but the work is not done. Every
bridge encountered is built up even beyond the grade of the elevated
and steep pitches mark the approaches.Leaving the main road and swinging across the desert, the only smooth highway so far seen is encountered. The county court has done no work on it. Then the prize Big Sticky turnpike, six feet wide on top and six feet high, with crushed rock for a surface, embodying all the latest ideas of Judge Dunn, is reached, and passing orchards heavily laden with bloom, whose scent perfumes the air, the return to Medford over a road full of chuckholes and bumps and yet preferable to the "Dunnized" roads. Go to Phoenix and look at the work done by the county court to fix up the roads. In fact, go anywhere and draw your own conclusion. In the Back Districts.
In
the back country district the feeling is intense. Though taxes are paid
regularly for roads, the money is not spent in these districts. No work
at all has been done for years in many sections. Farmers at their own
expense have in many cases made the roads passable only by their own
work.The roadwork is done by the day by the county and the teams loaf a good deal, so that more money is spent than if the work was contracted. It is reported that the team [illegible] has given his workmen positive orders not to overwork the teams as they must be [illegible] for the [illegible] work. Medford Tribune, April 14, 1908, page 1 Transcribed from barely legible microfilm. SHOULD KNOW IT.
The adobe
or "sticky" soil, as it is commonly called, found in several sections
of
the West, while very rich and well-suited to the growing of apples,
pears and other fruits, is very difficult to handle and must be plowed
at just the right time--a few days following a rain, when the
"slacking" has advanced to the proper stage--to secure results that are
at all satisfactory. Rather oddly, though, while continued hot and dry
weather tends to form a hard crust a few inches beneath the surface,
there seems to be no other soil which retains its subsoil moisture more
completely or on which fruit trees will stand more protracted drought.
When one buys a "sticky" ranch he should have in mind that it will
either be necessary for him to have a solid macadam road leading to his
place, if he is to reach it during the wet season, or to lay in a
sufficient stock of supplies and provisions so that he will not have to
leave his place for two or three months at a time.Frank E. Trigg, Central Point, "Farm, Orchard and Garden," Evening Independent, Massillon, Ohio, March 28, 1910, page 8 Many a municipality has a bad blot on its reputation because of the wretched condition of the thoroughfares leading thereto when timely work done with a road grader and drag would greatly improve their condition. In too many cases these same "rocky" roads are found in townships and towns whose road supervisors or street commissioners are drawing good salaries for taking care of the highways, while the equipment for keeping them in order is acquiring a coat of rust in some vacant lot or alley. Frank E. Trigg, Central Point, "Farm, Orchard and Garden," Evening Independent, Massillon, Ohio, April 22, 1910, page 11 COOPERATION IN ROAD WORK.
There
is no sort of public work in which folks are interested generally where
the principle of cooperation could be followed to better advantage than
in the care of the public highways. In some sections this fact seems to
be recognized, in some others not. Especially is there need of this
cooperation in those sections where earth roads are the rule and where
the character of the soil is such that there is need of working it at a
critical time following heavy rains or wet seasons. Particularly is
this true of stiff clay or adobe soils, which can be advantageously
worked and leveled only when they possess the proper amount of moisture
and the right consistency. Under such conditions it is impossible for
one road superintendent and his helpers to give all the road of their
territory treatment at the proper time. As a result many such highways
dry up rough and hard and remain in this condition for months. Could a
system have been followed which would have enlisted the aid of property
owners or renters along the highways, and the roads have been dragged
at the proper time, a good highway would have been secured. The benefit
of this cooperative system is recognized in some states, the road tax
being remitted in case property owners give a stipulated amount of aid
in keeping in condition the roads abutting their own premises. This
plan gives excellent results and should be adopted in other places
where the roads at certain seasons of the year are little short of
unspeakable, yet for the attempt to keep which in repair large sums are
expended annually, but to little purpose.Frank E. Trigg, Central Point, "Farm, Orchard and Garden," Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, Iowa, June 29, 1910, page 6 HOW THE STREETS WERE DRAGGED
CITIZEN GROWS SARCASTIC OVER APOLOGIST'S SWELLUP Says Same Amount of Good Is Done As If Street Commissioner Had Been Used As Harrow A resident of the southern portion of the city yesterday called at the Sun office to make mention of a statement he had seen in the Evening Apologist [the Mail Tribune]
during the past week, to the effect that all the unpaved streets of the
city had been "dragged" by the Honorable W. P. Baker, street
commissioner-in-chief of Medford, and were now in first-class condition.
