The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1915-05-13
SPOKANE AND THE AUTOMOBILE
HIGHWAY.

Standpoint. according to the Review
Of that city, thinks she is not getting
a square deal from Spokane in the ad-
vertising matter that is being sent out
] to attract tourist travel to that city,
which is probably true. But in making
up a case against Spokane the Review
does a little knocking against Wallace
and the route through the Occur
dAlenes between Missoula and Spo-
kane which is hardly justified. The
Standpoint paper says;
"The Spokane Chamber of Com
merce has just issued a folder entitled
National Parks Highway" the object
of which is to attract automobile travel
from the east to the coast by way of
Spokane Like all well-arranged tour
lists folders the Spokane sheet con-
tains map of which shows the Chi
cago-Seattle air line auto trail. 1t is
not a snake trail. Far from it! 1t is
a straight line, particularly between
Missoula and Spokane, without any
tedious windngs, or up curves, or
down shoots through the Occur dAlene
mountains, 1t is a line as the crow
flies Its course from Mlssoula west
ward lies through the St Regis pass
by the way of Wallace and other Sho
shone county cities, but there Is no in
timation to the tourist of what he viii
encounter ere he gets over the Occur
d'Alene mountains, The designers OF
the map ignored entirely the old estab-
lished water grade route by the way of
Thompson Falls and Standpoint with
It's we'll built roads and easy passage.
They ignored the fact that the Ameri-
can Auto Trail Blazing association,
composed of the big automobile manu-
facturers Of the country, spent thous-
most feasible course and routed the
trail by the way of Standpoint because
1t was the only practical route. They
just simply cut out the blazed trail
which leads from Mssoula to Sand
point. According to the map there Is
no such trail or route
Standpoint Is on the map, to be sure.
but it Is located on a loop which d.
verges at Missoula to the Glacier park
and thence by the way of Bonners
Ferry to Standpoint, 1t is deviation
of several hundred miles from the ma
tural trunk line course, and viii be
taken by possibly one out of 500 tour
ing parties,
Ever since the auto association
routed the trail a year ago, the people
of the st, Regis pass route have been
endeavoring to have ii changed, and
went so far as to even misdirect the
painter who was blazing the trail and
induced him to paint part Mt least of
the mountainous route out of Missoula
as the red or trunk line The painter
soon discovered his error, however, and I
baZed the red trail through Standpoint /
Defeated in that attempt to msead |
the public, the Shoshone county peo-
pie next devised a scheme to erect
large sign boards at Missoula to direct
travel their way, and enlisted the as
sistanee Of the Spokane Chamber of
Commerce In their behalf and the
folder, with its distorted map Is the
latest effort to divert the travel a
I'm way the cities of Shoshone
county are not to be blamed for doing
what they can to draw the travel their
way, even If their route Is a most diff !
'ut one, but 1t is mighty small potatoes {
or the Spokane Chamber of Commerce ,
o strike the Missoula- Standpoint route
III its map"
In view of our former experience I
With Spokane, covering a period OF ]
many years It is highly gratifying to c
e told now that Spokane is trying to $
brow everything our way Perhaps e
he is, but Ii is not due to any con- d
piracy with the good roads people of n
hoshOne county, or that she Is par 4
eularly concerned about getting the s
'avel through here for the benefit II Is
ill do this district. Spokane is not e
ctuated by motives OF that kind, An Ii
of the map will show 81
ne the primary reason for the adop- n
on Of the Occur dAlene route The W
'ute follows almost a direct line from h,
issoula to Spokane. while the route IN
way Of Standpoint, after cutting out tn