Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1913-05-10
ROAD BOOSTERS MEET.
Meeting Held to Devise Ways and Mean.
for Constructing Road Custer to
Lake and Hill City.

AoAO oho AAAA NAtys
Tuesday evening, May 9th, Messrs
FL. s. Vincent of eadwood, James Gra-
ham of Hill City and Lawrence Hetrick
of Hot Springs, who with Chas. Smith
Of Custer, constituted q committee ap.
pointed by the Dsadwood-D Denver Good
Roads Association for the purpose of de-
Gliding on the route, spent the evening
in Custer. About twenty citizens from
our town who were interested in the
good roads, met with the above named
gentlemen at Reynick's restaurant,
where meeting was held for the pur'
pose of discussing ways and means ol
constructing the road. The meeting was
called to order by Forest Supervisor I'm ss
at o'clock, and Mr.. Mark Willis of Gus.
ter was elected Chairman of the meet.
ing, with Mr.. lines as Secretary.
Mr.. Willis stated briefly the object oil
the meeting, and at the very start as.
sured the visiting committee that Custer
was thoroughly in sympathy with any
and all efforts to construct good roads to
and from Custer. Mr.. Hetrick then told
of the organization which was formed a,
Edgsmont short time ago for the pur-
pose of constructing a good road from
Denver to Deadwood. The route tsnta-
lively agreed upon is from Deadwood to
Pactola, thence to Sheridan, Hill City,
Sylvan Lake, Custer, Pringle, Wind
Cave, Hot Springs, Edgsmont, thence to
the South Dakota line, from which point
it had not been definitely decided wheth-
er or not the road would 60 by way Of
Lusk, Wyoming, or Crawford, Nebraska.
All towns on the proposed route have
been asked to join the Association at a
cest of S5 per town. Mr.. Hetrick stated
that the members of the Association
from the various towns were to look af-
ter the construction and marking of the
road to and from their towns. A sym
Dol has been adopted for the purpose of
marking the road, which is to be q two.
foot strip of white paint on posts along
the route, at intervals frequent enough
in order that one post may be seen from
the other. Upon this two-foot strip of
white paint there will be placed a tri-
angle within which will be the letter
3D." the I'D" to indicate either Dead
wood or Denver, and the triangle SYM
bolzes the mountains at either end of
the route.
In speaking of the work that Fall
River county will do towards construct
ing this road, Mr.. Hetrick stated that
they would have the route marked as
indicated above within tho next two or
three weeks and the County officials and
other citizens from Fall River had given
assurance that they would put the road
in first class condition through Fall
River county, work on this line having
already been taken up, Fall River coun-
ty having ordered ninety foot steel
bridge to cross Red Canyon.
Mr.. Vincent then told of the work
which the routing committee, of which
he is chairman, is attempting to do. He
stated that 1t was of the utmost import
ance to have all points OF interest, such
as Wind Cave, Sylvan Lake, and other
points of particular interest, on the dir
ect route, rather than to have them ON
side roads leading from the main high
way. With this point in view, be stated
that the committee had, on the day they
arrived in Custer, been investigating the
possibilities of constructing road from
Sylvan Lake to Hill City. He consider
ed the construction of this road entirely
and stated that when this por-
ton of the road was constructed, it would
be one of the most attractive portions OF
the entire route. The cost, he thought,
would not be prohibitive, and would not
exceed $1,000. He further stated that
when the road from the Lake to Hill
City was constructed, it would be a bet
ter road than the road from Custer to
Sylvan Lake, and therefore urged the
business men of Custer to Immediately
take up the work of constructing a first
class road from Custer to the Lake.
Mr.. Vincent laid emphasis upon the
road construction work which has been
dono in the past. He stated that after
the roads have been generally laid out
from four to FIVE times by the eye, an
engineer would then be employed for
the purpose of laying out the road where
it should be; that generally, the con-
of road as laid out by an en-
gineer costs less than the construction
Of road located by eye; that where the
latter method was practiced, it has been
necessary to construct from three to four
roads before one good road was really
and that the construction oi
each road cost just as much as it would
have cost to construct road in the right
place to begin with. He told US of the
present practice in Lawrence county,
where no roads are now constructed un-
til after they have been definitely laid
out by competent engineer.
Mr.. Morris, commissioner from Pen
nington county, was also present and
told of the work that Pennington county
was doing to put the Denver-Deadw ood
high way in first class condition through
Pennington county. He stated that they
had already agreed upon the changes
necessary on the road that the Pen
nington county surveyor is now ready
10 stake the road and that they were
ready to begin work Immediately and