"My street was one of the ones dragged," said the Sun's patron, "and if it is not a fright I don't know what you would call it. About as much impression has been made on its surface by the 'dragging' as if instead of the drag the Honorable W. P. himself had been drawn over it. "Just come out in front and look at your own street, which must have been one of those dragged by the Honorable W. P. It is one of the unpaved ones, so the Apologist must have meant to include Grape Street in the number." "We have heard that Grape Street was dragged," said the Sun man. "In fact, we saw a cloud of dust there one morning and think we heard Mr. Baker's voice issuing from the center or sidelines of the cloud." "Well, that gives you an idea," said the caller, "But it is not half as bad as my street. If he is going to repair the streets, why doesn't he do so? Why doesn't he take a scraper instead of a drag, or a number of them and level down the hummocks and mounds and heaps of dirt in the middle and sides. "No, you can't see where any dragging has been done on your street, and if the Honorable W. P. had been dragged over it you would see the same amount of change in it as the way it has been done. "If that isn't a hot one of the Apologist to claim so much glory for the Honorable W. P., then I miss my guess. Did you ever hear or see anything like it? Did you ever hear of a thing calling itself a newspaper to swell itself and its city administration up over that equaled this for gall? It must take the people of Medford for damn fools--that's all I've got to say." Medford Sun, March 12, 1911, page 1 EXTENSIVE CAMPAIGN FOR GOOD ROADS
BEGINS IN JACKSON COUNTY In Addition to Ordering Bridge to Relieve Sams Valley Region, Commissioners Purchase Big Machinery for New Work JACKSONVILLE,
April 6.--That the county court is entering into a systematic campaign
of road building in Jackson County is shown by the plans the
commissioners have mapped out and the new machinery they have just
purchased. Today they placed an order with the Buffalo-Pittsburg
Company for a road locomotive weighing twelve tons and seven reversible
stone-spreading cars with a capacity of ten tons each.
The locomotive is guaranteed to pull the ten cars on an ordinary roadway three miles an hour. The commissioners also purchased a twelve-ton steam roller from the Buffalo-Pittsburg Company, the kind universally used. It is claimed this equipment has three times the capacity of the old machinery with the same expense. J. L. Latture was the agent who made the sales to the commissioners. Previous to this purchase the county owned two traction engines, or road locomotives, and fifteen cars, also a steam roller, all of which are now at work on roads near Ashland. The commissioners also have one rock crusher at work, have two more crushers ordered and will probably order another engine to assist in operating the crushers. In addition to the rock quarry near Ashland, there are two other quarries from which the county will get rock, one on Griffin Creek near the Nye and York places, and another recently discovered on the Roguelands tracts near the Peterson place. Excerpt, Medford Sun, April 7, 1911, page 1 ROAD MACHINERY FOR COUNTY IS HERE
Two
cars of machinery have arrived and are being unloaded for the county.
One car consists of two rock crushers from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The
other brought a twelve-ton road roller, a road engine, two graders,
scrapers and other items, which come from the Buffalo-Pitt Company at
Portland.
Medford Sun, April 16, 1911, page 3 TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND YARD
PAVING CONTRACT IS AWARDED Price Is One Dollar and Seventy-One Cents--All Asphalt Material-- May Change in Thirty Days A
contract for approximately 200,000 yards of pavement was awarded
yesterday afternoon at an executive session of the city council to the
Clark and Henery Construction Company, at a contract price of $1.71 per
square yard. The city reserves the right to select one of two different
grades of paving, one being higher and the other lower in price,
providing such change is made within thirty days.
