White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-01-21
UNCLE SANS ROTTEN MAIL
SERVICE ON STAR ROUTES

outlying districts of Nevada, Utah
and neighboring states has not at
tanned such a degree of perfection
that a press agency has been found
desirable TO toot its bazoo and keep Ii
before the gaze of an admiring pub
lie, like the forestry department
deemed 1t necessary to do a few years
ago and the government trapping de-
partment is nov doing with such en-
ergy. Mail delivery has so long been
a function of the government that
there is no danger of the life-job men
in it having their Offices abolished.
hence ii Is one branch that Is not con-
Quoted wholly or in considerable part
by propaganda.
For instance, the mails of the
newspapers are not flooded with pre-
pared matter, headlines written and
cut to fit, to show any great feats of
unbelievable speed in delivering mail
from Ely to Duckwater. Shoshone or
Sharp, or from Salt Lake to Candy,
Trout Creek, Utah, or Parker, New.
In fact, mail service on star Routes
10 Ddih at int 6diit 0AhbP u dtA 1fOD-
ment that 1t was in 1870 and the
speed Of delivery will average up
about as slow and IN many instances
a little slower.
Since the invention and general
use of the automobile the govern
ment has not adapted itself 10 is use.
Instead of taking a settled valley like
Snake and starting in at the end or
portion nearest 10 a railway and us
ing an automobile TO make quick de-
liveries, with the same automobile
and contractor, from one end to the
other, going from one settlement and
one postofice to another consecutive
ly until the last n has been served,
and returning the same or mex day
to the starting point with outgoing
mail, II follows the system that 1t
did fifty TO seventy-fve years ago,
delivering out a few miles three
times a week. then a few miles far
Their twice a week and a third lap
once a week. mail going and coming
waiting in the meantime oyer night
and often three days at the points
of change. with a different contractor
and conveyance for each lap.
Three star routes radiate from Ely.
One goes TO Preston and Lund three
times a week, where a new route be-
gins. From Preston n goes to
Duckwater three times a week, each
trip being made after the usual coun
try p~ostoflce delay at Preston. On
the way the postofice at currant has
been discontinued but mail goes there
by rural delivery and at the point
where the postofiice used TO be an
other contractor connects on still diff
ferent days twice a week and takes
the mail e Nyala and Arrowhead
From Luna the p~ostofiices CT Sunny
side and Sharp are served twice a
week-different days. of course.
A second one goes from Ely to
Milford, Utah. by way of Baker and
Garrison. This goes three times a
week and makes the best showing OF
any as to promptness and speed. but
at the junction of the Oseeola road.
a short distance above the Goodie
ranch, the route Is intersected twice
a week by the Shoshone contractor,
who takes tho mail to that Office, IL
being left in a box by the roadside
for him. From Garrison another
goes twice a week to Candy. Utah.
At this point the reader should note
that Candy IL but twenty miles south
of Trout Creek. with nc mail service
between them save around by Garri-
son, Milford. Salt Lake and Gold Hill,
Utah: also that Candy Is nearer to
Baker by nine miles than II Is to Gar
rison and the Baker road is the grad
ed Grand Central highway. whereas
the Garrison road is down in a mud
dy fiat. unused by few other vehicles.
The third route is to Hamilton.
Mail goes to Kimberly six times a
week by train and from there to
Hamilton three times a week by team
in the winter and automobile In the
summer. II is made up and dis
patched in Ely and Is probably as
convenient an arrangement and as
prompt a delivery as could be made
under the circumstances.
Between Ely and Phoebe there IS a
stage route but no mail delivery or
contract and there Is a summer stage
and generally 4 winter n to Tono-
pah but no mail contract. The drive
from Ely to Tonopah, 1S6 miles,
takes about ten hours, whereas by
train il takes about thirty hours, and
with time lost between trains at least
two days and a night.
But these three routes from Ely
do not cover the case. The north
Spring valley country is well settled
on the west side of the valley, with
several ranches in the middle and on
the east side. In that space are two
postonices. Cleveland Ranch and Au-
rum, with another on the Lincoln
highway out Gold Hill way at Tip
petit. These are on a Cherry Greek
star route, as is also the office OF
Schellbourne. on this side of the
mountains about twenty-five miles