Show A HARD ROAD seven miles cut in the solid rock tit at a cost coat of 0 tho th most difficult road to construct and I 1 believe the rallar most cna expensive agon road tn in the united states it that connecting the mining tona of ri Sl Iverton and dauray in the san juan mining liking an district of biair my state sald said mr J 1 L I 1 mcnell eNell ll a prominent denver colo railway and mining man one on 1 piece 1 jece of this road Is cut into the side aid of sa a mountain of solid rock for a dim distance tance of wen iteen miles and to construct it four veara of hard tork were to begin with aith there iia absolutely no foothold from which a start could bp be malle made hul but the only practical wiy of getting a road m as by mountains the point selected for tho the start was irris or GOO below the file top of the stone cliff and men were let down in bas keta skia suspended by ropes and from such shaky stations they drilled holes in t the he rock and allied them nith fah charges of powder poll dor after more than a month of blasting 8 ledge was wa cut into the rock jarge enough for the mn men to work on and a splendid road sixteen feet in width wa wnm along this precipitous ledge the bad hf tl lq 19 solid rock rand and la Is ud ailed mostly by wagon trains and pack animals carrying ores oreg and supplies to and from tho th mining campa in the mountains por for a distance of more than af feet straight up is it a wall of solid rock and over the defte Is a precipitous fall of several thousand feet on en that it is necessary for the to have 0 a steady footing ablie ti aveling this roal road 1 aven seven mil nines es rf of road cost coat but I 1 the he anin aich hae been regulated by tho the state slate have never been sufficient clent to pay the owner I 1 per cent on hta his investment several year a aro ago the state afred for the road which was waa declined anti and another offer lias bas just been made for it which the owner will NII probably accept this strange r ad Is the only rdean 5 of communication beta between een Sil silverton vertain and ouray and there la Is no probability of another bellig built as th the only aall aNal abc lable route for cutting the cliff noa taken by the engineers who constructed ted tho the remarkable stone atone path around tho the mountain ledge wash ington post |