The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1914-03-12
OCEAN TO-OCEAN ROAD
Plan To Connect The Atlantic and
Pacific by Modern Highway
BY W. E. Williams in Motor

Back in the days when Henry Clay was
in his prime they dreamed of an Ocean
to-Ocean Highway. More than that,
they actually laid out and built some
thing like 800 miles of this continental
boulevard, and called it 1.-The Cumber-
land Road" 1t reached and still reach
es from Cumberland, Maryland. to
East St. Louis, Illionis, on the Mississ-
ippi. 1t was impracticable to go far
Their in those days; st. Louis was the
very outpost of civilization.
The development of the steam engine
brought another kind of continent
speedway into demand, and the old
dream of Gallatin, who was Secretary
of the Treasury under Jefferson and
Madison, was laid upon the shelf.
Clay was the last great champion of
the idea, and obtained tor the Cumber-
land road the last large Congressional
appropriation.
But the project which the steam
engine killed, the motor has revived,
and so easily can the worlds greatest
road project be carried to completion
that it is inconceivable THAT should
fail, now that the way is pointed out.
The idea, l believe sprang from the
brain of Harry F. Kohr, a Kansas City
newspaper man, who has written much
on road matters. 1t is wonderfully
simple, and while we are accustomed to
think of nationwide projects in terms
of hundreds of millions, the Ocean-to-
Ocean Highway can be handled in terms
of hundred of thousands, if not IN tens
of thousands.
Cumberland on the east and Tum-
water on the west. Don't forget those
names. They are to be the fcrM1Ni of
the longest and most picturesque high
way on earth.
After leaving Cumberland and speed
ing through the Narrows, the first and
most spectacular ''stop-over" is Frost
burg-the apex of the great plateau
between Dams and Great Savage
Mountains; the summit of the water
shed between Georges Creek and
jennings Run, whose layers extend
beyond MARYLAND lines, north and south.
Here. at an average altitude of 2.lO0
feet above tide, the turist can stop and
enjoy rest-one of indefinite duration,
the longer the better.
Here the summer sojourner, within
an environment of mountain and forest,
may revel in the terminating delights
of fresh air and spring water.
Here are residential opportunities of
exceptional quality and attractiveness.
. Endowed with high class schools
one State Normal; with churches Of
all denominations; with business and
employment opportunities of all kinds,
Frostburg is equal to and surpasses the
majority of towns as an ideal home
place.
Under an excellent system of munic-
ipal government the town has achieved
the construction of one of the best
water supply systems in this country,
and the enterprise of paving the streets
begun several years ago, goes forward
with substantial additions each year.
Other and collateral improvements,
such as sewage and garbage elimina-
lions, have been instituted and Will be
developed into systematic permanency.
In and near by are mines and works
for development of the best fire. brick
in the world; all around are glowing
opportunities for orchard and sheep
culture, and for factory eligibilties,
beginning with wooden. the number in
cludes many.
Accessibility is all that can be de-
sired. Aside from that proposed road
east and west by re- construction of
the National Pike, the Cumberland and
Pennsylvania Railroad affords passen-
ger and heavy freight outlet and inlet
twice day to and from Cumberland
and Piedmont; the Cumberland and
Westernport Electric Railway affords
the same modations--passenger
and light freight, every hour for 16
hours day, and within few months
the new Western Maryland Railroad
completed. Frostburg will be a first
class station on one of the country's
greatest trans-continental systems.
To avoid making this article, taken
all together too long, it can be stated,
in brief, that Frostburg owns every
merit attractive to the residential, the
sujourning, especially the manu/aetur-
ing investor, and so far as can be
honestly enumerated, not one demerit
to deter any enterprise from planting
its base of fortune within or near the
Incorporate limits. j. B. Oder.
The road is finished highway, need
ing only repairs. The line leading
west from st. Louis to Old Franklin,
iissouri, is the romantic old Boone's
,ick road. first traversed by Daniel
Boone and his associates, and followed
later by the first English speaking
settlers of Missouri. The line beginning
at Old Franklin and leading through