The weekly union record., 1866-03-10
rFoR rM UxIoH RDcoRD.1
Feather River Road below the SnoW-line

IfOB fHK U<IoE hEcOkDl
Feather River Road below the SnoW-ine.
Seeing frequent allusious to this projected
road, it strikes me that . few remarks pertinent
thereto would not be i'll timed. Recent reports
have notified rs that the people Of Plumas
have petitioned the Legislature to authorize
the Supervisors Of that county to raise twenty
thousand dollars wherewith to construct this
road also, that an Act has actually passed
authorizing Plumas county to appropriate, not
twenty, bat hundred thousand dollars for the
same great enterprise. Now, treating the
subject on this hypothesis esis-erroneous though
it be-prudence prompts the inquiry: How
much hard cash can the nominal amount of q
hundred thousand dollars in Plunss county
bonds, to be applied as above stated, be sold
for! Thirty thousand dollars, could you hope!
Bravo! your faith is admirably sanguine.
But, instead of hundred thousand in bonds,
suppose this amount in gold to be applied to
the construction of the road-what then
Would this cam build the proposed road below
the deep snow line on either fork of Feather
river?
I'm an old Forty Miner, l am. And I've
Travelled some of this country all over" And
10 the neighborhood Of the proposed route,
very many are the places-the beetling bluffs
and PERCEPTIONS promontories-that have
passed or vainly attempted to pass over, the
while did each particular hair Of my terrified
topknot stand on end like the quills Of the
fretful porcupine and numerous, likewise, are
the hard, steep. chapparal covered mountains,
down or up which could neither climb myself
nor persuade the other jackass to go, although
undeniably be was wise old quadruped! No
experienced prospector, familiar with "the
situation" will believe that any dozen or half
dozen individuals, white, black, yellow, red,
blue, or even green, ever passed entirely through
these river canons below what is termed the
deep snow line-witbout frequently diverging
far toward, if not quite to the SUBMITS of the
bordering mountains. Would it be quite i'm
possible, then, to construct wagon road on
the line in question? On the contrary,
haven't doubt that such road might be made
But the worthy inhabitants of Butte and
Plumas, all together, have not money enough
10 their breecbes to make it-thats what's the
matter A hundred thousand dollars would
not make good mule trail A few millions
would build railroad and prorimate sum
would construct wagon road on the same
route-leaving annual repairs, rendered neces-
sary BY land and snow slides, and other acci.
dents, to be provided for BY succeeding gener.
a,ions. All things considered, l conclude there
is about as much reason to believe that this
road will be built within the next ten years as
there is to imagine that jeff Davis will ever
be hanged.
Better to discard such visionary schemes at
once, and to apply available means to practical
the thorough completion of the
roads already partly made on feasible lines.
With the road properly finished on the short
route from Oroville to Walkers Plains, the
residents of the American and Indian Valleys
would have little reason to complain of any
brief interruption of roadway communication
in Winter. Whose doubteth the facts here
written, hath small capacity for discernment,
opineth The SAGE.
Oak Arbor, Feb. %