Bisbee daily review., 1912-10-13
ROAD BUILDING IN ARIZONA
Progress of Movement for Better Highways in New State Is Told by Bisbeeite in Eastern Magazine Boosts Borderland Ocean to Ocean Highway.


 state highway to various county points and connecting such points. one with the other.
 In such territorial highway building thus far only certain links have been completed. From Bisbee to Douglas there is a splendid oiled road that in construction approaches a boulevard Another link is high up in the Santa Rita mountains between Bisbee ana Tucson. There has been some splen- did scenic road building between Phoe- nix and Prescott. and similar work has been done in the north.
 In the spring of the present year great impetus was given to the good roads movement in the agitation which was begun for a transcontinentaI highway. There was a meeting held in Phoenix which was attended by mo torists from southern California. Ari- zona and New Mexico, and this meet ing selected a proposed route for a transcontinental highway which would traverse what is generally termed the northerly route to distinguish 1t from what has become known as the border land route. This proposed highway aroused considerable opposition owing to the fact that San Diego, Cal. was left of of the line, which proceeds from Yuma to Los Angeles. and the southern cities of the state of Arizona were not considered. To put the route in condition for transcontinental motor tours would require much road building and bridge construction, and II is sought to obtain federal aid fo. the project It obtained the endorse ment Of the motor association of Ari- zona, owing to the influence of Phoe- nix, Prescott, Globe, Clifton and Mo renci and was endorsed by Los Ange- les, but not by San Diego and the ex- treme southern section of California
 The meeting at Phoenix failed to recognize that there was already a route which was not only feasible, but the easiest and most practical that has been discovered, one that could at that time be travelled readily. speed fly and with comfort; one which was passable not in summer alone. but in the depth of winter when the norther- ly route is blocked by snow in some portions and made boggy by rain in others. This easier route has since DSNOA4it hAACNA db- tNt BOIuEElEDu TranscOntineutal Ocean-to-Ocean high way, for the support and maintenance of which there has been an associa- ton formed in all towns along it from Fort Dodge to Tucson, divided into sections or districts with supervisor over each district and with state wee presidents and secretaries. This route runs almost due south in it's course till Fl Paso, Tex. is reached. whence it proceeds through southern New Mexico and southern Arizona, from Douglas to Bisbee to Tucson, Florence and Phoenix. thence to Yu- ma, to San Diego and thence north to Los Angeles.
 Boosting 6orderIand Route
 Left to shift for themselves, the southern cities took up the matter of the BoTderland route and finally in terested the TranscontinentaI Tours club in their project. At first that or ganization considered highway through a country which people or the east have considered a desert as being something of a joke, but the earnestness Of the people along the route finally won their confidence, and Harry Drum, chairman of the tours committee decided to make the jOuTn- ey over it and investigate it's practica- bility. He was much surprised to hud easier grades, lower attitudes. and bet ter roads than any he had previously traversed in transcontinental tours, with the result that when he reached Bis6ss, he pronounced the BorderIand route easily the best and most feasible q r4 n h fgh h. discovered, and on his return to Chi cago, recommended that his club en- dorse the all-the-year-round southern route as the best.
 The rivalry between two sections of two states has stimulated road building and road betterments as noth- ing else could have done.s Tn the north there is extensive work being done where hundreds of thousands of dol lars for construction of bridges to do away with bad lords and for building expensive mountain roads are requir. | ed. In the south the matter of oiled roads has been taken up. and Cochise county oiled a section from the city limits of Bisbee to the Bisbee- Douglas | link of the territorial highway. al- 1 ready a splendid oiled thoroughfare, while the city has contracted for the oiling of the street from it heart 10 its easterly boundary. The 30 miles from
 the mining city in the hills to the
 smelter city in the valley is readily
 made Is less than an hour
 | Leaving Bisbee the BordeTland
 route passes over a country road pas;
 Fort Huachuca, avoiding fords and | crossing a bridge over the San Pedro
 river through COchise county and into | Pima county. where it meets another
 link of the territorial highway in the
 Catalina mountains. This is one Ol
 the most magnificent mountain roads
 to be found in the west From this fiink the journey proceeds over tho
 excellent Pima county roads to Tue
 son, the ''Old Pueblo" and thence tc
 Florence. whence it continues past