Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1916-02-04
Elevations.

learn tnaJ the elevations at various
points on the route are as follows:
pdcOe1 .................5 O30 feet
New Meadows ..............3 1911 feet
higgins .................17 10 feet
Whlteblrd .............. 1480 feet
lGranSeV1lle .3347 feet
Grangeville [Summit) $3.50. 1890 feet
|
The construction of this road has
been agitated ever since the creation of
Idaho territory. In 1872 and subse-
quent sessions of the national congress,
the United States war department re-
commended the appropriation of $780,
600 for the construction of a wagon
road as military necessity. Nothing
was done, however, until Its construc-
ton was authorized by house bill No.
80, approved Feb. 10, 1899, which ap-
lpropriated $27, 900 for the construction
of wagon road between Little Salmon
Falls and Doumecq Bar, three miles
above Whitebird, and connecting at
both ends with existing wagon roads to
Salmon Meadows and Camas Prairie
This appropriation was supplemented
by donation of $4,000 from the Ore
gon Short Line Railroad company, and
by an equal amount from the Pacific
& Idaho Northern Railroad company
Owing to the lack of efficient state
supervision, the contractors largely ig-
nored the established survey and the
specifications, and followed the line of
cheapest construction, with the result
that the road in places and for long
distances is simply a narrow shelf high
above the river, with few turn-outs and
very rocky. At several points the road
is flooded and impossible at high wat
er stage. As connecting link between
the north and south, it is a positive
disgrace to the state of Idaho. Travel
ing over it under the best conditions is
hardship. The United States mail
route between New Meadows and
Grangeville, times a week both ways,
occupies two days going and two Gays
returning, the all--night lay-nEer being
at Lucille, where the stages arrive late
and depart early. AS a NATURAL conse-
quence the road is used almost exclu-
s1vely as local highway, whereas if
made into good road it would become
the most extensively used and inter
estlng highway in the entire state.
When converted into a substantial
highway it will form an important link
IN the proposed International highway
between Mexico and British Columbia
| WV O<AhAO1G l.
In 1911, under authority of chapter
6 of the 1911 session laws, an appro-
Tpriation of ~I5,000 was made for the
purpose of constructing a steel bridge
across the Salmon river about two
miles below Higgins
The road from Round valley is built
on the east side of the Little Salmon
river to a point below the falls, where
it crosses to the west side and CON
tinues to the state bridge, where the
river is crossed, and thence continues
on the east side of the main Salmon
river on to Whitebird.
Valuation Of Property.
| The assessed valuation of the tax
able property in Idaho county, real
and personal, in the region directly tri-
butary to the PROPOSED road is $1,097,-
693. In this region, there are 20 school
districts, with a school census of 637.
The officials of the Nez Perez Ma
tional Forest service give the following
estimates of merchantable standing
timber within the jurisdiction of its
forests, in the region tributary to the
proposed road:
Yellow pine ...... $50 million feet
Lodgepole pine ...... 900 million feet
Red flr ............ $40 million feet
White fir .......... 1885 million feet
Tamarack 100 million feet
The livestock industry, under existing
conditions, is the most important fea9
ture attending the present development
of the Salmon river country.
The acreage owned by the state on
the east side of the Salmon river drain
age basin, directly tributary to the pro-
posed road, is 26,O4O acres. The land
on the west side of the river is 1880
acres. The commercial values of these
lands will be largely increased by the
construction of the proposed road
While the bars and benches along the
river are generally narrow, they are
very fertile and in high state of cul. |
tlvatlon, and these places comprise the |
bulk of the land in cultivation along |
the river. On the table lands, however, !
Is a very large acreage of lanG, the
soil of which is as fertile and produc-
tive as the best of the prairie lands in
northern Idaho. We estimate that |
about per cent only of the land avail |
able for cultivation, contiguous to the
Salmon river, is in cultivation.
An important feature to be taken
into consideration in connection with
the construction of the proposed rail-
road bed is the Nez Perez Indian re-
servation, which comprises approx
mately 1000 square miles of territory.
This land lies in Idaho, Lewis, Neg
Perce and Clearwater counties. The
total area of the Indian allotments is
135,762 acres. OF these Indian allot-
ments, about 10000 acres are agri-
cultural. Of the agricultural land,
about 10000 acres are leased and
about 5000 acres are cultivated by In
dams. The trust period extending over
the majority of the Indian allotments
expires in 1920. At the expiration of
the treaty, unless the same is renewed
for another period of rs years, it is a
certainty that the greater proportion of
these lands will pass into the hands of
actual resident white citizens, thus
increasing the ponnIation
and taxable property of the several
counties. Increased population will
increase the number of |
school districts, place more property !
on the tax rolls, give more people to |
work on the highways and provide more I
funds for highway districts. These
Indian lands are now generally leased in {
large tracts, and the soil is being rapid {
y exhausted by the tenants. These In. {
dian lands are exempt from LaxafioD |