The Meeker herald., 1914-04-18
The Ideal Highway

what good judge OF htghways 40
routes thinks of the Rifle-Meeker-
Vernal part Of the Lincoln Highwat:
J. Horace Coltharp Of Rangely,
arrived in Glenwood Springs this
week and while here he made bis
headquarters at the Grand hotel. ~.
Coltharp might be taken for : du1e
middle. Well, he is no dude, and yen
will be forced to believe 1t when yen
are told that he drove staes ineo
Glenwood Springs from CrestSd
Butte In the year 1885, Crested Butte
was then one Of the railroad connec-
tions to this place and Granite was
another. In either case 1t took two
days to get mail from the end Of the
track to Glenwood. w
w. R. Lee, proprietor Of the Grand,
says Mr.. Coltharp started out in life
In the dairy business, but he is such
an old timer that you would be Will
ing to agree that he started out In
life as ''male'' carrier. 1t really
don't make any difference how he
got started but II you ever meet him
you would be inclined to ask the
question how he got there, he looks
so simple and easy. Il
| One of his missions here was 10
meet another "male" carrier, joe
Luxen. Joe is just like Horace ia
every way and the two like to g4t
together and talk about old times ard
while both tried to keep so far back
from civilization that they were only
discovered by accident.
"What are you doing here?' asked
the reporter.
We'll, was just stopping Of 70
see some Of my old friends and to
meet Joe Luxen who is coming up
from Rifle to have chat"
"Well, someone said you had some
ideas on the automobile road to Salt
Lake by way Of Meeker?"
IT travel that road much Of the
time and 1 see they are putting IL In
shape to run autos over by the LIST Of
June. 1t is q fine road all the waY
from Meeker to Salt Lake right nov
but the Mormons have way of dQe
ing things If they ever take notion u
when they have any doings u
their community and there are thrsS
~ four Interested thsy get tOgstifef
and say let's do this together. And 1t
10 done. They never try to work in
dividually. I tell you they are great
people. l came over that road and I
find them at work all along the line.
"You Glenwood fellows are all
right. You sent q committee to our
state and woke us up and we are going
to have the best auto road into this
town that can be built by way Of
Meeker. Mr.. Austin Gavin is one of
the best road boosters any state could
have and he was head of that conf
mittee I understand.
"All of Utah is reused up over that
new road and they will surely have
the same ready for autos by June lst.
and the beauty of 1t is you can see
farm house every foot of the road. In
all the land there is no handsomer
valley nor more productive one
than you will find on the trip from
Meeker to Salt Lake. We have
started in to build telephone line so
that autoists can be always within
speaking distance of the world. We
are going to have gasoline stations
along the road at convenient places
and there is nothing that will be left
undone to make the Pixies Peak
Ocean to Ocean Highway like trav l.
ing in Pullman cars"
Mr.. Coltharp took the reporter step
by step over the road during the con-
lversation and set dream of trip
for any person looking for ride
without bumps and with scenic at
fractions that no one travelling across
the country should miss. He ex-
planned how foolish it would be for
the people to travel to the Pacific
ocean by way Of Cheyenne as they
would not see very much Of the state
of Utah and none of Colorado.
The trip over the mountains from
Colorado Springs as now planned is
easy to travel and delightful every
foot of the road. One could travel
this route and arrive at their journeys
end without the least bit Of fatigue.
The eye would be so busy looking at
the sights that you could not get tired.
Mr.. Gavin said he understood that
there would be party out from Salt
Lake for Glenwood Springs just as
soon as the road was fixed up as
planned by the Mormons. That is
said to be not later than June LIST.
Soon after that trip another trip will