Arizona republican., 1911-04-24
APOSTLES Of
GOOD ROADS
Drive Motor Truck Across
Continent
HAVE INTERESTING TIME
Commander of Expedition
Will See Governor Sloan
and Will Preach from the
Text, 1--WE Want a Trans
continental Highway"
HAVE INTERESTING TIME

The fact that other states than Ari
iona are interested in a transconti
mental highway was demonstrated las
night to crowds Of Phoenix citizen.
when a seven-ton gasoline truck rolled
up Washington, on its way from Den
Yer TO the coast, sent out in the inter
ests OF good roads and interstate high
ways. Under the command OF \. l.
! Westgard, who represents the United
! States office of public roads. the
/ Touring club Of America, and the
| Automobile Elue Book, the big truck
came from Globe yesterday, distance
/ of lib miles, in ten and three-quarter
| hours, and will leave in a day or two
/ for Los Angeles. II is Mr. WeStgard's
| intention, however, To remain here un-
/ til he has succeeded in gaining an in
/ terview with Governor Sloan and 9TH
er prOminen: officials Of the territory,
so that he can have opportunity To
speak To them about the condition OF
the roads. After leaving here ne will
go to Los Angeles, then to San Fran
cisco. and from san Francisco back 10
Denver. However. it is not intended to
have the trip end with Denver. as the
truck Will be sent on To New York and
brought back to the mountain city only
after it has completed the fun round
trip Of the long journey across the con-
tinent.
There are a number of people in the
party, and il moves across the country
under the direction Of Mr.. Westgard. a
wealthy New Yorker who has taken
up the good roads" mission with the
intention To stay with it until definite
results are gained. He covered this
route last fall in a pleasure car and is
in an excellent position to be a good
judge of the different character of the
route at the two seasons of the year,
spring and fall He reports that upon
leaving Albuquerque they found a
great deal of sand. which made heavy
going, requiring seven days to make
la miles to Magdalena. New Mexico.
On this stage of the route the party
camped fourteen times. and 10 avoid
mud in the Rio Grande bottoms at san
Pedro they bumped across the railroad
ties for two miles and crossed the rail-
road bridge over the river San Antonio.
Leaving Socorro they passed through
the Lemitar canyon They were told
by natives that narrow cuts and large
Overhanging rocks would make it i'm
possible for the huge freighter to pass
through this canyon. but Mr.. Westgard
reports that he took run up in a
pleasure car to look over conditions and
decided that ii was possible to squeeze
through. This. however. proved a diff
ficult feat 4 half dozen motorists ac-
Companied the party up into the can
yon to see the task accomplished,
which was done by placing planks di-
rectly underneath the overhanging
rocks and by driving the wheels over
these planks, fitting the car out beyond
the point of the rock. Upon reaching
Magdalena it was hard to convince the
local motorists that the immense truck
had come through the canyon.
From Magdalena the party set out
for Springerville, Arizona. 1t took
nine and a half days to cover this
distance of 1917 miles. on the sandy
St Augustine plains the truck re-
peatedly plunged through snow. rain
and hail storms. which made the
adobe soil slippery as grease In addi-
ton il had to suTmOunt Datil noun
tain. where grades as high as IS per
cent were encountered. They camped
out every night, and the thermometer
frequently stood at 10 degrees. This
temperature caused considerable suf-
fering to the crew. as frequently wood
was scarce for camp fires.
The distance from Springerville to
Globe, $50 miles. consumed eleven days,
of which seven and a half days were
used To cover the forty-two miles from
Springerville, across the White noun
tain's. to Cooley's ranch. The road
crosses the summit at an elevation of
1000 feet and the late spring and I'M
usually heavy SHOWS created conditions
which had not occurred on these noun
tains during the month Of April for
over twenty Years. The party encoun-
tered many deep snow drifts and large
snow fields on the upper plateau. The
car weighing seven tons with its load,
broke through the crust and one day,
even with the aid of eight horses, they
were able to make only three Quarters
OF a mile in twelve hours-and that
was Easter Sunday. At one place thew
lacked up all four wheels of the heavy
car in eight separate mud holes in a
distance of 800 feet. Upon arriving
at Coolen's ranch the crew was eX-
hausted from their strenuous labor;
though the truck stood up sp!endidly
during the grueling work. Mr.. West
gard says il is due the crew the credit
of having accomplished the most
strenuous trip ever made in q motor
driven vehicle. The skin was torn off
their hands from handling the rough
r,Ia he
low temperature caused painful cracks
at the numerous bruises occasioned by
the hard work The crew was COM
posed of Arthur G. Thompson of Chi
cago, the son of w. NJ. Thompson, the
western sales manager of the Saurer
Motor company; George MacLean, of