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Trails to highways

Part III

In September 1916, people coming into Tracy from the east on what was then called the Black and Yellow Trail reported that they had never traveled over a better road. At the same time a rather large number of auto accidents were beginning to occur. Some said these were caused by too-fast driving; others blamed them on ‘booze parties’ returning from Springfield, the first place east of Tracy where liquor was sold.

Further evidence that automobiles and roads were improving was an auto trip from Tracy to Chicago made in the fall of 1917 by Ralph Jinnegan and John Wilford. The young men drove the 650 miles in 30 hours without a stop for rest. Aside from three flat tires they had no trouble. Reports of auto accidents were on the increase. The auto licenses for Minnesota owners were increased from $1.50 to $5 for a three-year license.

1920 saw the passage of the Babcock Amendment, which is the basis for our system of state highways, The Black and Yellow Trail was designed as part of the Minnesota highway system. Most of the roads in the system were to connect county seat cities, so the north and south road, which Tracy had hoped to get was laid out from Marshall to Slayton through Garvin.

Under the recently adopted Babcock, good roads plan all motor vehicles were to be registered no later than May 15, 1921. Licenses rates would be substantially increased to pay for the roads that the state was to build. There was no highway patrol, city police were lenient if municipal ordinances were reasonably observed, so state regulations concerning headlights, taillights, license plates and children under 16 driving, could rather easily go unobserved.

But when Tracy’s mayor, John Filkins, found that some motorists were still driving on last year’s license in August, he and the police department gave notice that automobile owners would be given only until August 29 to comply with the state law. Also, no car was to be driven in the city limits with the ‘cut-out’ open.

In the autumn of 1921 the Minnesota Highway Department reported that Minnesota state highways were carrying an average of 565 vehicles per day as compared with 435 on the same date of the previous year and three times as many as five years before. The 565 vehicles for 1921 were: 509 automobiles, 32 trucks, 15 wagons, nine buggies. The 435 vehicles for 1920 were: 377 automobiles, 24 trucks, 20 wagons, 14 buggies.

Wages had dropped considerably from their wartime high and the State Highway Department also reported that contractors were so badly in need of jobs that contracts for highway construction were being awarded at bargain prices.

Good roads boosters were finding that more money was needed to build state roads and to maintain them. A 2-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline had been proposed, as well as an amendment providing that gas tax money could be used only for roads.

The use of automobiles and a few trucks throughout the winter, for business purposes at least, had become rather common by this time; and highway users complained that the state highway department made little effort to keep roads clear of snow. In reply, Assistant Commissioner Ellison stated that few vehicles were on the roads in cold weather, so funds spent in summer to build and maintain better roads would benefit a greater number of travelers. Also many farmers preferred to use sleighs and protested removal of the snow. However, the department had doubled its amount of snow fencing and had been building a number of snowplows from excess war materials in its shops at the state fairgrounds. Winter traffic was to be checked to determine those sections where it was heavy enough to justify the expense of keeping a road open.

(Continued next week)

Source: Tracy’s First Hundred Years, Merrill Star, 1971.

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