The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1906-08-23
Waupaca County Road 0yerseer
Solves Problem Of Building
Dirt Roads at Small Cost
COST OF MAIN ENANCE SMALL
Roads can be Kept in Perfect Condition
by the use Of the King Split log Drag
at a Cost of Five Dollars Year
No Mud or Dust


1t is almost too good to be true, but
! it is fact nevertheless that the best
dirt road in tlie state is one of the
cheapest. In Waupaca county about
six and half miles south Of the coun-
/ ty seat, an erterprising road overseer,
| Mr.. Chas. w. Gibson by name, got
tired of three-quarter mile stretch
Of bad clay road in his district and
fixed it up at cost of twenty-four
] dollars so that it is the best dirt road
in the state.
| Before it was made over this road
was like most other dirt roads, lower
than the ground alongside gof it, so
that the water couldn't get. out of it
in any way but by operating. The
/ ground was low so the evaporating
was slow process, and teams had
plenty of chance to work the road in
to an impossible bed of pudd1ed clay,
Isof about the right consistency to run
| through a brick machine to make
brick, but pretty poor stuff to travel
through, and through is literally the
word. When the water finally dried
up the Jumps baked to a brick like
! hardness which mades the road ex-
/ tremely uneven and hard to travel
over until they weress beaten down by
the travel to form two inch layer of
; fine dust.
| But all this is changed. Now the
road is never muddy in rainy weather
and there is almost no dust in dry
weather, and better still the road is in
condition SO that it.can be kept in this
| desirable dust1ess and mud1ess state
/ for an annual cost of only three to
| five dollars per mile.
| All this sounds like difficult thing
to do, but it was simple as could be.
/, Mr.. Gibson cut out the brush along
| hissroad, ploWed the sides, turned
the dirt in toward the center with a
road grader and made good rounded
grade Of such a shape that the water
readily found its way to the bitches.
So far he did just like any other road
overseer does with his road machine.
But Mr.. Gibson went farther. He
took forks and threw the sods outside
the bitches and narrowed the soft
newly made grade to settle it and
make it even. Then after the first
rain he went overit with King split
log road drag to fill up the ruts which
the travel had made in the still loose
dirt of the grade. He repeated the
dragging after each subsequent rain
and after few such treatments had
a road on which a heavily loaded wa
yam made hardly any impression even
right after rain, when most clay.
roads would be all mud. ID
This road drag was made for the
town by the local blacksmitha for
about SIS. 1t consisted of an eight.
inch log split into two pieces. These
pieces were set up with the flat faces
forward and connected with wooden
braces to hold them about thirty
inches apart. For about half it's
length the front log was shod along
the lower side of the face with steel
and provided with a chain to draw the
apparatus by. A team was hooked on
the chain in such manner that as the
drag was pulled along it lay at an
angle with the road and worked lit-s
tie of the dirt toward the center to fill
the ruts.
By going over the roads after every
rain little soft pudd1ed clay was
dragged toward the center. filling the
ruts and keeping up the good rounded
shape of the grade so that water ram
off readily. This puddled clay was
packed into the ruts by the travel and
dried hard as brick so that it became
steadily harder for wheels to cut any
ruts in it, thus it came about also
that the road was not cut up into big
c1ods which could dry and be pounded
into dust, and so the road is nearly
dustless in dry weather.
This simple operation can be per-
formed after every rain on any clay
road that is slightly rounded up, at a
cost of only1$3 to SIS mile per year
it is done for this cost on mile after
mile of Iowa roads. The principle of
the operation is that it is road main
tenance not reconstruction after the
road has been allowed to go all to
pieces. It issthe same principle that
the railroads use in keeping their
road beds in shape, the same over
worked rule we have all been told
times without number, and have al
ways believed in most heartily as
good motto for the other fel1ow-that
a stitch in time saves nine