Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1894-01-19
UILD THE WAGON ROAD
Il Letter Boise Urging Action by
the County authorities.

|
The work of the State Wagon
Road Commission, so far as the let
ting of contracts is concerned,
was practically completed last Sat
urday. That portion of the road
in Idaho County is ready for active
operations just as soon as the
County Commissioners can take
action towards helping out with
the means necessary to complete
the road. Contracts will not be
delivered to the several contract
ors until all contractors are ready,
this course being deemed safest in
order to avoid the withdrawal of
some of them and thereby leaving
a division of the road but partially
provided for. 1t was only by hard
work that Telcher secured approval
of the contracts as they are. The
Commissioners doubted the pro-
priety of trusting to future action
of the Board of County Commits
| sioners but were finally convinced
that the people of the county were
thoroughly in earnest, that favor
able action by the county board
was as good as assured. This ques-
tion of assuming the payment of
the amount necessary, over and
above the state appropriation, to
complete she Idaho county divis-
ion of the road is one to which it
would seem but single answer,
and that a favorable one, could be
given.
Distant as the people of Camas
Prairie are from regular lines of
through travel it is difficult for
them to fully realize the immense
crowd of home seekers that is con-
stantly moving along regular
routes of travel from the east to
west. From the time emigrants
leaving the Mississippi valley and
regions farther east and journcying
via. the Union Pacific X. r., reach
Wyoming until they cross the Blue
Mountains and strike the agricul-
tural lands of Umatilla county,
Oregon, they see but one unbroken
stretch of forbidding sage brush
and sand. The country they trav-
erse is almost absolutely valueless
except when water for irrigation is
available. Hundreds and hundreds
every year stop by the way long
enough to visit Boise and make in
quiries at the capital about the
character of the surrounding
country. When told that the
agricultural lands of north Idaho
are wonderfully productive; that a
bountiful rainfall renders irrigat-
ion unnecessary; that the soil far
from being a mere hot sand-bed
covering gravel and lava, is a rich
loan having an inexhaustable clay
sub-soil; that sage brush is thing
unknown and that in its wild or
natural state the country there is
covered with luxuriant growth of
bunch grass; these emigrants are at
once captivated and long to see it
and to secure a home in SO favored
a land; but when told that to visit
it they must make a detour of
some six hundred miles through
Oregon and Washington in order
to see what is less than two hun
dred miles distance they yield to
disappointment and sorrowfully
continue their journey west hoping
in Oregon or Washington to find a
tolerable abiding place. This con-
dition of things should not be per-
mitted to continue. When the
Salmon river branch is completed
SO that people could travel directly
from Boise City, Payette and
Weiser to the agricultural sections
of north Idaho such a stream OF
emigrants could be turned in that
direction as would fill every nook
and corner of agricultural land il
Idaho county within two years
These immigrants would be of the
most desirable class, too, for they
would be the ones, who, leaving
the old home and seeking a new
bring with them household goods
teams, farming utensils and
machinery and more or less money
the proceeds of the sale of the ole
place. A less desirable class 0
immigrants is composed of people
who have been in 1.-The States
tenant farmers and who when the,
reach new resting place are al
most wholly without means O
building up home or of subsistin,
for a season or until the new plac
can be made productive. Thi
latter class are preforce compelled
to follow along and camp nea
the regular lines of railway travel
the former, are able to take thei
own outfits and go over the coun
try and select locations where de
sired. Another point in this mat
ter that should not be lost sight G
is the opening of the Nez Perc
Indian reservation in the nea
future. The rush to secure home
in that reservation will be as grea
as the rush to Oklahoma. Almos