The kind of paving contracted for differs somewhat from that of last year and that which is at the present time under contract. It is an all-asphalt pavement. That is to say, the base is of asphalt and is put down hot and rolled instead of the former concrete base, upon which the asphalt is placed. Being put down hot, it is left to cool and to set, after which a second coat of asphalt, heated to somewhat over 200 degrees, is placed over this and again rolled. This causes the two to coalesce and form into a crust of all asphalt for the entire depth of the pavement. It has a thickness of about one and one-half inches less than that with the concrete base. The cost is five cents less, the [asphalt with a] concrete base being $1.75 per square yard. Before determining whether or not the all-asphalt at $1.71 shall be adopted or that with the concrete base at a higher price or another at a lower cost, the mayor and two or three representatives of the city will take a trip to Sacramento and inspect the three different kinds of pavement which have been put down by the Clark and Henery Company. The trip must be made before the thirty days are up, or the construction company will proceed to lay the all-asphalt pavement. Excerpt, Medford Sun, April 20, 1911, page 1 BAKER'S DRAG AT WORK
The
famous drag of the Honorable W. P. Baker, the esteemed street
commissioner of Medford, is again in action. It has revolutionized the
earth in the Medford road districts just outside of the city limits on
that particular part, parcel and piece of road that connects Roosevelt
Avenue with the county thoroughfare. The old harrow has been doing
great work over there and has caused the somewhat aesthetic owners of
automobiles to remark that the road is not according to their ideas of
high-class art. Be that as it may, the Honorable W. P. is busy with the
harrow, and the people will be able to find out where the road is.
The Honorable W. P. is also being mentioned casually in connection with the section of road which is in the Medford road district, lying between the pavement at the end of West Main and the Jacksonville macadamized road, which is something like fifty rods distant. The road was advertised last year as being macadamized by the city, and the Honorable W. P. had charge of the work. At that time there were great clouds of dust in that direction, and the people thought that the great feat was being performed, but since the dust has settled down proof is abundant that the sand, crushed rock and boulders were in readiness and are still in readiness but that there is no macadam there to hide them from the noonday sun. Cranky autoists are kicking about this as they generally do and state that they would like to have at least a narrow strip of macadam covering this missing link, although the width may not be so great as to be measured by metes and bounds. Medford Sun, April 20, 1911, page 2 OIL MACADAM FOR COUNTY ROAD
DUPLICATE OF CALIFORNIA'S BOULEVARDS Harmon Recommends It to Commissioners for Central Point Highway--Its Description County
Engineer W. W. Harmon has recommended to the county court that oil
macadam be used for the three-mile stretch of road between the Pacific
and Eastern junction and the road district of Central Point, and has
drawn a profile showing what the road would be. He is very strongly for
the adoption of this material and states that it would be as fine as
any road in the world and an exact replica of the famous auto roads of
California.
It costs more than the old style macadam, but it is so very much better there is no comparison between them. Its cost is $9000 per mile. Mr. Harmon states that in the East where the old style macadam was used it is being taken up and the oil macadam put down. The profile which he has shows a width of sixteen feet for the road proper. It is first covered with a thickness of six inches of two-inch crushed rock and rolled down to a compact crust, the road roller being passed over it twenty or thirty times. Then a mixture of oil and gravel screened to one and a quarter inches for a thickness of three inches is placed on top of this and likewise rolled thoroughly, and the oil saturates the crushed rock, making it compact and permanent. When the second part is completed a layer of one-half inch of creek sand is spread over it, which is for the purpose of keeping the oil from shooting up on the people as they pass over the road. The sand takes up the oil and makes it rigid, forming a crust which is permanent. For a distance of three and one-half feet on either side of the road the ground is saturated with oil. The amount of grading will be from 6000 to 7000 yards of dirt. This will include a lot of boulders, which will be the most difficult work in connection with the grading. Mr. Harmon is in hopes that the county will adopt the oil macadam. It is certain that if this is not use the old style will be, as the road between here and Central Point is to be as good and even better than between here and Jacksonville. Medford Sun, April 20, 1911, page 5 FEW MEN WILLING TO WORK
An
attempt was made yesterday in behalf of the contractor for county road
building up Derby way to employ men in this city, and as a result only
two out of about thirty men found about the local saloons were willing
to work. Chief of Police Hittson was apprised of that fact, and last
night a raid of the hoboes in town was determined upon. Wind of the
proposed raid got out, however, and the men at night were missing.
