For those who pine for the “good old days” before all this pesky taxation and big government, we offer this reminder of the days before MODOT. Imagine adding “do your own road work” to your daily commute.
The June 7, 1901 Skidmore Standard quoted the Hopkins Journal:
A Good Suggestion
We clip the following from the Hopkins Journal which we thought would be of interest to many of our readers, and we are confident that if the suggestion was carried into effect all over the county and state that we would have a great deal better roads.
Charlie McIntire, a liveryman of Hopkins, made the suggestion to a Journal reporter, which is that “Hopkins township put into effect the law of turning the road work over by contract to one man or a company. As it now is, the farmers are all busy and the roads are never worked at the time of year when work on them is most needed, but if they could be prevailed upon to pay a cash road tax instead of ‘working it out,’ thus enabling the township to let the contract to some man who would provide himself with suitable machinery, and make it his business to look after the roads at all times of the year, the improvement would be perceptible. With an experienced man and the machinery we speak of, the roads could be kept in much better shape than they can ever be hoped to be under the present methods of working them, and the cost would be insignificant when the benefits derived are considered. Bigger loads could be hauled to market, more pleasure could be had when out for a ride, and farms would be worth $5 an acre more by reason of the fine roads of the township.”