The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-12-15

spinning Dlithely along, will not have
to endure the feeling akin to sliding
off the roof of a high peaked building
that has been the experience of his
predecessors in travel. And for all
time will be quoted the terror of the
tourists in approaching the Copper
city and also the delegations of other
ambitious cities whose warnings here
tofore have been "go the other way
to be safe" Instead of a sensation
such as might be expected amidships
il shooting the chutes OF Riverview
or Coney Island, the itinerant autoist
will have Only a gentle glide in drop
ping into Butte from the mountain
tops to the east.
RoughneSs to Depart
Furthermore, the Davis grade
promises none of the roughness so
frequently disappointing the highway
traveller, but will be as smooth as a
nem-laid boulevard and as comfort
ms TO the nerves as a feather tick.
The natural material on hand, decom-
posed granite cut from the mountain
side on which the road is graded, in
a hard surface of this commend
able quality.
The admonition of good roads
boosters is that the highway be call
ed from now on the Davis grade" in
a~ttribution to A. J. Davis, president
of the First National bank of Butte,
who first perceived the importance OF
this road to Butte and who essayed,
alone, to develop its possibilities
- f1xt,,-a IN 1~0
proving it. Others have come now to-
modernize the road; but there was
none as f~ar-sighfed as Davis or with
such civic pride some years ago as
to undertake, single-handed, the i'm
provement of an arterial road leading
into the city.
Without the work done by him and
others preceding him, recognition Of
the Importance of the road giving
egress to the east might not have
been had as early as it was and the
o being done might
have been retarded and obliged to-
wait for a considerable time to come.
Davis self-sponsored and s~elf-paid
road work, supported by ardent good
,oads boosters of Butte, served to
crystalline community sentiment fa-
construction of the Davis
grade and to result this year, instead
If in years to come, in the undertake
ng now nearly done.
To CLEAN the early history of the
Dad through Pipestone hill such pio-
leers as Prof. Moore, Ed How
II and Billy Woodward need be con-
ulted. Ed Howell came in on the
cad 40 years ago when it was merely
faint trail leading obliquely off the
mountain tops. Others came earlier
han that, and knew the trail as the
ravel route of Indian, trapper and
rospector. Before the Indian, big
anne elected this course as the noun
ain passageway offering the least re-
to progress.
Gradually the beaten track through
he wilderness widened into a wagon
BAD, scarcely deserving that descrip-
until Nelson M. Parsons built a
)rt of roadway down the hill from
ipestone pass in 1856. Soon after
lie road was acquired by Judge A. j..
avis, an uncle of Mr.. Davis of Butte,
ter whom the grade is now named,
was operated as a toll road. The
III lIOQSC, hAONA do thO 1iShNNOD
lie, because it was 10 miles from
e stage depot near Silver Bow, later
,came Grace station, now a point
the Milwaukee railroad and three
lies away from its original site. In
III and 1878 Deer Lodge county,
lder the direction of William Ows-
Y, road supervisor, built a road
as the Hill road, on the side
the creek opposite the toll road,
d the collection of tolls, levied for
aintenance and upkeep, was discon-
lued.
Name Is Misnomer
could the road through Pipe
)ne pass compete for the long-dis-
nee championship, for the hill is not
long as is commonly believed, and
, misnomer of Eighteen Mile hill,
zen it in the early days, while Butte