The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1913-11-28
NEED i D conc | / Il )
!. / ROAD J. TO | RANGE 4
E. ]. Filatrault Give Instances a
How Such = Highway Would y
~ Benefit Duluth. ,.. !

Ell. Filiatrault of the Mutual Auto
company of Duluth says the import
ance of a permanent highway of con-
crete construction to the business in
terests of the range towns from the
sentiment expressed by the business
men on the range, seems to be one
Of the live issues of the day. In fact.
critics on transportation have figured
out that tonnage can be moved from
Duluth to the ranges considerably
cheaper over a good concrete highway
than what it costs at the present time
by rail haul As an illustration, the
manager of large firm having a
chain of stores in the various range
towns stated that with the use of a
f1ve-ton truck and thsee-ton trailers
that considerable saving in trans
portation cost would be the result,
He said:
arrangements could be made not
only to move tonnage from the job
<bing centers in Duluth to the ranges.
but considerable advantage would be
obtained by the hauling of farm pro-
duce back to the city, which could be
gathered from the farmers along the
Miller Trunk highway, and at such
nominal cost that it would not take
very long to pay for the original cost
of the hauling equipment.
ut is astonishing the rapid devel-
opment that is taking place in the
building of our agricultural resources
along the main line of travel between
here and the ranges. Now that con-
crete has been tried out on the main
streets in several Of the range towns
it has conclusively proven the advan-
tage OF concrete roads, not only in
the trade centers, but for the main
)highway connecting such trade CEN
tiers.
1.-THE Commercial clubs of Biwabik,
Eveleth, Virginia, Chisholm and Hib-
bling are all supporting the active
movement now on foot to urge the
county commissioners to spend at
least 100000 on the Miller Trunk
highway, and the Importance of
spending at least $4,000 on the YER
million highway. 1t is safe to est
mate that there are fully 1000 settlers
along the route of the Miller Trunk
highway and Vermilion road at the
present time. Within a distance of
IL miles south of Biwabik on the
Vermilion road there is something
like 1,4OO settlers in the town of Cot
ton on the Miller Trunk highway. An
other $50 settlers may be added to the
list, and surely the balance of these
two highways will easily round up
the 1000 settlers. With the increased
tax levy for 1914, amounting to $685.
900, surely $4,000 should be spent
on the Miller Trunk highway and Yer
million highways.
"Now is the time to start to build
permanent highways of concrete con-
struction, if St. Louis county intends
to prepare for the future. The farmer
demands them, as also the business
interests, and with good highways in
the northern part of the state, it will
become known from the Atlantic to
the Pacific and assist materially in
developing the great areas which now
are undeveloped in the northern part
Of the state. Tourists would take ad-
vantage of these good highways by
enjoying the cool summer weather en-.
joyed tributary to Lake Superior, and
the distance from the Atlantic to the
Pacific would not be materially in
creased, now that the remaining fou1
miles of road near Cohasset is beinf
finished, which gives the tourists tn,
opportunity to travel from the Allan
tic to the Pacific via Duluth, Hib
oing, Grand Rapids, Bemidji, ETC."
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