Weekly journal-miner., 1919-09-24
YAFAPAHI-HALL-WEEkLY
 (BY SHARLOT M. HALL)

Miner headlines told us that the wagon road up Yeager Canyon and over the Black Hills into Jerome was completed. Many a year since the big-wheeled ore wagons with "eights' or tens" of long-eared mules creaked
 and groaned up to the top of the grade and were "rough-locked" down the ore-chute of a canyon to Sanders
 Station. Some road it wasl And
 scme mule skinners the men who
 with the help of long black mule whips, piles of small stones on the
 seat to reach unruly leaders, and matchless and diversified "cuss words" snaked out a kings ransom in ore and took in supplies for the town to be.
 There were folks in those days who doubted ii the mine was worth what it cost to build that road-and others who said it would never pay for build ing because 1t would break bull
 snakes back to travel around its
 curves and that trade rat couldn't pack half load over its grades. But many a year the mule bells jingled a
 steady tune around those curves and up those grades-a fortune went i'll
 and a bigger one came out. Wagons
 went of the grades ore, mules and
 all; "gully-washers" wiped out sec
 tions of the roadway and left teams
 hung up where wings were the only
 hope-the road paid for itself times
 overland fell into ruin and was for
 gotten The big wheel of broken
 ore wagon with sun-cracked wood
 and rust-red tires, the bleached ribs of mule sticking out of some gravel
 heap. the dim scar of the old grade along some cliff-these were the only
 marks of the old highway for years back.
 But roads arc as necessary i'll the development and life of a community as veins and arteries are to the hu- man body and as the human life in any locality grows it is inevitable that the most direct lines of com munication will be developed-it was inevitable that the old ore road should come back to its own.
 I went up a few days ago to see how far the work had gone on the new state highway which, following ill general way the old Yeager Can yon road, is soon to connect Prescott and Jerome by the shortest way bar ring an air route. There is so much I want to say that I don't know which to say first; but this is sure, if people knew what a beautiful trip 1t is, with fine travelling most of the way and beautiful scenery all the way and the most interesting camp and work in Yavapai county at the end of the journey the roads would be crowded : with auto parties these fine autumn days.
 The round trip can be made ill a . day from Prescott with hours to spare :. for hunting and sightseeing. The route is by the state highway to Dewey, (and just now this road is ill excellent condition) then up the local road toward Lonesome Valley, keep | ing the right hand side of the railroad . track; just above the M. L. cattle !. ranch the road turns straight toward the Black Hills and by d route over the rolling foothills comes to the {, mouth of the canyon where the newi road begins and leads to the road il camp and the work in progress. It is ( perhaps forty miles from Prescott by Ir this roundabout way but it is all It worth while.
 cften say that we of Yayapai have so much of beauty in our outdoor world that we don't see half of it; we race along thinking of business and f; shutting our eyes to scenes finer than many which have made other lands famous. That run up Lonesome valley from Dewey to the mouth of Yeager I Canyon Is one of them The Black ( Hills, dark and near on the right ( hand Bald Mountain OH the left, its il broken crater and lava cliffs showing ( plainly as we rise on the foothills; c lar OH the left the porcupine back of t Granite Mountain, and straight ahead '; q bit of hills as fine as some of the ' Painted Desert. t
 The new grade enters the canyon Is at which was once the Carter cattle -anch, one of the very old ranches of F Yavapai, now owned by Fred Young { It is a picturesque old place worth a f visit in itself and near it is one of the l inest prehistoric Indian ruins in this { ocality. The Yeager mine lies high ' 1p on the foot of the mountain to the