Arizona silver belt., 1903-10-15
OIiICIQ| PQDeT 0f GII0 County.
Forwarding Freight for TOnto Dam

The people of Salt river valley, in Maricopa county are very desirous of having wagon road built from the valley across the mountains to the site . of the proposed Tonto dam, In fact, they are so impressed with the desira. bility of such a highway, adapted Co heavy hauling, that they are seriously considering proposition Co bond the cities of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa for Sl00,000, which would be their proportion of the cost of the proposed road, as estimated by Engineer Arthur P. Davis.
 To bond the cities the consent of congress would first have to be ob. tained, and a special election held for the submission of the question of issu- ing bonds to the qualified voters of the cities to be affected. Both of these re- quirements involve considerable doubt and several months would probably elapse before they could be determined and work started on the road To build road practicable for heavy hauling over the Fish creek route would prob ably require from four to six months !; consequently, 1t would be some time next summer before a good wagon road connecting Mesa with the Tonto dam site could possibly be completed There are about five miles of the Fish creek route which, according to the engineers estimate, would cost $50, 900 and take several months to complete
 In the meantime, unless the plans of the government engineers miscarry, actual construction work ut the rescr voir site will begin next month, on tue proposed power canal, and within three months it is expected that a thousand men will be at wotk Consequently, much of the machinery and supplies to be used at the reservoir site will have to be delivered before the road from Mesa could be finished
 Therefore, all the forwarding of freight for the first nine months muat be done from Globe, and the route of transportation once established it will be hard to change it. Those who take the first forwarding contracts will have the advantage of experience the knowledge of the exact cost of for warding freight from Globe to the dam site, and how the road from this point already better road than can be built over the mountain from Mesa can be improved and the hauling of freight over it cheapened.
 The distance from Globe to the dam site over the present road is about forty-four miles, which could be short ened several miles by all expenditure of five or six thousand dollars. The maximum grade is not over per cent, which would be entirely eliminated by the change above mentioned.
 From Mesa to the damsite is fifty five miles and the maximum grade would be 6 per cent. The cost of this road would be Sl75, 5000, of which the gov ernment would probably consent to pay S75,00O, the people of Salt river valley being required to contribute S1OO,OOO.
 There will be about l3,OOO tons of freight to be forwarded for the Tonto project, besides the miscellaneous sup plies. The amount will be of sniff cient magnitude to induce keen compe- tition between the railroads aud iuvite bids for forwarding from contractors of large means. The railroads aud the forwarding contractors, therefore, will determine by which route the freight will go. It will go by the cheapest route sentiment and layoritism wall not count, and neither the people of Salt river valley nor the people of Globe will be consulted when the tune arrives for the final decision.
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 The authority ol the conan. rlli.n tn