The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-11-01
MODEL HIGHWAYS
At LITTLE COST
AN ENTIRE TOWNSHIP IN KAY
COUNTY, IA MILES TO BE
GRIDIRONED- FIND 1T PAYS.


ing out a plan by which they pro.
nose 10 create model dirt ROADS
throughout the township. In Miller
township there are one hundred ana
forty.lour miles of highway, when
will he graded, drained, worked an
maintained under a systematic pan
The trustees expect TO demonstrate
that the saving of time and power
in hauling loads to town over Soou
roads will vastly more than balance
the investment in the road construc-
ton ami, maintenance. They expect
to produce roads on which the hea''
lest loads can be hauled at any
time of the year, no difference no"
much rain has fallen. BY the use
OF the road drag they expect TO
have dirt roads packed hard ana
thoroughly serviceab!e the year
around.
Miller township is the home OF
the widely known 1Ol and the BIS
V ranches The 101 ranch of the
pany occupyOafyeatfbTodirtbh NH
Miller brothers and the Big V ranch
operated by w. II. Vanseleous oc-
cupy most Of Miller township. George
Miller. trustee, w. II. Nanselous'
treasurer, AM J. E. Cobb, clerk
make up the board OF trustees.
This board has held office in Miller
township five years without opposi-
ton. They figure that a good high
way Is a business proposition; that
It will be a money maker for them
and for everybody else. And they
proposed to have all tne roads good,
No Weak Link in This Chain.
"A chain" said George Miller,
Is no stronger than its weakest
link. What will it avail us if we
have the finest roads in the world
over most of the way, and then have
hundred feet of bad road? 1t Will
require as much power TO pull
through the one hundred feet OF
bad road as it will to haul a load
the entire distance over bad roads.
Every foot of the road must be
good"
In December 1909, Miller town
shin submitted to the voters a prop
osition to issue $4,000 in bonds to
be used in constructing a system OF
good roads. This amount was all
the law would allow on the 1905
valuation which was 100000. When
the votes were counted they were
almost unanimous for the bonds. The
bonds run for twenty-five years ana
draw 6 per cent 4 Ponca City bank
took the entire issue at 100 - per
cent
With $500 Worth of Equipment.
In January, 1910, when the money
was available, the trustees bought
50 900 worth of equipment. They
bought an elevator grader for $500
"A machine which makes bitches
along the sides of the road, and, by
means of an endless chain dirt car
rier. carries the dirt to the middle
of the road. The elevator grader is
pulled by twenty horses. The trus-
tees also bought a 12-horse push
grader, a disc harrow, tooth har-
row. ten wheel scrapers and King
then ready for the King drag. After
After the dirt is piled up in the
middle of the road by the elevator
grader, the push grader, the disc
harrow and the tooth harrow Gre
ate a gently rounded roadway with
humps cut to pieces or ground to
powder. The wheel scrapers are
used to make fills. The road is
the nready for the King drak. After
every rain the King lrag is brought
into service and the road troweled
down until it is packed hard.
At s175 a Mile.
With the road making equipment
mentioned in use. the Miller town.
ship trustees figure that their foun-
dation for good roads is costing
them S175 per mile Since the first
of this year the trustees have spent
$4,000 of their $4,000 appropria-
ton, and they have fifty miles of
main travelled road that look like
a good highway dream. In places the
smoothly cut thoroughfares stretch
away in a straight line for miles
and the automobile flies over it at
thirty-five miles an hour while the
occupants OF the car easily imagine
themselves in a Pullman. The road.