Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1905-04-28
TO CONSTRUCT A
PERMANENT ROAD
Section OF Modern Road Surfaced
With Decomposed Granite to
Be Built by This County.

II has been decided by Judge Booth
and Commissioners Lovelace and Lo-
gan to build a section Of modern
wagon road, drained. graded, surfaced
and rolled as il done under the meth
ods practiced in sections where road
bnilding is carried on as scientific
accomplishment. The road to be i'm.
proved will be a section Of the road
that leads out Of Grants Pass south
from the Rogue river bridge. This
section Of road has more travel over
it than any other road in the county,
for into it converge the Kerby-
Crescent City stage road the Williams
Upper Applegate roads, the Upper
and Lower Rogue river roads and
several lesser roads, and its improve
ment will benefit the public and tax
payers more than any other road in
Josephine county.
The plan of the county court will
be first to put the roadbed on per-
feet grade and thoroughly drain it,
and then to roll it with roller OF
sufficient weight to take out all the
soft places in it, so that water will
not be held to make ohuckholes or
ruts The surface will then be
covered with decomposed granite,
which will be rolled so hard that 1t
will stand the heaviest teams.
The use Of decomposed granite for
surfacing roads has never been tried
In Oregon but in other sections Of the
world it has been found a success.
After careful investigation the
management of the Lewis and Clark
Fair has decided to use granite sand
on the driveways about the fair
grounds. The granite sand to be used
is from South America and is deliver.
ed in Portland. as ballast on ships, at
less cost than granite could be ship
ped in from Rogue River Valley, the
only place that it is found in Oregon.
The South American granite is red
in color which is considered an ad.
van tage as it will not be so hard on
the eyes as the glare from the white
granite of Southern Oregon. The
result of this trial ON a road here
will ba watched with interest not
only in Josephine county but in the
Willamette Valley counties, where
rocks for road macadamizing has 10 be
shipped in, thus making big freight
charge in addition to the cost Of
crushing. If the decomposed granite
+is a success, the Valley counties hope
to get special rate from the
Southern Pacific that will enable
them to ship in granite from the
hills near this city. and use it on
their roads instead Of crushed rocks.
The sequence of this would be another
big industry for Grants Pass for the
only place where this granite is found
Immediately along the railroad is just
west of this city. where there are
great hills OF decomposed granite.
The railroad company now have
several granite pits opened and each
year takes out thousands of tons for
use along their road from Portland to
Sacramento in paving their depot
grounds and for track ballasting and
for fills The cars are loaded by a
steam shovel as rapidly as though it
were digging into an earth bank.
Once before granite sand was used
as road material and it proved a
failure. The experiment was made
by Grants Pass when the town was
first built up. Sixth street, the nam
travelled street. becoming mudhole,
coating of granite sand was dumped
on it, with the result that il settled
into the mud and made the street
so impossible that it became neces-
sary to haul off both mud and granite
and then to put on coating OF gravel.
There is no doubt that had the street
been tiled to drain it, and then the
ground thoroughly rolled with l5
or 20 ton roller to take out all the
soft places and to render it impervious
to rains, and then the granite itself
thoroughly rolled. that the expert
ment would have proved success.
AS the county court will not half-dc
the job in their experiment in the
use of granite on the road they will
improve. there is likelihood that the
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