Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-07-23
WHITEWOOD TO HAVE
ATTRACTIVE DRIVE

several miles of mountain and can
yon scenery, upon the completion Of
the new public road that is being
| built from the town westerly, by
! Oak Park, up the creek and through
the hills, toward Centennial Prairie
and Spearfish. This road will inter
sect the Deadwood-Spearfish road at
the Draper school house on Polo
/ creek, and will lessen the distance
between Whitewood and Spearfish
some three or four miles. 1t will
cross the hills west of Whitewood at
uniformly easy grade, and this,
with the magnificent views afforded
will make it exceedingly useful for
haulage as we'll as popular for pleas
ure driving. 1t is being built by the
] county, assisted by the enterprise Of
the Whitewood people, who have con-
tributed generously toward the cost
Of it, which will be $4,000 or $4,000
1t is a sizable undertaking, has
been carefully planned, and is being
well executed. Thirty or forty men
are engaged, with teams, implements
and quantities of du Pont product.
Most Of the material can be handled
with teams and scrapers, but over a
distance Of about mile the road is
being built against the hillside, and
there are short stretches of shallow
rock work, where blasting powder
is used to loosen the material. The
road is being eXcavated to a good
width, to facilitate passing, and once
completed it will require but little
attention, provided the necessary
safeguards are adopted against wash
outs.
Immediately above the Oak Park
at Whitewood the new road enters
region of rugged character not
revealed, upon casual contemplation,
to one at a distance-he does not
realize that there can be so much
close at hand. The gulch is deep,
with high, steep slopes on both sides,
and contains a scattering growth of
large pines, suitable, and now being
utilized, for sawmill purposes, be-
sides a heavy underground. The
new thoroughfare is being cut on a
winding course through the timber,
well up the slope on the northerly
side Of the gulch, below it a wilder
ness of thicket-ash, aspen, birch,
young pine, oak, chokecherry and
vine.
The full beauty of the new drive
may best be appreciated on the way
from Centennial Prairie into white
wood. Instead of making the wlue
detour that takes him through olo
Crook City and beyond, then to dou-
BILE back into Whitewood from the
east, the traveller will hold a course
almost due easterly from the Drap.
er school house to the summit west
Of Whitewood. There he will be-
hold, spread out before and below
him, like the sea, a wide expanse oi
valley and prairie, of cultivated flelt
and grazing land, reaching away il
two directions, seventy-five, one
hundred miles, even greater dis
tances, to the horizon.
He has a survey, almost without
interruption for miles, Of the Beal
Butte and Belle Fourche valleys Beal
Butte, "Ma-ta-pa-ha" stands out con
spicuously in the east, seemingI!
right at hand, while away to the
northward may be seen on clea>
days those other sentinels Of th'
prairies, Deer's Ears, Castle Rock
Two Top Haystack and Antelope
Buttes. The towns of Vale, NislanC
and Newell along and beyond tn,
Belle Fourche river, can be mad'
out, and closer scrutiny will shoV
multitude of claim shanties, her,
and there over the plain. Only th'
lower reaches of the Whitewood val
ley are visible at first, but soon afte
the descent on the easterly slope be
gins more of that valley comes int
view through the gap below, with it
green and brown fields, section o
the railroad and some of the house
in the town. BY this time the trav
eler has his attention divided be
tween the canyon scenery and prai1
lie scenery, and the interest of tn
trip increases until he comes out i
the town of Whitewood itself.
However, the scenic effects are Q
secondary consideration in the bull
ing of this road. 1t is designed es
sentially for the benefit of those VIII
{ have occasion to travel betwee
} Whitewood and Spearfish and White
) wood and Centennial Prairie and on
) of its most important offices wi
be to afford the farmers of Center
nial Prairie and the adjacent regio
convenient access to the flour mil
/. market and creamery at Whitewoot
: 1t will save them seven or eigt
, miles on round trip, the grade wi
e be no heavier in the heaviest plac
: and the road will be more easily keI
). up because it will be better col
D structed and there will be less of /