The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-04-02

This Is the age Of highway improve
ment. The germ of good roads has
injected the union from east to west
and from north to south. The noise
CT the steam grader is displacing the
horses and the slips. This Is an age
of great undertakings in every line
and so it is in road building. The
most stupenduous tasks in building
highways are planned and 1T is grati-
flying to note that they are not only
laid out on pape but on the land.
They are not the dreams of visionar-
les but the everyday happenings in
the lives of practical men. The mag
nitude of the plans for building high
ways has passed the bounds of COM
munity and county lines and become
intestate and international.
The two great transcontinental
highways, extending from the Allan
tic to the Pacific, each over 1000 miles
In length and each more than eleven
times as long as the world famous APP
plan Way, are in course of construc-
ton. One extends from New York to
Chicago through Omaha to the Pacific,
and the other follows the old national
route through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois to
st. Louis, thence to Kansas City and
over the new Santa Fe Trail across
New Mexico and Arizona to Los An
geles. An organization has also been
formed which is laying out a road
from the Atlantic to the Pacific across
Canada. Another organization is lay
ing out a road from British Columbia
across Washington, oregon and Cali
ifornia to Mexico.
But the road that affords the most
| comfortable passage for travel and
] that passes through the richest agri-
cultural district in the world, is the
Meridian road, extending from Lake
Winnipeg, Canada, to the Gulf Of Mex
leo. Extending from Winnipeg south
to Wichita, Kan, will be a single line,
except a short distance near Lake
Traverse, N. D., and almost a direct
line due north and south. At Wichita,
Kan, the Meridian road branches, one
division, the Interstate Postal High
way, passing south through Winfield,
Arkansas City. Guthrie and Oklahoma.
crossing the Red river bridge north
of Gainesville, Tex; the other line, the
Chisholm Trail, passes through We'll
lington, Caldwell, Enid, Ell Reno and
Lawton and across the Red river
bridge at Burk Burnett, and extends
to Fort Worth, Tex. From Dallas to
Galveston will be built one line of
road, and from Fort Worth through
Waco another line or road which will
branch one extending to Galveston
and the other to San Antonio.
Tavoa hog ho1r, a HAL s1otuy h,,f
has made a strong forward movement,
and various counties ~traversed by the
Meridian road have voted between
roads and bridges, while other coun-
ties are preparing to take action. The
Galveston line of the Texas road will
have hundreds of miles of rock or
macadam road. The Meridian road
IL laid out about midway between the
muddy hill roads of Missouri and the
sparsely settled plains east OF the
Rockies and thus secures the best ma
turaI dirt roads for travel to be found
anywhere.
From Galveston, Tex, to. winnipeg,
Canada, the Meridian road traverses
practically a level plain. In southern
Oklahoma the Interstate Postal High
way swings east and passes around
the Arbuckle Mountains, while the
Chisholm Trail swings west and passes
down on the west side. Across Okla
homa, Kansas, Nebraska and the Da-
kotas r hundreds Of miles with an
elevation varying but a few feet. The
highest elevation is attained near Sis
seton, S. D. where it crosses the
watershed between the Missouri river
and the Red river of the north. From