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Show I BUZHG OF THE I! TRAIL California Pathfinder Party Declares.lt Will Open a New Scenic Route. ROAD ABOUT FINISHED Community Work Rapidly Putting New Road in Shape for Tourists. By DOUGLAS WHITE. At lat the Arrowhead trail is an es- J ta"blish(l fact and its existence will be- come more important as each of its several sev-eral sections are brought into that con-' con-' dition possible under thoroughly "up-to- j 3ateM methods of mad building. How- jj ever, as it stands today this new high-. high-. way between the Rockies and the sea ; Compares favorably in condition with 1 many American roadways upon which much more monoy has been expended and which have been maintained for a much longer period. i know that it will seem strange to come people to hear a line of real enthn-eiastie enthn-eiastie boost coming: from a railroad, official of-ficial in favor of a perfect highway, especially espe-cially when that highway parallels the ' lines of the railroad that provides his pay-check. Yet such is the case, and not only do I speak for myself but for ' every other official of the Salt Lake ; Boute, when I say: "Build good roads j and lots of them." j Officials Want Good Roads. To one of our officials in particular may bo given the distinction of boing the railroad father of the earliest move- ments for better highways. It was back j ce vera years when, in winter, the Uli- j nois farmer had hard work to even drive j. a lifiht waon, to say nothing of a I; loaded one, over the abominable roads 1 of his state. Fred A. Wann was then the general freight agent of the Chicago !& Alton system" and was approached by a committee of men ambitions for bet j ter roads, who told him of cortain mate ria which, if brought from a neighbor-ing neighbor-ing state and applied to their highways, would greatly improve them. The cost of transportation, as scheduled in the Alton 's freight tariffs, prohibited the use of this material, and these people appealed to Mr. Wann for a rate that would allow its use on their roads. Not only was the freight reduced but brought to a figure barely covering cost of han-t han-t dling, and thus was laid the founda- I tion of a good roads movement which i first brought relief to the Illinois farmer. Shortlv after, in a meeting of railroad I officials at Chicago, the present general traffic manager of the Salt Lake Boute i -was "called" by his colleagues for en couraging good roads, and to this "call" !ho replied, "Well, you fellows can have any kind of highways along your lines that may please you, but the Alton wants good roads and lots of them, for j my experience teaches me that good 1 roads aid the farmer, and anything that j helps the farmer builds up traffic." ! Railroad Will Co-operate. ij Long ago Mr. Wann saw his ideas of ,i good roads echoed by the wisest of traf-1; traf-1; lie officials and he is today, if possible, :t a more earnest booster for good roads jj than when he assisted Illinois to build her first miles of really usable high-j high-j ways. From another angle the Salt Lake j: Boute has, as a corporation, been a con-m con-m Bistent good-roads booster for. during l the last live years Senator Clark's rail- Toad has paid toward good roads in its ' tributary country, by taxation and vol ;j untary "subscription upward of a mil- I lion and a half dollarB. Therefore, it is not to be wondered at that the Clark railroad is found strongly encouraging the establishment j of the Arrowhead trail as the shortest ! and best highwav between Salt Lake and Southern California. Much conversation has been had on the snbjpct of this direct highwav, and a heap of work has been done by Mr. C. H. Bigelow, a most active western good-roads pioneer and motor enthusiast. Behind Mr. Bigelow 's work came an association known as the Arrowhead Trails association, organized at the city of Badlands, in San Bernardino county, California. It was at Redlands that the first ocean-to-ocean highway had its birth, and as the opening of the Salt Lake to Southern California direct highway high-way meant a great deal to San Bernardino Ber-nardino county, that city was a natural initial point for the new highway. Once launched the movement found heaps of encouragement, and Mr. Bigelow Js work was adopted as a foundation for the locating of the permanent highway. Utah Has Good Highway. On Friday, July 21, a scout t car, driven by Mr. Bigelow, and furnished jointly by the Goodrich and Studebaker companies, left Redlands to log the new highway and finally decide upon its location. loca-tion. This scout also carried Road Expert Ex-pert C. C. Lamle of