The Robesonian., 1917-04-26
HOW HIGHWAY PAID One
COUNTY
Good Roads.

Southern Good Roads.
A return cf $500,00O On an invest
ment Of $4,000 is the answer Hardin
county, kentucky, is giving to othe:
counties, along the Dixie highway CT
any other through national thorough
fares to the query, "does the con-
srtuction of through highways pay?"
The financial profit is definite and
understood by every citizen of the
county. The residents of the county
are also appreciative Of the further
value in the construction Of forty
miles of the Dixie highway through !
the county, in that the residents can
travel in ease and comfort in any
weather to market, to church and to
amusements with certainty that the
journey there and back again will not
be FABRICATED by mud holes produced
by a few hours rain.
! Of the $5O0,000 Of profit from the
construction of the Dixie highway
through the county at least $21 900
is traceable to new money left by the
tourist. A count was kept Of the
cars bearing license tags of other
states than that Of Kentucky which
. furnished the basis of a conservative
estimate that in tile seven months
of the touring season of 1916, 21,-
! 600 foreign cars Travelled over the
Dixie highway through the county,
Although each car averaged four
tourists, making total of $4,000 Wis
itors, the estimate Of the money these
! tourists left in the county has been
placed at the small amount of Is
; cents each. The proprietors of the
hotels and garages of Elizabethtown,
! the county seat, state that this esti-
+ mate is too low.
+ It is an accepted fact in Hardin
county that every farm. in the county
along the Dixie highway has increas-
ed in value over $40 per acre. There
are approximately 240 farms which
> have as much as 1000 feet Of front
8 age on the highway on either side
= These farms alone will average zoe
, acres if extended back for a distance
: of one mile, and farm is compare
v lively located if it is within the dis
i tance Of two miles Oh a first-clas!
% turnpike, so this statement is declar
:. ed reasonable. Then the increased
value of all these farms in Hardin
v county in the last two years is NOR
;, than $480,OOO. The entire county i
n benefited by it's proportional part O
,s the increased wealth.
o. No consideration is taken Of tn
e saving to the farmers in cost of trans
m portation of their products to mar
7e ket. Two years ago it was an all-da
in trip in an automobile from Elizabeth
,e twon to Louisville, distance of forty
1e five miles. Neither does it conside
70 the increase in real estate values an
js in business to Elizabethtown. Tw
20 years ago Elizabethtown had one ht
IS tel, catering only to the commerce;
n trade. Today there are two excelle1
40 hostelries doino flourlshing touri:
e. business and featuring in the balm
he days of spring, summer and fal
.ir chicken dinners, which brings thou
lie ards of motorists from Louisvill
in, The value in dollars and cents
h. Elizabethtown and Hardin county
he the construction of the Dixie highws
ne does not measure the pleasure whit
the highway affords in enabling tt
IS citizens of the county to motor in
Louisville and attend the theater
concert and return the same nigh
which was an impossibility before Il
highway was constructed.
All these benefits were secured
ii the expenditure of $4,000 in the CO
is struction of forty-four miles of Il
Mt Dixie highway in a period of ty
III years and in cooperating with t
m other counties between Louisville al
Nashville in the improvement of tl
rm important division of the highway.
hao r. 41J-