Policemen Helm and Hall worked diligently last night, but only
succeeded after midnight in landing about half a dozen.
Medford Sun, April 22, 1911, page 1 ROAD MACHINERY IS TRIED OUT
The
new Buffalo-Pitts engine, recently purchased by the county court for
road work, was given a thorough trial yesterday and worked splendidly.
"It pulled the big plow through the rock and dirt up and down Eagle Mill Hill, near Ashland, with ease, and did not get stuck once, doing the work in forty-two minutes that it took the old engine five hours to do," said Commissioner George L. Davis, "and we are proud of it." The county court will have the old engine put on the rock crusher, and the new one will be kept on the big plow and hauling rock. Mr. Davis also says it will haul forty-nine yards of dirt or crushed rock at a load with the new engine and seven new cars that have self-spreaders. The old engine and same number of cars, with the same crew, hauled eighteen yards of dirt or gravel. Medford Sun, April 23, 1911, page 4 ROAD IMPROVEMENT.
It is hard to understand why so many country road supervisors, who
spend good time and taxpayers' money in grading and shaping country
highways, so often fail to put on the finishing touches necessary to
make the roads passable. We refer to the practice so often followed of
scraping to the center of the road clods, sod and weeds and leaving
them there in a rough and unsightly ridge, when a little work with a
disk pulverizer or common drag would do much toward inviting traffic.
The writer is well acquainted with the aversion of the average man to
hauling any kind of load over soft and newly made roads, but the
condition in which lots of roads are left is taken as sufficient ground
for steering shy of them even with an empty wagon.Frank E. Trigg, Central Point, "Farm, Orchard and Garden," The McKean Democrat, Smethport, Pennsylvania, August 22, 1912, page 2 JACKSON COUNTY, PIONEER COUNTY,
GOOD ROAD WORK Jackson
County is the cradle of good roads in Oregon, and the network of
highways now existing or under construction owe their success to
efforts of Jackson County and her citizens, who have since 1910 carried
on in the legislature, in the press, and wherever men meet a continual
offensive for improved highways. Multnomah County, containing the city
of Portland, and the commercial heart of the state, alone exceeds in
the amount of money expended for good roads.
