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Show oo COLORADO ROADS 12100100. 191 Colorado will spend $2,220,000 on highways in 1917. The sum is big. but not a tenth is big as the immediate results which i he slate will reap as the result of he expenditure, part of which will go for the building of several hundred new miles of highway and part for ihe maintenance of the 3,20ft miles of finished highway which today form an intricate network, penetrating ev- ry section of the stale. The automobile Is playing such an i'i)oi ..in role in ih- ht- ol ih" modern mod-ern city and of the most remote rural sections of the state that the story of a progressive state might he told in larqe part in Its achievements in high-waj high-waj building The settler today follows the automobile road instead of wasting wast-ing his energy in blazing his own ' rail The tourist seeks out the state where the ruts have been smoothed from his path and leaves behind him i trail of gold. And farmers, businses men, miners and stock growers reap an increasing harvest as they are brought into closer touch with the big cities and with each other. Five years ago half of this state was BOlated The northwestern section loriied a little state within a state The stock-growers and farmers were cut off from the rest of the world. The only road into that country was a rough trail from Rifle to Meeker, which look two days' travel to cover. And beyond Meeker, the adventurer v.. in with horse and pack saddle. That trip from Rifle to Meeker is covered cov-ered in two hours time today and $60,000 will be expended next year by the state highway commission to complete com-plete forty miles of roadway which will run a fine road from Steamboat Springs, through Craig and Meeker on to the Utah state line. The southwestern section of Colorado Color-ado was even more completely cut off from the rest of the state. The fertile fer-tile valley of the San Luis river could in reached only through New Mexico. One of the big achievements of the vcar past has been the completing oi the El I wood Pass road, which, at a COSl ol $90,000, has practically added hundreds of acres of new territory i to the state The country was flooded last summer with tourists eager to explore new roads. But even more im- pii am is ihe fact that the big cities of the country are now accessible to the residents of that part of the state. H Business men are benefiting from j 1 which formerly went into New Mi iro The rich coal and metal min-era min-era of the district, the fruit growers 1 and sheep and cattle men are taking H a more ital interest in Colorado than 1 ! before and joining in the one big effort to build up a tremendous and pro perous commonwealth. Baca county, in the southwest, which formerly traded entirely with Kansas because there was no road leading into northern Colorado, is now H connected with Prowers county by a good highway and is learning the les-son les-son of co-operation and patronage of home industries which his brought big results to Holly, Lamar and other towns near by. Gunnison county, which has no north road and was ring-ed ring-ed in by mountains, is also to have an outlet during the coming year. Sur- ys are being made now for a high-way high-way which will connect Curbondale, Hotchkiss and Crested Butte and which will be finished in 1917. And H Locan and Weld counties are reaping a harvest of settlers who have follow- H ed the new road that connects Ster-ling Ster-ling and Greeley. All this the state highway commis-sion commis-sion and county boards of commis sioners have to their credit. Their work is far from completion, however, and an elaborate program has been la lil out for the coming year. In addition to the $750. ooo of Btate funds H and the million and a quarter dollars which will be raised by the counties, the federal government ha promised aid. Besides the $50,000 which goes direct to the counties in which there H are forest reserves, there will be $t3.-000 $t3.-000 available for special roads run-ning run-ning through these reserves. And there will be $S3,000 for expenditure on post roads which serve rural com- ... . |