Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-12-30
MOUNTAIN COMMERCE.
STREAMS ARE THE PRINCIPAL HIGH
WAYS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY

HOW the mountaineer Gets His supnl,..
The Push Boat" and the Method ut,
Navigating it-TraveIing Up Stream ON
the Big Sandy.
among the many novelties which the
stranger hnds among the mountoins 90
eastern Kentucky few will interest q mo-,
OF practical turn of mind more than tba
pubic highways The mountain roods
1 except where mountain gap is to he
crossed, are the mountain streams In
consequence there is scarcely a cross road
OF Tour corners in this county outside of
inns the only village in the county, but
wherever creek forks or brook enters
creek the road forks.
olioer kentucky law the county Judge
ueciues where and how new roads shall
" iaia out' Inc ordinary mountain road
" lald out six feet wide, and the roadway
proper must be graded not less than two
ieet wide. But Judge Wagner. of this
county, is an enterprising citizen who
\ desires to improve the country. and in
consequence he has refused to Issue anv
order for year past for roads less than
nine feet wide. This may seem narrow to
northern farmers. who lay out private
lanes at least rod wide but in a country
wlere travelling is done on horseback. and
Where the vehicles for transporting goods
oi any sort, even in summer, are narrow
sleds, the pine foot road is q novelty
which has set the county to talking.
THE CREEK BED ROADS.
VI course there are necessarily wagons
wherever logging is done, but the loo
wagon sticks to beds of the streams
which are invariably wide and hollow
while the public highway winds along the
bank of the stream and runs in the actual
bed of the stream only where the con
hguration of the mountain sides on each
bank of the stream makes it necessary
When the logging is done no effort is
made to keep open the highway formed.
These creek bed roads are excellent in
warm weather and low water; in winter
and spring they are impossible for weeks
Inc creek beds were originally selected
for highways because very little labor was
needed to make highway ont of creek
bed. There is not slch thing in Pike
county as big niger head rock. The
beds of the streams are of sand or sand
stone, and there is never q rapid or water
TALL OF such descent as to bother a team.
Another very good reason for utilizing
the creeks as roads was the fact that all
the imports and exports of the mountains
have been necessarily carried in and out
on the rivers. The mountaineers supplies
have been brought up from the Ohio river
ever since there was any one ON the Ohio
to sell them. As all creeks run by the
easiest and generally the shortest route to
the rivers 1t was natural for the mount
aineer to follow the creek down to it's
mouth to get his supplies at the stores
which were located along the river.
THE PUSH BOAT"
The rivers are not very trustworthy
highways. The steamboats, on the Big
Sandy very often get started up for Pike
vile, the head of navigation, only to get
stranded on a bar, or to find themselves
left in Il pocket between bars by the sud
den fall of the water Out of this uncer-
tainty regarding the length of steam
boats journeyto and from the headwaters
of the rivers has grown the craft, very
novel to northern eyes, called the push
boat No better craft for the water could
be imagined
The push boat is a scow feet wide, 60
feet long and 10 inches deep. At one end
is a windowless house high enough for
man to stand upright in and 5!xS feet in
area. This is the cabin. There is a sort
of a quarter deck abaft the house, and
/
steering oar, which the pilot Yields by
walking to and fro ON a shelf built half
way up Oh the stern
The merchandise is piled on three wide
planSs that run, like keels, the length of
the boat, so as to cover large part of the
boats bottom; but clear gangway of at
least fifteen inches in width is left along
on each side of the merchandise, no mat
ter how great the load. These gangways
are also toored by planlls laid bilge- keelson
fashion.
A boat like this will carry twelve to
fifteen tons dead weight of goods on a
draught of eight inches. There are over
100 of them regularly employed on the
Big Sandy and the cargoes carried up
consist chiefly of the goods kept in the
country stores. At certain seasons, par
ticularly in the fall, down cargoes can be
had.
SHOWING A BOAT,
When the boat is loaded the skipper
climbs to his shelf and grasps the tiller
The crew OF four men cast off the ropes
and pick up their push poles. These
poles are about ten feet long and from an
inch and a half thick at the upper end
swell to two inches thick at the bottom.
where they are shod with a short pike
Two of the crew stand ON the starboard
bow and two on the port one behind the
other, and facing aft, place the lower ends
of the push poles on the bottom of the
stream, the upper ends against their out
board shoulders, and then, throwing their
weight against the poles, they walk aft.
AS the poles cannot slip along the bottom,
the boat is forced forward The push
boat is a horizontally acting treadmil.
OF course the men walk aft on the bilge
planks, which are left clear of merchan
disc, so that they can walk there freely
1t is distressing to n stranger-it makes
him feel as if his own back was about to
break-mercly to look ut the men as they
shove the boat along; but the Big Sandy
boatmen are n hardy and cheerful race,
and not only do not fret and chafe over
their toll, but even walk away to the
tune of some rollicling love song or ditty
which they have learned from the favorite
artist of travelling theatrical froupe at
Catlettsburg
The meE get 81 day each and board.
The day runs from sunrise to sunset, and
in that time four men will shove a boat
from thirteen to fourteen miles up stream
on the Big Sandy The pilot is usually
the owner of the boat, He gets seventy
five cents a hundred pounds for general
merchandise brought from Catlettsburg
to PikevilIe. a distance of 100 miles.
Flour he brings at 81 barrel. 1t is only
when the boat has full cargo and pros
porous passage, the boatmen say, that
the push boat owner gets any return on
his investment, which, however, is not
rreat. fora good boat costs but $50 or $40.
-Pikeville (Ky.) Cor. New York Sun.