The stretches of road between Medford and Central Point, Ashland and Medford, 14 miles, were the first links of the great Pacific Highway laid in the state of Oregon. Paving began in November 1915, and ever since its completion has been a source of delight alike to tourists and home autoists. Building the road over the Siskiyous has brought to the state thousands of people from all parts of the nation and world, whose auto tours heretofore had ended in California. This road construction was made possible by the passing of a half-million-dollar bond issue in 1913, which was contested in the courts, and finally declared constitutional, after a hard fight. The first shovelful of earth on the Pacific Highway was turned by Sam Hill, father of Good Roads in the Northwest. The Siskiyou road, as a section of the Pacific Highway over the mountains between California and Oregon, cost Jackson County over $225,000 for the grade alone. The grade at no place is over six percent. The road passes through a wild country, full of scenic beauties. The building of this section of the Pacific Highway opened the way for Crater Lake, and other southern Oregon wonders, and the fine fishing for steelheads in the Rogue River to become a favorite mecca for vacationists. During the war the energies of Jackson County were devoted wholesouledly to the wining of that epic struggle, but with the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, Good Roads again came into her own, and the reconstruction period finds construction under way again. Hard surfacing of the Pacific Highway throughout Jackson County is now under way by several contractors, and it is hoped to have the work completed this year. This will give 53 miles of hard-surfaced road from the north line of Jackson County to the California line. This is paid for by Jackson County and the state highway commission. Contracts for grading 22 miles of road from Prospect to Crater Lake National Park line are let, and the work is now under way. The road from Prospect to Medford has been adopted by the state and federal government, is being surveyed, and preliminary preparation made for construction in 1920. This road is being built jointly by the federal government, the state highway commission and Jackson County. The Green Springs Mountain road, from Ashland to Klamath Falls, traversing a mountain section rich in scenic wonders, and fishing and hunting grounds, is now being constructed at a cost of about a million dollars. The expenditure is being borne by the state highway commission and the people of Jackson and Klamath counties. It will open for commercial purposes a rich section, and offer another ideal highway for the autoist. From one end of Jackson County to the other the foundation for a network of good roads has been built. All the country roads are in good shape, being built and maintained by the county court. The benefits derived from a business and pleasure standpoint have long since more than justified their building and is reflected in the fact that Jackson County owns more than its per capita of autos. A wave of good roads building is sweeping over the state, and there is hardly a section that has not felt the impetus. Five years ago Jackson County stood almost alone as a champion of this type of civic improvement. The accrued benefits have more than balanced the original outlay. Oregon is a leader in good roads, and the program now under way in this state by the state highway commission calls for an expenditure of $12,842,765.21 during the next 18 months, and the good roads program is still in its infancy in this great state. Three years ago the legislature passed a $5,000,000 good roads bill, and last year another $10,000,000, the principal and interest of which will be paid by auto licenses. This does not include several millions of dollars that will be created by taxes during the next few years for good roads. Medford Mail Tribune, August 12, 1919, page 3B Ben C. Sheldon Details History of Efforts for Highway System
by County and Chamber of Commerce Medford, Oregon,
Sept. 7, 1929 To the Highway Committee of the Medford Chamber of Commerce: Gentlemen: This letter is in answer to your query regarding the early history of the activities of Jackson County and the Medford Chamber of Commerce in the development of the highway system in southern Oregon. I am dictating entirely from memory and hurriedly, and apologize in advance for this rather rough and rambling series of notes covering my recollections of those highway development activities of which I had personal knowledge. My mind divides this subject into three natural subdivisions--first, the activities which antedated the development of the state highway program; a second, those which were a part of the state highway program, and third, those which were apart from and some of them subsequent to the state highway system's development. The one outstanding fact, as my mind goes back over this twenty years' campaign through which Jackson County has undertaken to develop her highways, is the fact that our people have always recognized the value of the tourist traffic and realized and kept constantly in mind the fact that the tourist does not come to a point and turn around and go back, but that he will visit a point or a district on a "loop" or roundabout tour. I would say that this attitude has characterized practically all of Jackson County's activities along road building lines. In 1915 the county court of Jackson County sent me to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco as one of the two Jackson County