, 1900-02-12
RURAL FREE SERVICE
AN EFFORT BEING MADE TO Es-
TABLISH A ROUTE ALONG
THE BIG LARAMIE.
Will Cross the River at Laramie, Pro-
ceed Through West Laramie, Pass
Up the Pioneer Canal, Cross the
Leroy Bridge, Thence to Lund-
quist's and Return on East Side

1t is entirely probable that the ranch
the Big Laramie will have their mail
brought to their doors through the
rural free delivery system, which is
now being so successfully operated in
other states of the union.
Hon. Otto Gramm and Postmaster
Elmer T. Beltz have been working up
on the proposition for some time and
the details have been carefully plan
ned. The proposed route is across the
county bridge near the soap works,
through west Laramie, by the expert
ment farm, along the Pioneer canal,
across the Leroy bridge and theme to
the Lundquist ranch on Sand creek.
Returning the carrier would take in
several ranches on Sand creek and the
east side of the Big Laramie. This
route is upwards Of forty-five miles in
length. The roads are good and 1t is
believed it can be covered three times
a week by a good team attached to a
light rig. The outfit would carry moth
ing IL mail, which in all probability
would never exceed more than twenty
pounds per trip.
To secure this rural delivery the
families to be served must pledge them
selve to put their roads in first-class
condition and keep them so. This is
the penalty of being brought in con-
slant communication with the outside
world. The roads at this season of the
year over the proposed route are near
perfection, but the road along the
river on the return trip will need some
work to make 1t good at all times dur
ing the spring and %irrigating seasons.
The expense OF repairing it would be
very slight when compared with the
results attained. In some of the thick
ly settled portions of the east, in order
to obtain the rural free delivery, farm
ers have banded together and paved
their roads for miles. In this way they
have not only been given the great
benefit of free mail delivery, but their
money spent in roads has been return
ed to them many fold by reason Of the
ease with which they are now enabled
to haul their crops to market. Good
roads are very profitable Independent
of mail service. In another way the
farmers have beeen benefited. Along
the mail routes farm lands have been
enhanced from three to five dollars per
acre.
The Big Laramie route will serve
about seventy families, or 300 people.
This is hardly up to the departmental
requirements, but the difference in ex-
pense will be more than Offset by the
saving of two fourth-class postoffices.
The people of the Sand creek valley
have been demanding a ~postoffice at
Lundquist's for some time, and it is al
SO desirable that one should be estab-
lished at Rathburn's, on the North
park road. Free delivery would, of
course, render these offices entirely I'M
necessary. The length of the route
would make 1t necessary that the car
rier should not only have good roads,
but every other facility for fast time.
Every gate through which he would be
required to pass would have to be OF
the pattern which can readily be opened
from the wagon.
There are now four states without
the rural free delivery-Idaho, Missis-
sippi, Montana and Wyoming. In Mis-
| sissippi the rural class is very largely
composed of negroes and illiterate