The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1912-01-05
PLEASING NEWyEAR GIFT
1T COMES IN THE ANNOUNCEMENT
THAT ALL IMPEDIMENTS
HAVE BEEN REMOVED
TO RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION
The OrOville. Wenatchee Branch Now
an Assured Fact for the
Early Future.

The most cheering news that CONES
to the people Of the ro"nt: on the
eve Of the opening of til. ne" year " DIS
that the state authorities and the Great
Northern railway had reached an
agreement on the long drawn out con-
froversy over the occupancy by the
railroad of State Road No. ID, which
will be encroached upon by the build
ing of the oyiile-Wenatchee branch
The final act closing the agreement
was performed last weeK, and the con-
clusion reached comes as very az.
ceptable New Years gift to the COM
munities that are to be most directly
benefited by the construction of that
long delayed line of communication
Few people in the state know where
State Road No. 10 begins or where it
more familiar to newspaper readers
than any other public highway over
which the state mas supervision. 1t is
generally known. and that know Ledge
has been conveyed to the public
through the controversy that has aris
en- between the state authorities and
the railroad over certain conce$
si0ns demanded by both parties ID ';is
contract, that for long distance the
wagon road constructed at the expense
of the state and designated by a sp-
I'LL r1r %Io knr II
the Columbia river from Wenatche
northword. Now the railroad has e-
lected the west shore of the COLUMBIA
as the route for the OrovilleWemt
chez branch. and so surveyed the lhe,
as that course Obviates the ecsaty
of bridging the Columbia. Through
out the greater portion of tha rore
railroad can be constructed without
interference with the state road. I'm
fortunately between the Entiat liver
and Chelan landing the waters Of the
Columbia wash the base of prGipi
tous mountain of solid rock. There is
barely room for the wagon road that
skirts this cliff above high water mark
and the building of railroad along
the same route-and there is no other
practical way around the obstruction
--necessitates the construction of a
wagon road to a very narrow passage
way. There Is a distance of some
eighth of a mile where the railroad
will parallel the wagon road, AMI ow-
ing to the difficulty of construction
the width of the wagon road in places
must be curtailed to ten feet. Obvi-
ously this is a very dangerous condi-
tion, and it would have to be very
gentle team indeed that would iemain
passive on a ten foot shelf with rush
ing train on one side rubbing the hubs
and a wall of rock, or flowing river,
on the other. Yet even few addition
al feet, that some of the commission
demanded and held out for, wolld i'm
prove the situation, for If a frnctious
team was caught on the gradh by a
passing train it would make little diff
ference as to the degree of trouble the
driver would have on his hands swheth-
er the road was ten or twenty feet
in width, nor would the danger be les
sened under the conditions that pre-
vail at that point. The railroad has
entered into an agreement to safe
guard the road against accident as
thoroughly as it is possible to do so,
and as the railroad will be called upon
to pay any damages that might befall
anyone travelling over the road and
injured through the instrumentality of
the railroad it stands to reason that
the company will do its utmost to re-
duce the chances of accident to a
minimum. Yet for all that it Is q very
ugly trap, and great precaution will
have to be taken both by the railroad
and those who use the wagon road to
prevent fatal accident after the rail-
road is in operation.
The contention being finally settled
the public can look forward with the