Crescent City, which would connect the whole of the Rogue River Valley with our harbor. As Congressman Lea says, about 50 per cent of the taxable value of Del Norte County is in forest reserves owned by the United States. The people of Del Norte County are furnishing a government for this forest reserve, the same as for the rest of the county. The Government is paying no part of our taxes, and we can see no reason why it should not do a portion of the pioneer work here, particularly in the construction of a project that will ultimately cause transportation facilities to be put in that will place their properties on the markets of the world. According to the Forestry Department the Government owns in forest reserves easterly, northerly, and southerly from Crescent City over 87,000,000,000 feet of standing timber, a greater portion of which should pass through Crescent City Harbor to the markets of the world. Klamath River, which meets the ocean about 12 miles south of Crescent City; Rogue River, with its mouth about 40 miles to the north of Crescent City; and the small rivers between those two larger streams drain nearly all of the above referred to forest reserve. Heavy commodities like timber, ore, etc., should be taken to market over the lines of least resistance, and any map of the country will show that Crescent City is the logical tidewater point from which this timber should be shipped. The 87,000,000,000 feet of standing timber which the Government owns as above referred to would be worth, if it could be shipped from a safe harbor at Crescent City, at least a dollar a thousand, which would mean an income of $87,000,000 to the Government. Quite a percentage of this timber is sugar pine, cedar, and other woods that are worth much more than a dollar a thousand, provided they can be moved at all. It seems strange to me, indeed, that the Government should hesitate in helping to improve a harbor which would be of so much value to our country in general as the Crescent City project is. The mining industry back of Crescent City is worthy of a lot of thought. There are immense bodies of copper and other valuable ores in the mountains, within a few miles of Crescent City Harbor, that can not be moved on account of the lack of transportation. The Gray Eagle mine, within 60 miles of Crescent City Harbor, has over a million tons of copper ore blocked out that can not be moved to advantage without a safe harbor at Crescent City. During the World War, when our country was in great need of chrome for the manufacture of war weapons, little Del Norte County furnished more chrome than any other territory of its size in the United States, and when the armistice was signed we were just getting started in that industry. There are many other reasons why the Government should have a protected harbor at Crescent City, but I do not wish to trouble you with a statement in greater detail. My friends, Mr. Keller, Mr. McNulty, and Mr. McNamara, have talked with you about this matter, and you are probably fully advised on every matter on which I have written in this letter, and if so, it is too bad to further take your time. These gentlemen may write letters to you concerning this matter. The fact is I do not know how thoroughly they went into the project with you when you were in Crescent City on your visit, but I will submit this letter to those gentlemen before mailing it so they may know what I have said to you in this epistle; then, if they see fit, they may take up other matters. I am firmly of the opinion that the Board of Army Engineers should recommend that the railroad clause be stricken from the bill appropriating $290,000 to the Crescent City Harbor project. I sincerely hope and trust that you may feel as I do in this matter should you be called upon to report to the engineers. I feel, too, that a number of the members of that honorable body feel that Crescent City is deserving of the appropriation. If you feel that way, shall be glad indeed. I Sincerely thanking you in advance for the consideration I know you will give to this letter, and assuring you that I will be glad to meet you and become personally acquainted with you, and further assuring you that I will get any other data that you may desire before you make your report, if you should be requested to make one, and you should need further data, I beg to be considered, Yours, very truly, JOHN L. CHILDS. STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Judge J. L. CHILDS, Crescent City, Calif. DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY COMMISSION, DEAR SIR: In response to your inquiry, will say that the State of California, working in conjunction with the State of Oregon, plans to construct a commercial highway between Crescent City and Grants Pass. The $40,000,000 bond issue which was voted in July, 1919, carries an appropriation of $400,000 to be used in the construction of California's portion of this highway, and it is the plan of the highway commission to expend this amount upon its construction within the next three or four years. Preliminary work has already been started and surveying parties will be put in the field early in the spring. Trusting that this will furnish you with the information desired I remain, Meeting of the State highway commission was called to order in room 323 Capitol Building, those present being R. A. Booth, chairman; J. B. Yeon, commissioner; W. B. Barratt, commissioner; Herbert Nunn, State highway engineer; Roy A. Klein, secretary. On motion of Mr. Booth, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Resolved by the Oregon State Highway Commission, That it is the plan of said commission to continue the improvement on the Grants Pass-Crescent City Highway and to complete the same to a point on the California State line at the head of Elk Creek at a date not later than the date when the part of the said highway in California shall have been completed from Crescent City to a connection with the Oregon division of said road at the point named. STATE OF OREGON, County of Marion, ss: R. A. BOOTH, Chairman. J. B. YEON. W. B. BARRATT. HERBERT NUNN, State Highway Engineer. Secretary. I, Roy A. Klein, secretary of the Oregon State Highway Commission, do hereby certify that the foregoing copy of the part of the minutes of the Oregon State Highway Commission relating to the resolution of the commission with reference to the improvement of the Grants Pass-Crescent City Highway, as the same appears in the minutes of January 20, 1921, entered in Volume V of the minute book, wherein all official acts of the said Oregon State Highway Commission are recorded, has been compared by me with the original and that the same is a true and correct copy of the said portion of said minutes and of the whole thereof. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 21st day of January, 1921. [SEAL.] ROY A. KLEIN, Secretary Oregon State Highway Commission. о |