White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-10-14

De made q paSSable and open route,
If ever. And the central Nevada
traffic, and the traffic of those de-
string to reach southern California
avoiding the Mojave desert heat,
must always go via the Lincoln way
because the connecting road from
Schellbourne junction to Wendover
through eighty-siX miles OF totally
u%ninhabited country recommended
by your department will never be
built in the very nature of the topo-
graphical situation.
There appears no good reason for
the adoption of a longer, more cir
cuitous connections between Salt
Lake City and Ely which do not even
possess the advantage of being
even now in equally good condition
as compared with the Lincoln way.
Decision OF Lincoln Highway
Association
AS a consequence of it's careful!
consideration OF all these facts due
to your letter to me of June IS and
in reply thereto, our board of direc-
tohE "Sht VII iStoIu ICGo-
luton at its recent meeting in favor
Of q continuance of the Lincoln way
route as at present established west
of Salt Lake City.
We cannot, MI. Secretary, Justify
to our friends and supporters any
other position. Any other position
would be wrong. We feel confident
that in the years to on the present
route of the Lincoln highway in Utah
lays are unfortunate, but the vast
area of central Nevada cannot for
ever be denied a connection with
Salt Lake City, and, as Senator Cd
die pointed out to you in his letter
of May 81, 1923, Nevada cannot and
will not construct the route your de-
partment recommends through eigh
ty-six miles OF uninhabted country,
rough in the extreme, connecting
S~chellbourne and Ely with Wcnd-
over.
Wastcful Government Outlay
Were it possible and feasible for
the state of Nevada to construct the
connection fro Ely to Wendover,
which it is not, we would still feel
that an injustice would be worked
upon Nevada by forcing her to build
this unneeded and non-existing high
way at a cost of 100000, even
though over 90 per cent of the COS.
were government funds due to the
large area of government land with
in her borders, because hcr proper
ton of the cost would be a vast and
unnecessary burden upon her.
There is no preteXt for pressing
this wasteful road construction upon
Nevada except that Utah, much rich
err and having five times the density
of population, may therefore avoid
the smaller expense required to COM
plete the Lincoln highway in Utah,
the improvement of which Utah has
already embarked upon.
We have noted with particular in.
terest your reference to the fact that
large federal contributions to high
way construction in Nevada are re-
CURED, n have felt that the fact
that in Nevada the government mus
pay an even larger percentage of the
tcoI VI highway SOHoSI uCllDH lHdH II.
Utah, was, if anything an argument
in favor of the completion of the
Lincoln way in Utah rather than the
wasteful and costly connection be-
tween Ely and Wendover in Nevada.
We are cogniZant of the fact you
so clearly state that VIC indeed pay
bitterly for the mistakes IN the
initial conception of the plan and
design of our highways" 1t was with
this clearly in mind that this asso-
citation went to such expense and eff.
fort to prevent it's conception of the
western plan of interstate highway
improvement to your department.
Our especial hope was to make clear
the wisdom of the minimum expendi-
ture of national government funds
FOR the maximum benefit thrsIgh the
years.
The basic reason for the original
adoption of the Lincoln way in Utah
was because it was the natural, short
and direct route from Salt Lake City
to Ely via Ibapah, and because of it's
strategy it made the most forceful
appeal for Improvement before other
routes because of sufficient import
ance to demand huge expenditures.
providing as it did, and does, in one
road $50 miles in length, a link so
strategically located that it serves a
thousand miles of the Pacific coast,
and for years to come would have
provided the only Immediately need
ed improved connection to Reno,
Carson City, Sacramento, Oakland.
San Francisco, Los Angeles and points
between, terminals which, to be
adequately served under your
recent decision, will require the con
struction of three separate roads in
Utah, the Wendover road, the Lin
coin way and the Arrowhead trail,
Regret Association Cannot Yield
to Utah
1t is with regret that l comnuni-