The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1923-07-26
ROAD MEN FAVOR
NJ 'DERM|TT ROUTE
Idaho Boosters Declare DEMO Rout.
ing Is Full of Danger to This
Community in That Tourist
Traffic May Be Lost

Further weight was added to the
contentious of those citizens of this
city who declare they do not favor
construction of the Lassen highway
from Winnemucca to DEMO and
thence through Alturas to northern
California, by the expressions of a
party of road enthusiasts from Idaho
who were here few days ago en-
route to their homes after attending
road meeting at Alturas which re-
suited in the adoption of resolutions
endorsing the Lassen route.
The party was made up of Otto
M. Jones, secretary of the Idaho Au-
/ tomobile Association, whose head
| quarters are maintained at Boise !;
w. II. Helm, who is in the mercan-
tile business at Jordan Valley, and
E. j. Robb, proprietor of hotel at
Caldwell, Idaho. They proved them
4 selves, while here, to be live wires
and genuine road enthusiasts, and
they were not at all backward about
expressing their opinions concerning
routing conditions as they affect this
community and their own. Mr.
Jones, acting as spokesman in an
interview, was amply backed up by
the others in the expression of his
opinions, and said:
"My observations while on this
/ trip have led me to believe that you
people down here, as well as we in
the Boise neighborhood, have food
for serious thought in the proposal
to- build the Lassen highway by way
of DEMO. While the road might re-
suit in the opening of a great big
undeveloped country, at the same
time it is bound to result in loss of
tourist travel both to Winnemucca
and to our section of Idaho. | es-
innate that the loss of Yellowstone
National Park tourist travel will be
nearly 100 per cent to Winnemucca,
and only perhaps 20 per cent to us,
if the road is built to Denio, for the
reason that tourists are going to be
reluctant to travel the "V" de-
scribed by the DEMO route in COM
ing 100 miles to Winnemucca and
practically backtracking so miles
more to McDermitt. What is likely
to happen is that they will seek a
short cut and avoid Winnemucca
entirely. In our case it would fire.
( quently happen that they would go
from DEMO to Burns and Vale and
thus get onto the Oregon Trail into
Yellowstone, but as the distance is
not much greater and the roads bet
ter large proportion would come
by way of DEMO, McDermitt, Jor-
dan Valley, Caldwell and Boise.
"It is true" continued Mr.. Jones,
that you folks here have two ways
of looking at the matter. If you
build the road to DEMO you will lose
Yellowstone park tourist travel, an
/ important item for the reason that
when it is learned that this route
is 525 miles shorter from the coast
to the park than by any other route.
it will be a fact which will eventu-
ally induce extremely heavy traffic.
AT the same time, if you build the
road to DEMO you will be opening
an immense territory the potentiali-
ties of which | know very little, but
which appeared to be extremely
barren at the present time. This,
understand, forms the basis for a
division of opinion concerning the
merits of the DEMO route in this
community and constitutes a ques-
tion which you of course must set
tie for yourselves. | am merely
stating my opinion for whatever it
may be worth to you and for the
further reason, speaking cold blood
edly, that | would be glad to see all
of the Yellowstone traffic come
through our territory rather than
only a portion of it.
"For our part we are going to
route everyone by way of McDer-
mitt and Winnemucca for connec-
ton here with the Victory highway.
We will do this because we believe
the route to be better, hotel and
other accommodation far superior
and avoiding as it does long
stretches of barren country wherein
a breakdown might be OF serious
consequence"
While here the Idaho men took
many pictures of hotels, garages and
other places for display to tourists
who will come to Mr.. Jones Office
1t Boise, for the ayowed purpose OF
howing 10 them Winnemucca' s
many advantages, the idea being
uppermost to formulate a route and
show by aid of the pictures why ii
4. e,,oar;or IN anv other route