representatives in the Oregon building. One of the instructions I received from the county court, delivered to me personally by County Judge Tou Velle and County Commissioner Frank Madden, was that I should prepare some magazine articles descriptive of the auto tour from San Francisco to Jackson County and return, making one leg of the trip by way of Sacramento Valley and the other leg by way of the Redwood Highway through Ukiah, Eureka and Crescent City. I refer to this as indicating the early attitude of our people in realizing that a development of the tourist travel into this section involved advertising the attractions all along the route and holding out to the autoist the fact that he could find splendid attractions and varying scenic wonders and beauties from the time he left his California home until he returned. I do not need to remind any of the old-time residents of Medford that this county was the first in the state to lay a modern hard-surface highway outside of the city limits, and as a part of a larger state system. The section of the Pacific Highway from Central Point to Ashland, and the grading and paving of a new road over the Siskiyous, both done by Jackson County, was the beginning of Oregon's splendid state highway system. My mind goes next to the effort made by the Medford Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Judge William Colvig, Dr. J. F. Reddy and George Putnam, to secure a good road to Crater Lake. As a part of that program we earnestly advocated and supported the building of a road to the Oregon Caves. I remember one meeting at the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce at which the principal speaker was Judge Colvig, then president of the Medford Chamber of Commerce, his splendid speech being followed by brief talks by our Jackson County road engineer, Mr. Harmon, and myself, all to the point that Jackson County was making a bid for the automobile tourist, by improving a road to Crater Lake, and that we needed and wanted other neighboring attractions opened up and made available by good road building to help bring the tourists to this section. The most active good road enthusiast in Oregon in those days was Sam Hill of Maryhill, Washington. I have a vivid recollection of a trip made by about six automobile loads of Medford enthusiasts up through central Oregon to the Columbia River, and to Mr. Hill's home in Maryhill where we picked up a distinguished party, including Governor West, Mr. Lancaster, the engineer who built the Columbia River Highway, Mr. Thompson, city engineer of Seattle, and Sam Hill and others. We returned through Central Oregon, stopping at four or five of those towns to enable our party to conduct good road booster meetings, and ending with a monster meeting at Medford. The result of that trip was the giving of assistance to our Crater Lake road by a crew of prison convicts at the direction of Governor West. While a member of the legislature, and listening to the debates of our good road measures, I heard more than one echo and reference to that expedition, fostered by the Medford Chamber of Commerce, from the lips of central Oregon legislators. It helped to make all that district "Good Road Minded." I now come to the time when I became a member of the board of directors of the Medford Chamber of Commerce. The activities of the chamber along good road matters were mapped out largely under the direction of Harry A. Walther. I never heard a suggestion made at any board meeting of the Medford Chamber of Commerce during the four or five years that I was a member that did not have as its cardinal principle that to bring the tourists to Medford and Crater Lake we must have good roads coming into this section from every direction. My active interest in the development of this general road plan extended over three administrations of the Medford Chamber of Commerce, during which years H. A. Walther, Vernon Vawter and I were successively the president of the Chamber of Commerce, my year being the middle one of the three. I can state as a positive fact that at no time during these three years was there ever a deviation or a wandering away from this general outline of what Jackson County needed to properly develop the tourist traffic. We talked the problem as one involving laying out such a road system as would permit and attract the tourist to come into our section by one route and return by another. We envisioned the Portland, Seattle and Tacoma vacationists autoing down the Pacific Highway, through Roseburg, Grants Pass to Medford and returning by either the Dead Indian Road, Klamath falls, thence north to The Dalles-California Highway to the Columbia River Highway or by way of Crater Lake, Diamond Lake, Mt. Thielsen and the east side of the Cascades road to Bend, Redmond and The Dalles. And likewise we envisioned the thousands of California vacationers coming north through the redwoods to Crescent City, thence to the Oregon Caves and Crater Lake, returning by Klamath Falls, Weed, Redding and the Sacramento Valley. I can state positively that during the years when I was familiar with the program of the Jackson County road building enthusiasts, supporters and workers, we never lost sight of that program as our real objective, and I confidently believe that such a general plan is in the minds of our people at this time. Jackson County gave loyal support to the development of our state highway program, struggling valiantly against those few and unsuccessful efforts to involve the program in unfair contracting methods and giving loyal support