Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-07-20
Green Spring Road
Must Be Improved

In response to an article which ap-
peared in the Ashland Tidings,
What is the matter?" called "The
Autoist," a subscriber to the Klam-
ath Falls Northwestern has the fol-
lowing to say:
Mr.. Editor: Every autoist and
teamster that drives over Green
Springs asks, What is the matter?"
and then "Autoist" in the Ashland
Tidings condemns the old wagon road
leading from klamath Falls to Ash
land. Aside from the once-used
roads by way of Mount Pitt and Buck
Lake the klamath Falls-Ashland road |
is the worst that crosses the Cascades |
into the klamath country. 1t served |
during the old days the freighter
who made the long haul from Rose
burg, before Ashland became the rail-
road terminus and before the i'm
provement was made to the more
feasible highway down the klamath
to the railroad connection at Ager;
it served as a mail route into the
klamath country; it served the jack
con county producer who hauled the
products of mill, garden and orchard
to the merchants of Linkville, whose
people were looking forward to the
day when its own section would grow
the cereals, the fruits and garden
truck. And it does now, in abund-
ance. That Green Springs Mountain
road was the proper thing, in every
particular but one, so far as the peo-
pie Of the valley of the Rogue were
concerned. When it was about to be
used as route for transit into the
Klamath country by some intending
homesteader, the cry went up that
only cattle and bunch grass grew
across the mountains-that cold and
frost made successful farming, gar
dening and fruit growing out of the
question, and Klamath's growth was
retarded not little by our neighbors
in Jackson with land to sell and
anxious for the growth and advance
ment of their own section. Theirs
was the gateway to klamath, and
few, if any, escaped the knocks"
that can probably be heard even to
this day.
Tom Martin lived with his family
at Medford and learned that flour
was selling in Linkville for IS per
hundred and that a few klamath
farmers were successfully growing
the cereals. He was a miller, and
in 1884 he and his family became
residents of Klamath. That summer
he constructed on Link river klam-
ath's first flour mill. The acreage
of wheat, barley, oats, etc, has in
creased ever since. Martins Best
has been on the Ashland market at
SO per ton advance over the flour
milled in Jackson county. klamath
potatoes in Ashland have sold at an
advance over the local product. Bear
ing orchards are not many in Klam-
ath, but every fall some outside pur-
seryman takes big orders for fruit
trees for spring delivery. Al Sloan
last spring planted eight acres to ap-
Pile trees on the hillside south OF
town. When the young orchards,
and those contemplated, are in bear
ing there will be less fruit from the
outside consumed in klamath.
But if Jackson people would like
to see the Green Springs mountain
road in better condition for their
: purpose of getting over to see the
wonders of klamath from a pictur-
esque point of view when 1t comes to
mountains, lake and streams, as
thousands do from other points, oil
take a ride out over the tillable area
where "cold and frost" has not been
a deterrent in the making of splendid
farms and farm homes, klamath
county will no doubt aid in the bet
terment of the nearly forgotten
klamath Falls-Ashland highway