The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-08-29
AUTOMOBILE BRINGING GOOD
ROADS TO NORTH DAKOTA
Work Of Motor Clubs Greatly Benetng the Farmers Says
]. w. Foley, in Weekly Letter Anecdoe Of Buffalo
Biblical Harvest Weather.

II the automobile has brought cases
Of individual extravaganza to light in
this period of reflection upon unwise
expenditures, 1t is also bringing some
thing that North Dakota needs more
than any other single public utility,
and that Is good roads, says j. W..
Foley in his Bismarck letter to The
st. Paul Pioneer Press. Until the
coming of the automobile ''good roads"
was largely a matter for lecturers and
writer's. Little of practical nature
was done or attempted. But with the
presence of hundreds of automobiles
in every county in the state, and with
the automobile displacing the horse as
means of livery from town to town,
the need of good roads has become so
apparent that the automobile clubs
through the state have banded togeth-
en- for road Improvement. This has
already been done in several countries
and their example will be initiated by
others.
The first work of the automobile
owners has been to engage boys and
laborers willing to work for reason
able sums to pick up stones in city
streets, I'LL up chunk holes" and then
gradually to extend their energies to
the country roads. Naturally, the
roads of this state are good, the soil
packing down firmly and draining
well, except in the heavy soil of the
Red river valley. But the hidden
stones and half concealed chuck holes
are constant menace to automobiles
and these are receiving the first atten-
ton of the good roads association.
There is not even the smallest town
In North Dakota now but has its auto
mobile livery. Drives of sixty, seventy
and a hundred miles are as ordinary
are made with greater ease and COM
fort than were drives of fifteen and
twenty miles in the old days. Travel
Ing men no longer wait for local
freights to make towns" and the ne
cessity Of real good roads is becoming
more essentially apparent every day.
The farmers viii be among the great
est beneficiaries of the good roads
movement inasmuch as they contrib
ute the greatest and heaviest traffic.
1t has cost the farmers of this state
enormous sums to tolerae bad roads
In he past and their expenses of
hauling grain and produce to primary
markets has been more than the cost
OF shipment from the elevators to the
terminals. Nevertheless, the old and
ineffective system of road making has
continued in, the different counties,
and the roads have been muddy and
heavy in wet weather and rutty and
uneven in dry. If the automobile
brings generally better roads 1t will
be the farmers best friend, even if
In the past he has been inclined to
think 1t his greatest enemy.
Old Indian Battle Grounds.
The state historical society has of
late been making some investigations
OF the old trails followed by Indian
fighters of the regular army at about
the time Of and subsequent to the
Minnesota massacre of 1852. Several
campaigns were waged against the
Sioux in this state at that time and
continued from time to time until the
Custer campaign Of 1876, The histori-
cal society wants some permanent
markings so that in the future the
course Of the soldiers through the
frontier and the backgrounds may be
marked out. Up to the present time
nothing of this sort has been attempt
ed.
Near Monango, in Dickey county,
there is a big monument commemor-
ating the battle of Whitestone Hills,
where good many soldiers and Indi-
ans fell There is another battle-ground