The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-02-14
fern part, radiating from the city of
How Work Has Progressed.

Seven years ago, when there were
only about twenty autos in Mankato,
in the spring of the year or during
the rainy seasons, it was impossible
for any auto to venture beyond the
limits of the city because our coun-
try roads were long, narrow mud
paths, impossible for the auto and
anything but pleasant, and even at
times dangerous for. the horse and
wagon. The handful of autoists or
ganized club and together with the
Commercial club we started the
good roads movement. At first it
was hard work to get the farmers
interested. They used the universal
argument: The roads are good
enough for us. If we build them bet
ter, you autoists will use the roads
and we farmers can drive in the
ditch To overcome this argument,
required patience and courage. One
of the worst roads out of Mankato,
and perhaps one of the worst in
Southern Minnesota, was the road
leading from Mankato to Madison
Lake. This road leads through a
portion of fiat, level land When this
road dried up after rain, it was
filled with deep ruts and so rough
that it was not only dangerous and
unpleasant to travel with an auto,
but most expensive. l venture to
say that seven years ago it cost me
more on the wear of my tires on
one round trip from Mankato to Mad
ison Lake total distance of TWEEN
ty-four miles, than it did the whole
of last summer when | travelled the
road every day and sometimes twice
a day. What was to be done? We
realized that without the aid of the
farmer, we could not improve cOndi-
tons.
Bought Road Drags.
1--WE bought several road drags and
placed them in the hands of several
well disposed pathmasters and we
agreed to pay them for their time
if they would drag the roads at the
proper time after each rain. The
effect far exceeded onr expectations.
The transformation was surprising.
From every quarter requests came
for a road drag and after a year or
two we had over one hundred drags
in use in Blue Earth county. While
the drag improved conditions, still
the improvement was not permanent.
Unless the roads were regularly
dragged after the rains, they, soon
would fall back into their former
poor condition Our next step was to
discourage the old wasteful methods
of road building, namely, OF taking
the road grader out on the road and
dragging the dirt and sod into the
center of the road and permitting
it to lie there in Jumps and bumps.
We encouraged permanent, practical
road building and every year our
Auto and Commercial. clubs and our
business men donated sums of money
for grading and graveling. purposes.
Assisted BY Commissioners.
'In this we were ably and gener-
ously assisted by the farmers who
donated many days of labor and by
our board of County Commissioners
who always met us dollar for dollar
foR every dollar that we spent for
grading and crawling. The Village
of Madison Lake joined us in our.
work on the Mankato Madison Lake.
road and the result is that from being
perhaps the worst road in southern.
Minnesota that particular stretch of
highway today is one of the best
graded and graveled twelve mile
stretch of road in Minnesota. Farm
ers who come to Mankato drive four
and five miles out of their way in
order to be able to use this road.
This is not, however, the only
road that is receiving our attention.
In every direction and in every town
ship farmers and businessmen are CO.
operating for the permanent improve
ment of our highways. In fact, so
great is the good roads movement
in our county that with our present
limited road and bridge fund our
county commissioners, to their great
regret, are unable to meet the de-
mands for aid. The business men of
Mankato' are raising five year fund
of $4,000 per year, which amount
they propose to distribute for grav-
cling upon the different roads radiat
ing from Mankato. Then. too, we
propose to build stretch road under
the Elwell law from Mankato to
Good Thunder about twelve miles.
And last, but not least, we have
made application to the state high
way commission to secure the $780,
900 federal aid for the postroad from
Mankato to Bloomington bridge. If
we are successful in securing this
aid and the road is built, we will
have one hundred miles of continll-
GUS fine highway from Good Thunder,
through Mankato to both Minneapolis