to such highway commissioners as Mr. R. A. Booth, Mr. Kiddle and Mr. Yoon, who did the state such a signal service in developing over a one-hundred-million-dollar road program, and keeping it clean and economical. I remember one circumstance during my first session at the legislature, where the state program had its real beginning, which illustrates Medford's attitude toward her neighbors. Umpqua County has always presented a turbulent condition respecting road building because of the many diverse interests of her several communities. When the bill laying out the state highway system was before a committee of the legislature the proposition was made that the Pacific Highway should be routed over the Umpqua Divide and down Trail Creek to meet the Crater Lake Highway at Trail. To Mr. W. H. Gore, more than any one individual, belongs the credit of defeating that proposal, and he did it openly, avowedly, and in the spirit of insisting that Grants Pass was entitled to have the Pacific Highway routed through that city even though it might mean a considerably longer route. I was sent to three sessions of the State Highway Commission by the county court of Jackson County to present and urge some of our local road development measures. On two of those trips I was accompanied by County Judge George Gardner, and on one I went alone. I well remember that at one of these sessions held in a court room of the Multnomah County Courthouse at Portland we had to again meet and defeat an Umpqua County proposal routing a road over the Umpqua Divide to the head of Trail Creek. I need not remind you that these fights put up by Jackson County have as a result the routing of our Crater Lake travel coming from the north through Grants Pass and Josephine County. My mind goes back to the time when our Medford Chamber of Commerce undertook to organize what we named "The Southern Oregon Natural Attraction League." The plan originated in our Medford chamber either the year of Mr. Walter's presidency or the following year. I proposed that the four cities of Klamath Falls, Ashland, Medford and Grants Pass should advertise this district jointly, and as a whole, rather than to advertise our individual cities alone. The first proposal along that line was made by a delegate of the Medford chamber visiting Klamath Falls, where a most enthusiastic meeting was held and our plan was presented by Mr. Gore and myself. Mr. Hall, the Klamath Falls hotel man, was president of that chamber at the time, and through his active interest the Klamath Falls Chamber of Commerce unqualifiedly endorsed the plan. Our chamber secured through the state highway engineer's office the preparation of the plates for a three-color map of this section. The southern border of the map showed northern California, including Crescent City to the southwest, and the Modoc Lava Beds to the southeast. The eastern border of the map was some twenty or thirty miles eastward from Klamath Falls. The northern border skirted northward to Diamond Lake and Mt. Thielsen; the west border was just west of our coastline. Our chamber also secured from the Southern Pacific railroad company very handsome photographic plates showing views of the Oregon Caves, Crater Lake, Klamath Lake, and our forest roads. These were sent from Portland to the Southern Pacific representative at Medford to be used by us in the preparation of a splendid three-color folder to show this map above mentioned and several photographic views. Our plan was to prepare the map as one order of 50,000 or 100,000 copies, and have them bought and distributed by the four cities of Ashland, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls and Medford. The matter was presented to the Ashland Chamber of Commerce at a meeting of their board, and unqualifiedly endorsed. When this program was presented, with proofs of the map plates, to the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce we were advised that the advertising allowance of their chamber had been allotted to other purposes, one of them being a very neat and attractive little map with Grants Pass in the center, prepared by Jack Harvey, secretary of the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce. In this plan for the Southern Oregon Natural Attraction League, initiated and pushed by the Medford Chamber of Commerce, can be seen clearly the breadth of our Medford plan for road development. I wish I had a proof of those map plates prepared in the state engineer's office at Salem; they would show better than any printed word that the plan of the Medford good roads development extended north of Diamond Lake, south and east of Klamath Falls, as far southwesterly as Crescent City, and included all the main highways in that entire territory. No person conversant with the 15- or 20-year record of our Medford efforts toward the development of highways in southern Oregon can successfully deny my unqualified statement that that effort has, during all that time, been consistently and intelligently directed toward the upbuilding of all the highways leading into Jackson County from every direction and that they had as its fundamental the entirely selfish thought that only by developing the highways leading to Jackson County through all our surrounding counties could we expect, or would we receive, our share of the rapidly growing tourist travel, the value of which is just beginning to be thoroughly felt and appreciated. BEN C. SHELDON. Medford Mail Tribune, September 19, 1929, page B1 Last revised November 17, 2009 |
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