the Goodrich company. com-pany. I was fortunately selected to accompany ac-company the car as a representative of the association 's executive committee. They say a man is never too old to learn, and"this whirl from Southern California to Salt Lake certainly has given me a new idea of road possibilities in our intermountain country. Of course, I knew what Utah had done with her magnificent highway from Salt Lake to the Rio Virgin, but of other sections along tho route I had many serious doubts. But they are all gone now, and I know how easy it is for a careful driver with a well-tuned-up car to make the trip, even under present conditions. First of all came a drive of 220 miles, partly over California state highways and partly over a San Bernardino county highway that is now being specially improved as a link in the Arrowhead trail. This brought the scout car to Amboy, from which point the road swings directly north through an historic his-toric mountain pass used by Pathfinder Fremont on his first journey to the Pacific. Pa-cific. Here an old-time government i road, built on hard mountain shale and still in splendid repair, will be put back in commission and lead the trail to a point three miles east of KelBO station, on the Salt Lake route. From Kelso the scout car bowled along over a good desert road, that will need but little work or expense to make it a country boulevard, to the south end of the dry lake near the California-Nevada California-Nevada state line. Over sixteen miles of this dry lake the Studebaker six, with top up and a big load aboard, turned up a fifty-mile clip and then rolled over a splendid road through Jean and Good Springs to Las Vegas, Nov., 347 miles from Los Angelea. Nevada Does Its Share. From Las Vegas to St. Thomas, Nev., Clark county has built a good road, passing pass-ing through some beautiful scenery differing dif-fering entirely from anything else m the inter-mountain country. Crossing the Rio Virgin at St. Thomas the selected route follows a well-kept road to Bun-kerville, Bun-kerville, Nev., where it again crosses the Virgin and strikes out over a little cor-i cor-i ner of Arizona. Hero some work is required at various points, but so well has this section of ibis desert highway boon kept up by Joseph Rcber, supervisor super-visor of this district, that but a few hundred dollars will be required to render ren-der it comfortably passable for all classes of cars. Climbing up among the Beaver Bam mountains the route crosses the Utah state line at the summit of Beaver pass in the midst of a wealth of desert and mountain scenery. From here the going is easy over the twenty -nine , miles between be-tween the state line and St. George, and although the road can, for little monoy, be placed in' excellent condition, Utah's highway commission has already planned the extension of .the state's highway over this section of the Arrowhead trail. Mojave county, Arizona, will likewise like-wise improve its section, thus removing any possible touring difficulties from this stretch of highway that links St. George with St. Thomas. From St. George northward the trail follows Utah's excellent highway along the base of the Wasatch range, through the beautiful cities and beside the historic his-toric spots of southern and central Utah. Salt Lake looms as a magnificent terminal for this highway that is destined des-tined to place the attractions and possibilities pos-sibilities of Utah before thousands of tourists who mightj without it, never see the real "Beehive" state. Leads to Little Zion. Projected branches of the Arrowhead trail will lead the traveler to the scenic wonder of Little Zion and the mountain resorts of Utah, while already constructed con-structed roadways will afford access to all the cities of the state. One special feature of the Arrowhead trail lies in the fact that it follows high altitudes through the desert couutry and yet crosses the mountain ranges at the lowest altitude of any transcontinental highway. This means practically an all-the-year-round route between Salt Lake and Southern California. I must confess that T started from tho southland a doubting Thomas as to many of the Arrowhead trail's possibilities, but my arrival at Salt Lake found me convinced of its thorough practicability and filled with surprise at the present condition erf the entire route. Utah's people must naturally become, very one of them, boosters for this new, direct scenic highway to the Pacific, Pa-cific, and I am glad to be able to predict pre-dict that tho Arrowhead trail has come to stay as one of the important factors in "western travel and western progress. |
