The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-03

many cOmpenSating influences ana
| brought forth much good fruit.
The great Mississippi valley was then
undeveloped and comparatively un>
known. It's millions of fertile acres were
waiting foc the plow, the sickle and the
hoe, and it's billions of undeveIoped
| wealth needed only the presence and
genius of a man to startle the world with
| their development and growth.
The building of this road set in motion
and turned great flood of immigration
into this wonderful valley which stin
continues and its overflow reaches even
to the Pacific coast.
Great cities and commercial centers
have sprung up as if by magic. that
rival in Importance and population, and
far exceed in enterprise and progress, the
more ancient cities of the older world.
This great plain in the very heart of
our nation, has been made a most beauti-
full and fruitful garden that is destined
soon to be the great center of population,
production and wealth on this continent.
The Cumberland road paved the way
and opened the door for all this growth
and development and the insignificant
sum of six or eight millions of dollars
appropriated for it by the general gov
eminent, munificent and even extrava-
giant as it may at that time have seemed
to be, has been repaid in growth and de-
NElOpIuGIlL more IMAM q LIlOuSd1lQ 4OLO
and has proved to be one of the most
profitable investments ever made by our
nation.
This nation has made many most Won
derful bargains and profitable invest
ments. Among them the Louisiana pur-
chase; the Florida purchase; the settle-
ment with Mexico and the purchase of
Alaska. It may possibly have made
some poor ones. But the expenditure for
with the latter.
Who can say that it was not the 1egi-
innate sire of the great Santa Fe trail
and the grand sire of the great Overland
Mail Route to the Pacific coast?
1t was the pioneer, the entering wedge
to open the way for exploration and de-
velopment. 1t overland thor
oughfare. distant from navigable waters,
that established a slow but feasible way
for interior travel and which induced the
settlement and development of vast
area of the public domain.
In Ohio it was known as the National
Pike" crossing the state from near
Wheeling on the east through Springfield
near the west, was about 200 miles long
in that state and about a million and
half of dollars were specially appropriate
ed by congress for it's construction in
Ohio where it is still used and is now
In Indiana it was known the ma
tional Road" was built directly across
the state from Richmond on the east to
Terre Haute on the west, about $50 miles
long in that state, passing over what
was and still is the principal business
street in Indianapolis, and more than a
million dollars was specially appropriated
by congress for the work in that state.
It is said to be the best road in the state
and fS now Maintained free county
road.
In Illinois it was only partially built
from Vandalia to the east line of the
state near Terre Haute about 80 miles,
although about three-quarters of a mill
lion dollars were specially appropriated
by congress for the work in that state.
and it is now maintained as a free public
road by the local road districts through
which it passes.
In Pennsylvania it is still maintained
as a state toll road under the supervis-
ion of a superintendent and two commis-
sioners appointed by the governor, and
the tolls are used to keep it in repair.
How the large appropriations, that
We're made by congress for this road,
were expended does not clearly appear.
Across the comparatively level stotes of
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with few
streams to bridge and little or nothing
for right of way, and the engineering
otherwise paid, it would seem that twelve
or fifteen thousand dollars a mile ought
to build fairly good railroad, and that
half that amount ought to have been am
pie to construct and finish an excellent
wagon road, especially in those early
days when labor was paid so much less
than it is now.
Although the old Cumberland road was
long ago dismembered and is now wen
night forgotten, its beneficial Influences
live after it and are silently attested in
many enduring monuments.
It's location was so skilIfully laid by
the government engineers that great
railroad lines have since paralleled it as
closely as they could.
The imperative demand for more rapid
transportation has since developed the
great railroad systems. They have been
built along the lines of the Cumberland
road, the Santa Fe trail and the Overland
Route, and have destroyed or localized
the Importance of those once great and
national thoroughfares of overland travel
They have even paralIeIed the great rtv-
ers and driven into obscurity and oblivion
the proud traffic of which they once so
triumphantly boosted.
But the subject of road building and
good roads has not died with the decad-
ence of the Cumberland road or the
abandonment of the Santa Fe trail and
the Overland Route.
Both locally and nationally the subject
of good roads is constantly increasing in
interest and practical Importance. The
quantity of the productions to be hauled
to the local markets and shipping sta
lions is constantly and rapidly increasing
The loss to the producers of the country
because of bad roads is enormous and not
capable of computation even of esti-
nation.
All dirt roads are comparatively good
when dry and smooth. Hence good drain
age lies at the very foundation of good
country roads.