The Coconino sun., 1925-12-04
DOES ARIZONA WANT
THE TOURIST TRAFFIC

/ practicable connection to get the ut
most traffic is the route to Flagstaff
north across the Little Colorado river
at Cameron bridge, thence in a north
~ direction to crossing of the
Grand Canyon at a point six miles
below Lees Ferry, and thence through
Rock House valley to a connection in
the Kaibab forest, with the forest
highway running from that point to
tredonia, Arizona and thence to Ka-
nab, Utah.
The United States congress has al
ready made available, until matched
by the state of Arizona, the sum of
$4,000 for the construction of a
bridge across the Grand Canyon near
Lees Ferry. This crossing will ne
cessitate construction of suspension
type of bridge about 700 feet in
length. 1t must be realized that the
only route north and south through
the United States, west of Ell Paso
and east of the Pacific coast, is the
route through Nogales, to Tucson,
Phoenix, Flagstaff, Lees Ferry to
Salt Lake City, and thence northward.
1t was with this idea in view that at
the recent conference in Washington,
which was held to select the arterial
highways of the United States, that
| urged upon the selection board that
it designate this highway. This ar
terial highway was selected.
The next connection which I will
take up is our California connection at
Needles, Calf, on the Old Trails
highway. Recently California has de-
cided that it would build a paved
highway from the vicinity of Barstow,
Calf, in northeasterly direction to.
the Nevada state line, proposing that
Nevada extend its connection, which
it will, to Las Vegas. The object of
this connection is to cut off consider
able distance for the tourist who is
coming from Salt Lake City westward
over the Arrowhead Trail and wishes
to go to Los Angeles or southern
California.
1t is not the intention of California
to do any amount of improvement
work on the Old Trails road from
Needles west to Barstow. California
wishes Arizona to change it's seven
per cent system and swing northward
and connect with the Arrowhead
Trail at either Searchlight, Nevada,
or some point to the north of Search
light. This would simply mean that
California would be- abandoning one
of the main arteries of travel east
and west.
1t is my opinion that the bureau of
public roads would support California
and Nevada in this connection, which
would work a considerable hardship
on Arizona, for we have spent con-
siderable amount of money in the
construction of the National Old
Trails highway
Recently the highway department
submitted to the bureau of public
roads project for the construction
of road from Oatn1an west, approx
mately three miles The bureau of
public roads refused to participate in
the construction of this road and gave
as its excuse that it desired to wait
until it learned what the ultimate de-
velopment of the Colorado river near
Needles would be.
If, with the large amount of work
that Arizona has done on this section
of road, it is abandoned, and the bu.
reau of public roads decides to throw
open this part of the seven per cent
system for revision, then Arizona
will most certainly take the stand
that that part of her seven per cent
system shall likewise be open to re-
vision, because the revision proposed
is of no benefit to Arizona, being of
benefit only to California and Ne
vada. There will be conference
held between the three states inter-
ested and the bureau of public roads
shortly, to determine what shall be
done with our connection to the west.