The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-04-24
Bingham County
Continued from page one)
Failures Of Past Years

county was making large expendi
lures for new roads every effort tC
secure state and federal aid ended
in failure, and besides that we ex
| pended a large sum to build bitulithi(
pavement across Indian lands OF the
reservation. The Yellowstone high
way, the Roosevelt highway and the
road to Lost river kept absorbing
large sums of county money with
out being matched by state money
and without our ever getting the
roads in shape to secure their main
tenance by the state.
| The present board reversed that
condition, and not only secured aid
| in joint construction, but secured
100 per cent federal moneys to grade
| the road across the rest of the Indian
lands and lay bithulithic pavement.
1t was accomplished in the face of
all former decisions to the contrary
by finding a federal law that had
been overlooked and not acted on In
but one instance in the western
states and that was a little section Of
half mile in Montana. One Of our
commissioners got a clue and worked
on it, laid his clues before his col
leagues, and they all pressed it. One
by one they convinced the engineers
and officials in power until they had
Just one powerful opponent left, and
they went to the mat with him and
won diplomatic victory. Then they
had the sense to press their advant-
age while they held it, and the great
belt of pavement across the northern
half of the reservation is the result.
So close was the fight on this mat
ter that wherever white mans land
touched the highway even for frac-
tion of an acre, the county had to pay
for that little speck of road construc-
ton. At the entrance to the city at
the connection with the pavement on
South Broadway, the county and
state matched moneys for the grade
and pavement and for the fine &C.
ment bridge across the Blackfoot
river. To secure the ready cash to
meet these expenses, the county
stretched the treasury to the crack
ing point. for they considered 1t
sound policy to get pavement while
the getting was possible. No con-
struction company could ahord to
come back at another time and build
short connections at anything like
what they could build it for when |
they had the outfits in operation on
the main stretch. We now have
1882 miles of bitulithic pavement
In the county, and none of it has to
be maintained at county expense.
Much Road at Small Cost
About twenty miles of the Yellow
stone Highway between Blackfoot
and the Bonneville county line was
an earth road in 1921, some OF 1t
graded and kept in repair and some
If it had been graded, and ruined by
heavy traffic. Since that time the
county officers found ways to secure
state and federal aid to grade the
Dad and surface it with crushed
n the direction of paving, but which
he federal government had been re-
using to consider They had de-
lined to spend any money on road
hat was lacking the hard finish or
What they consider permanent !
DAD. Our county officers secured
9th state and federal aid to complete !,
he job and it is now a good road, ,
ept in repair by the state highway !
apartment, and citizens of this
ounty have employment on that ,
york, while the county is relieved of
he heavy expense bills they had al
rays had to pay for repairs on
wenty miles of dirt road under
eavy traffic.
Regaining What We Lost
The road to connect Lost river ..
18th the Yellowstone Highway was
pplied for and allowed between :
1aho Falls and Arco, and four miles
( pavement was constructed from .
1aho Falls westward. Then came !.
lie discovery of the Craters OF the
loon southwest of Arco, and over
lvestment of Bonneville county in
court house and some reverses of .
olicy in that county, the aggressive
olicy of the commissioners Of Bing-
am county in road matters, and our =
'f1cials made application to have o
le connecting link between the Yell
wstone Highway and Lost river :,
Tilt from Blackfoot to Arco. The u
ate highway department put 1t up r
our commissioners to survey 1t =
Id prove their claims to a shorter 81
Id more feasible route, they did 1t. 81
owed their case and now the ap-
ication has been approved and 1t 81
on the records for joint cOnstruc- u
IN, the federal government paying 81
per cent of the cost of grading as Ct
,ll as of surfacing, and here again m
an achievement in that it Is new II
parture for the federal govern 10
emit to spend any money until the p'
aiding was done and ready for sur &C
cling. This road has been one OF 81
e most perplexing problems In Sc
ad building for several administra- 10
ms, and for the clubs of commerce 81
Blackfoot and Lost river towns. nc
iginally it was laid out along the w
ffalo trails that lead from one WI
lterhole to another, regardless of &c
rections. In trying to straighten an
ese great angles in the desert, the oo
7abeds were encountered and Tn
rites have been viewing and recon- Pr
ending new routes over sections of slf
3 desert for years. The engineers M
ting for the state, county and fed Tn
II government have now agreed
on locations that are smooth and re-
'ect, avoiding the waterholes and Ike
, rocky reefs and shortening the trl
tence to Arco by about nine miles. Ike