The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1915-06-30
REPAIRS NOW BEING MADE
ON HIGHWAY NEAR fALLON
High Centers Will Be Cut Down and
Signs Placed Directing Travel
ers to Best Route.

The bad stretch of road between
Fallon and Sand Springs, which has
been declared by President Joy as
being the worst piece of road on the
Lincoln Highway, is receiving at
tention at the hands of the county
commissioners and before the end of
the week will be placed in a pass
able condition, at least.
With the best of intentions, At
torney Sam Belford of Reno who re-
Gently made the trip from Ely, in an
interview in the Reno Gazette, stat
ed that at a cost Of 500 the road
could be placed in condition for au-
tomobile travel and kept in condi-
ton for the exceedingly small outlay
of SO cents per day by the simple
expedient of attaching a drag to the
freight wagons passing over the
route. This statement reflects more
credit on Mr.. Belford's enthusiasm
than on his judgment as road
builder.
J. N Tedford and c. L. Benadum,
who are now using the road con-
stantly in teaming and auto travel
to Fairview and Wonder state that
IL will be necessary to use a heavy
weighted drag to be preceded by a
Fresno scraper over the entire u
miles to accomplish anything worthy
of being called repair; that 1t will
require not less than 16 animals to
pull the weighted drag to break
down the high centers which are the
cause of all the trouble to the auto
lists; that it would be impossible to
control a drag behind freight wag-
on that would result in any benefit
to the road.
The roadbed, if such it can be
called, consists of a heavy adobe with
water but a few inches beneath the
surface Many years of travel
across the treacherous fiat have re-
suited in deep cutters being cut by
the wheels of the heavy freight wag-
ons that travel ii continuously. Any
departure from the beaten track by
heavy teams is certain to result dis
astrously to the one making the at
tempt, as at either side of the. road
ii is bottomless, especially in wet
weather. No method of combating
this condition has ever been devised,
although thousands of dollars have
been expended in the attempt. All
3
ters filled up with material from the
centers and this requires heavy
equipment when the adobe soil is
dried out as at present, as well as
the constant attention of a couple
of men with team and scrapers to
fill up the chucks as they develop
under the heavy traffic. This can
scarcely be done at the nominal fig
ure of so cents per day. There is a
detour that can be made around the
worst pieces of the road at both
flats and it is now proposed to erect
signs calling upon westbound tour
lists to stop at Sand Springs and in
quire the route before attempting to
cross similar sign will be placed
at Peterson's at this end of the bad
stretch for the benefit of eastbound
travellers. This precaution is neces-
sary for the reason that in wet
weather or after rain this detour
is impracticable. This will go a
long ways towards mitigating the
worst features of this section of the
highway.
However, we can assure the tray-
cling public that before the present
week is passed the bug-a-boo OF
Sand Springs fiat will have been
exercised and that while we cannot
promise them a boulevard. they need
have no hesitancy in taking the Lin
coin Highway, the shortest route
across the state, because of the bad
roads of Churchill county.