Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1922-09-14


and conditions CT vehicles. Wagons,
buggies, motorcycles, old diapidated
cars and luxurious high speed. lin
cuisines roll along in one continuous
J procession. On the Cumberland
| s.sad as one begins to descend he may
look across the valley and see the
cars like so many bugs, creeping up
the hills or gliding down on the 9th
er side, two or more miles away.
As one goes toiling up the difficult
| grades cars are passed which have
made one last expiring struggle and
| their owners are standing anxiuusly
| beside them in a vain effort to coax
another attempt to negotiate the
sinuous incline extending up the
picturesque slope 1t is no wonder
the railroads are running light con-
sidering the thousands of cars that
are constantly rolling back and forth
on these highly popular high ways.
Why Road Was Built
The Cumberland or National road
| is the only road the federal govern
ment ever built, except short stretch
es in National parks and reservations.
When the rim of civilization was
widening and widening, was extend
ing to the wildernesses and prairies
of the upper Mississippi valley,
need was felt for an improved high
way from the Atlantic coast to the
! interior. After much agitation steps
/ we're taken to construct the highway
The road was probably suggested
| by George Washington. When
young man Washington was sent to
the then west as a surveyor and was
with Braddock at the time of his
defeat in western Pennsylvania. Brad
dock was MORALLY wounded near the
present site of the city of Pittsburgh,
was carried some distance, died, and
his body Was then taken % this
road, then only trail, and buried.
A monument marks his grave, seen
by the never ending procession of
humanity which GIBBS back and forth
along the thorOughfare. Washington
made three trips from the east to
Fort Duquesne, and no doubt fully
realized the Importance of such a
road as was afterward built
In 1906, not long after the death of
Washington congress made an APP
preparation of $4,000 for a survey of
a road from the head-waters of the
Potomac to Wheeling. a distance of
131 miles In 1911 the work was be-
gun and in 1918 the road was opened
TO the Ohio river.
In an article in a Wheeling paper
a short time ago, by o. d. Branden-
burg OF Madison, the we'll known Wis
consin writer, he says: "At once it
became a highway of monumental inn
portance, prospective settlers upon
he wild lands of Ohio, Kentucky, In
diana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and all the
wide west, passing over in a cease
less stream, many embarking on
boats at Wheeling to go down the
Ohio, up the Cumberland, the Mus
kingum, the Missouri, and score OF
other streams, or up the Mississippi
or down. Many Wisconsin pioneers
from the distant east debarked direct,
" on Wisconsin soil from the Mis-
sissippi river, not few at Galena in
Illinois. just to the south, city made
memorable in the late SOS as the
place where young U. S. Grant bought
hides"
Extended to the West
Later the road was extended to Col
a. TD1
still on TO Illinois. The objective
was to be either st. Louis or Alton,
the former on slave soil, the latter
on free. T'nis provoked much con-
troversy in congress and out but the
upshot was the road was never COM
pleted to either place. The railroads,
begun in the '30's, overlook the Ma
tional pika, as it is often called, and
work was abandoned.
With the building of the railroads
the highway fell in1o disuse and was
greatly neglected. When constructed
the mode of travel was on foot, by
OK team, on horseback, or in wagons.
This necessitated many places OF shell
ter and entertainment. most Of which
was furnished by taverns Nv the way
In this century came the motor car
and a wonderful transformation for
the old road. About 1914 a concerted
effort was made and the road was
improved for automobiles. The old
taverns took on new life, the villages
were rejuvinated and the cities mani
tested greater activity. The automo-
biles has wrought wonders for the
hamlets that were asleep in the
mountains, awoke as if from a Rip
Van Wrinkle dream, Gasoline stations,
convenient garages. hot dog stands,
and other lines of business necessary
for the tourist, harvest the dollars
as the cars dodge by.
Old Mile Posts
East of Wheeling cast iron mile