The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1917-01-18

battle with the Everglades. The first
travellers may see the brown bears,
wild cats and other denizens of the
jungles, which frequently come within
200 yards Of the workmen to satisfy
their curiosity as to What new crea-
lures have come to disturb their soli-
tude. Aside from catering to the de-
sires Of the motorist to explore the
much-talked-of Everglades. view the
wonderful scenery, and provide a vast
hunting preserve accessible to huntera
OF big game, the counties involved HAD
q tremendously big commercial idea in
view In planning and carrying through
the construction Of the Tamiami trail.
Lack of drainage as well as inaccessi.
bility makes dormant and worthless
hundreds of thousands Of acres in the
Everglades, which experts claim ION.
tain the most fertile soil to be found III
the world. The construction Of the
Tamiami trail removes both Of these
obstacles. The methods employed in
excavating for the canal and throwing
up the rock mari and other material
for the roadbed, and depositing the un-
suitable material, such a decayed veg
etable matter and muck, on the other
side is best described in Captain Har.
yey's own words:
Furnishes Some Variety.
"Every conceivable kind, character
and condition Of road building is found
in the first ten miles north from Mar.
co. Cypress strands underlaid with
bowlder and bedrock; pine ridges of
bowlder and. ridges Of the hardest OF
hardpan, sand banks of clay Of several
different colors, rock ridges outcrop.
ping on the surface; cabbage palmetto
/. land; scrub buttonwood; prairie land
flooded in the rainy season; f1at-woods
land, saw-grass land, marsh-grass land.
soft-blue mari and shell land; all va
rieties of mangrove land; swamp land
tide flats; tide lands one to two feet
under water at high tide, bog lands,
mud holes; muck ponds, creeks, rivers.
bayous and channels, more combina.
lions than any spot on earth to give a
contractor a ruiz for his money.
"Hand labor was out Of the question
and impracticable, so it became a very
serious problem as to how to handle
the proposition with the varying con.
ditions intermingled. A land dredge
machine was decided upon and al.
though it is a long ways from perfect,
it has answered the general purpose
fairly we'll. It is of steel beam con.
struction, weighing some 10000
pounds. It has a cubic yard dipper.
1t straddles the canal and runs on it's
own tracks and by its own power. The
steel rails are in four foot sections
and pinned at the ends with a flexible
steel coupling on a 3-inch thick 3-by-3
oak cross ties, enabling it to run over
uneven ground. The tracks are %
feet apart. Thus a canal source "a
feet wide and II feet deep can be dug
If desired. In this instance the width
of the canal in most places depends
on the amount of material desired for
the road bed. An even depth was car.
ried with an idea Of drainage.
How Work Is Done.
! 1--WE began cutting through the
swamp, dumping the mass of mari,
sand, ETC., to one side. This dump is
leveled down to grade and surfaced
by hand with big heavy hoes and SHOW.
els. Through Williams Island jungle,
which was truly a jungle in every
sense of the word, a mass of trees of
all kinds and sizes; thousands of
switches, poles, brush, ferns, all wove
together with bamboo rattan and other
vines. Perhaps several hundred would
be chopped off at the ground before
the mass would fall, so that it could
be chopped apart with brush axes.
When it is understood that the clear.
ing had to be done at the contract
price Of $44 an acre, it can readily be
seen that the constructor had to run
like the devil for his money. Some
stretches could not be cleared for
three times the price.
"The finished road. bed is IS feet
wide. It is III to 1 slope with 6-inch
crown and 3 feet BERN. The contract
for the island part and part of the
mainland was "a cents per cubic yard
A contractor bidding at these prices
and under such conditions is skating
or thin ice."
In removing the big rock lodges and
rock strata wherever encountered ex.
plosives are used. AS the major por.
ton Of the material to be taken out is
soft, the. big bucket on the dredge is