Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-08-22
.CUMB0 STALLS
FIVE CARS IN
7 TWO HOURS.
Red Trail in Burleigh County Is
Bane of Transcontinental
Tourists.
SIX MILES ALMOST
IMPASSABLE BY AUTOS
Eighty-Six Parties Stop En- Route
at Weather Bureau in
Two Days.


Conditions on the Red Trail in Bur-
leigh county are so bad that many
tourists are making a detour Of from
40 to 100 miles to avoid them. -
The first six miles leading out from
Bismarck is excellent. Good work has
been done where the force is work
ing. The road has been we'll rounded
and is amply wide for two cars to
pass. Tourists declare that there is
scarcely a stretch on the entire Red
Trail better than this ar# s...#,
Conditions Different.
But when the driver comes into
| the next isiX-mle. stretch he finds con-
ditions different. The-road will be
| fairly good for few rods and then
will come ruts in quick succession.
Just beyond J.. A. Fields farm, where
the road goes around a lake, for a
half mile it is so narrow that there
is just room for one machine. On
one side of the road is She railroad
fence and on the other soft ground
due to the water that beats up from
the lake
The cars blowing through have brok-
en- the road up into deep ruts. I'm.
less driver is exceedingly expert
and knows the road perfectly and is
travelling in the daytime it is impos.
sible for him to pick his way through.
He must strike the right rut and keep
in it, travelling with his machine sunk
to the hubs. But the sides of the
ruts have been broken by drivers try
ing to worm their cars out of them,
so that even if a driver does manage
to confine his car to the proper rut
ne often comes near to pounding it to
pieces before he covers the half-mile.
Cars Can't Meet. .r
In this whole stretch cars cannot
meet. They must wait at either end
for the other to pass. But strangers
do not know this; they rush in after
another car has got we'll within the
forbidden territory and predicament
presents itself that is not conducive
to soft words. Fortunately, this. has
not happened often; the driver know
ing the road motions to the stranger
, to stop. '"'
Next comes stretch of fairly pass
able road, but it is followed by six
miles of abominable ruts and water
holes. In one stretch of gumbo, un-
graded and undragged, mile and
nalf long, five cars were stuck in two
hours, according to Mr.. Warwick, the
driver OF the transcontinental truck,
making the passage from Seattle to
New York loaded with ton of con-
densed milk, to demonstrate the suit
ability of the trail for traffic.
Even Center impossible.
He knew the exact time because it
took him just that long to make re-
pairs on his big truck after he sue
ceeded in extricating it from a hole.
During that time five drivers failed
in their endeavors to pilot their cars
through the network of burrows
thrown up by the. machines attempt.
ing to pillow their way through
The picture of this stretch in the
Mckenzie slough shows how even the
center of the road was made impass-
able. And it was taken five days af-
ter any precipitation at ALL l-.
Truck Delayed "a Hours.
MIR Warwick's car was stuck at
water hole just before this stretch
was reached He was DELAYED "a
hours and had to unload his ton of
milk and all his belongings
He said that there was no excuse
for these conditions. The opportuni-
ty was there to have the finest kind
of a road with practically no expense.
For $500 a mile, he or anyone else
could take the contract, put the road
in perfect shape and make a big
profit. The foundation is there, he
declared emphatically, for an ideal
road. All it needs is little scientific
grading and dragging.
Many Auto Parties Daily, III
O. W. Roberts, president of the Bur-
leigh County Automobile club, de-
clares that the road from Bismarck
to Mckenzie is the worst on the Red
Trail. He has been in close touch
with autoists from all parts Of the
country and has travelled over much
of the trail himself.
The extent of the traffic is shown
by the fact that on two days this
week Sc automobile parties stopped
at the weather bureau to inquire
about the weather, the ferry or the
roads. These came from all parts of
the country, some from New York
City, others from Maine. New Hamp-
shire, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Wiscon-
sin, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon,
Montana and other states.
Warn Others.
With no exception, ahey warmly
protested against the almost impass-
able condition of the Red Trail here.
Several declared that they were writ
ing to other parties coming to make
a detOur in order to avoid the Bur-
leigh county ruts.
A man from Iowa told how they
had the same conditions along the
lower Missouri and had wasted money
for 80 years until government engi-
neer came down and showed them
how to build roads. Now, he said, the
county has practically so miles of per-
feet road, built over the gumbo
slough, roads on which the speed is