Logan Republican | 1903-04-14 | Page 6 | A $1,000,000 Hitching Post

A $1,000,000 HITCHING POST. Relic of Costly Experiment Made Upon the Erie Railroad Sixty Years Ago. J. B. Postcn has in front of his houso nt Bath, N. Y., what ho calls a million-dollar hitching pbst. It Is a whlto oak post, and was removed from a field near Canister, Steuben county, N. Y., and Is belloved to bo tho last of thousands of posts that woro driven for a dlstanco of moro than ono hundred hun-dred miles on tho route of tho New York and Erie railroad when It was bo-Ing bo-Ing constructed through tho Susquehanna, Susque-hanna, Canlsteo and Allegany valleys, sixty-two years ago. It was Intended to clovato tho rails for tho railroad on theso posts Instead of laying them on a solid roadbod. This plan of railroad building was abandoned aban-doned beforo a rail was put down. Tho monoy spont In tho useless work amounted to moro than $1,000,000 and drovo tho Erlo Into its first bankruptcy. bank-ruptcy. Tho owner of this relic of tho old pllo roadbed of tho Erlo obtnlnod it Inst fall whllo visiting relatives In tho vicinity of whoro it stood, a lono monument mon-ument to tho costly folly that placed It there two generations ago.