The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-08-22
SOMETHING ABOUT GOOD ROADS
FOR SOUTH DAKOTA =

SIluosAoh III tHiS SSCtlOu VI TIE Sldte
that merits your reading. The writ.
er, U. G. Reininger, could say the
same things as we'll of Brookings
county as he does of Minnehaha:
Made the fifty mile drive from
Adrain. Mimi, to Sioux Falls Wednes-
day afternoon in the rain. The first
fifteen miles over graveled roads made
the Minnesota way, was just splen-
did. The three miles this side Of
Luverne was good travelling. being
well graded and graveled. Then
trouble began. The next six miles
has just been graded. A perfect
grade, broad and high with deep wa
terways along side, nicely smoothed
surface, but no gravel and the soft
earth made bad driving. Crawling,
the Minnesota way, will make that
road all right. Then came the grav-
eled stretch from the other side Of
Beaver Creek to the Dakota state line
with the going good clear up to the
corner where one turns onto the state
line road running a mile south and
evidently built by Dakota people. 1t
was graded last year. Rather the dirt
to make a grade was moved up and
dumped in places, but like the most
Of the Minnehaha graded roads 1t was
neither smoothed off nor packed.
Then gravel was dumped on the
grade and the thing was turned over
as finished. This mile stretch of rOad
is full of saucer-like chuck holes and
is very bad travelling. In the course
of four or five years it may become
a sort of decent stretch of road.
"The Valley Springs people ought
to rebuild that mile of road, because
in its present condition the frequent
driver will take the north bound road
and so keep out of Valley Springs.
From Valley Springs this way the
road is in good and bad. until a point
about half way between Brandon
and Sioux Falls is reached. This Sec
ton, as last year, has been recently
worked. You can always tell when
it has been worked, because then It
is worse than usual. Two or three
years ago some of the Sioux Falls
Good Readers had a spasm and the
road was graded and %graveled. Reg
ularly since then someone a turned
a big traction engine and grader at
work on it and it has been periodical
ly ruined until the gravel and sand
has been pretty well worked off and
the water ways nearly lost to sight.
One of the county commissioners re-
Gently speaking about the Dell Rapids
road spoke in such terms as to leave
the firm conviction that he is both
blind and paralyzed. Blind, or he
could see bad road work, and par
alyzed, or he could feel it. 1t is said
that the high cost of the construction
of the cement or paved road proposed
towards Dell Rapids is such that the
original ideas can not be carried out,
and it has been suggested by SOM
that if only a couple of miles of hard
paved road could be built the exam
pie would be so contagious that the
public would demand more.
The town of Canton, Illinois, twelve
years ago built five stretches of vitri-
fled brick road, each two miles long
and running from the corporation linn
was that if the people got a taste of
good roads they would insist on bond
ing the county for extension of these
good brick roads. The two miles on
each Of five different lines are still
in good condition and in use every
day. but the town end is still uncon-
nected with the paved districts of the
town in most cases, n the county
ends still stop off at the end of the
two mile stretches. The idea this par
IaEraph is trying to convey is that sam
Die stretches of good roads are not
worth while. A properly graded and
graveled road will furnish good driv-
ing surfaces for the kinds of loads
Dakota produces every day in the
year, and if Twelfth street road for
twenty miles out was so finished, it
would not cost much because Of the
principal fills and bridging having
been completed-then the road would
prove popular as a boulevard and its
example would be worth while-not
necessarily Twelfth street, but a TWEEN
ty mile stretch in any direction.
Men will drive miles to reach a
considerable stretch Of good road,
while a two or three mile link is not
worth while. Make the local gray
eled roads as good as possible, good
for all year travel, and by this means
extend the trading sphere of Sioux