Roads

June 30, 1924: "Forty residents of Chiloquin and the Sprague river valley have petitioned the county court to appropriate funds for the improvement of the county road from Chiloquin to Beatty which follows along the north side of the Sprague river. The road petition states is in very poor condition and is a source of annoyance to not only the residents who use the road daily but also tourists which are becoming more numerous." (The Evening Herald)

November 21, 1924: "After striving for many months, it appears that citizens of Sprague River, a small settlement 40 miles east of this city (Klamath Falls), are assured of a good highway which will connect them with Chiloquin, Klamath Agency and Klamath Falls.

Following a reconnaissance by County Engineer Joseph Jensen and a consideration by authorities of the different routes in question, the river route has been conceded the most practical for the new road.

This will mean that the new road will be routed up Sprague River for 18 miles to the settlement of Sprague River. From that point the road will turn east direct towards Beatty.

Following the water course, according to the engineering office, is most practical rout for several reasons. First: it is more direct and provides greater scenic possibilities. Second: the road bed along a water course has natural rock which would cause the road to hold up well during winter months." (The Evening Herald)

April 9, 1925: "On April 17 and 18 there will be a community road working in this vicinity, the neighbors will take their teams, plows, shovels, axes, picks and will spend two days working the road from the lower edge of the reservation and will work the worst places, put in culverts where needed. W.C. Madison the manager of the Campbell Lumber Co. will furnish the lumber, while the good ladies has consented to go and cook lunch old camp style. Everybody that is interested in the county, and its progress is invited, but don't come unless you mean business." (The Klamath News)

April 20, 1925: "For genuine thrills and hair-raising excitement, the average wild west movie is a tame and humdrum affair compared to a ride to the Campbell-Towle mill on Sprague river with Manager W.C. Mattson, according to Delwin Towle and Edw. W. Koehn, officials of the company, who arrived in Klamath Falls Friday evening and took the wild drive to the mill Saturday.

Towle took the same ride with Mattson last fall, and narrowly escaped with his life by holding his breath and clinging to the car with both hands and feet. Koehn adopted the same tactics, and except that both were black in the face from holding their breath all went well until they rounded a sharp turn in the road on two wheels and saw that they were about to crash into the rear of a car, the top half of which was plainly visible above the surface of a mud puddle. Manager Mattson promptly applied the brakes, but discovered that there were none to apply, so he struck out along the hillside through the tall uncut, and ricocheted back into the road without any major casualties. Mattson declares that a car followed the same course along the hillside the year of the two winters, but Towle and Koehn are decidedly skeptical about this story." (The Evening Herald)

April 25, 1925: "The road to Sprague river, leading from Dairy, out through Hildebrand and Squaw Flat country, is in bad shape, Mr. Peterson said. It is a shade better than impassable." (The Evening Herald)

June 24, 1926: "The rottenest road in the world is located between Hildebrand and the town of Sprague River," is the opinion of Garry Cozad, Klamath Falls constable, who made the run by auto to the Campbell-Towle city yesterday.

"I believe Klamath Falls is losing considerable Sprague River valley trade on account of this bad road." Cozad said. "Klamath authorities should take some action in the matter as all that would be required to make a very passable road would be to put two good men out on that stretch with picks and shovels for three or four days." (The Evening Herald)

March 7, 1927: "A party from the Campbell Towle Lumber Company of Sprague River passed through Hildebrand recently en route for Klamath Falls. Leaving Sprague at 9 a.m. they arrived at Hildebrand at 5 p.m. and also had the misfortune to get stuck in the Hildebrand district. They hired a team to pull them out of the mud hole." (The Evening Herald)

March 9, 1927: "Ray Pickett delivers for the Wolford and Wann and Gowan stores now with his teams, as the roads are impassable. It takes four horses to pull a light load of freight from the track to the stores. If some Klamath county people had to travel these roads they wouldn't have much to say about their own roads. We would like to invite our county court up here to talk about roads to newcomers and tourists travel, but no chance of them getting here. Last year a baby died without a doctor, as one couldn't come and this winter a man. Friends started with him but the terrible roads proved too much for the poor fellow and he died a few miles on the way. And all we ask is a market road to Hildebrand, a distance of 14 miles." (The Klamath News)

May 3, 1927: "Sprague river is out of its banks again. The road is flooded from the bridge to the hill on the north side and any one coming in here will be wise to come by the Bonanza highway, or the Squaw Flat road." (The Klamath News)

July 1, 1928: "Construction of a 25-mile road from Braymill up the Sprague river to the town of Sprague, and then beyond to Yainax, may be initiated in the near future if Indian reservation authorities and Klamath county can get together on a joint undertaking of cost.

A delegation of Sprague and Chiloquin business men this morning urged the county court to undertake the proposed highway and submitted tentative surveys for the project.

L. D. Arnold, superintendent of the Klamath Indian reservation, expressed hope that money would be forthcoming from his department but pointed out that there was some opposition to the project among the Indians.

The first unit of the project, a four mile road from Chiloquin to Braymill, has been completed.

County Engineer E. B. Henry was ordered by the county court to make a survey of the proposed road from a point between Yainax and Sprague River to Braymill. Members of the delegation submitted to the court their views on where the survey should lead.

The project has been considered for four years as a natural connection which would be a great help to Sprague River and would also be of constructive aid to Indian agriculture." (The Klamath News)

August 19, 1928: "The court passed a resolution to make a road from the city of Sprague River to a point one mile north of Yainax, a county road and directed the county engineer to advertise for grading bids. The engineer was also directed to advertise for bids for a bridge across Sprague river at the city of Sprague River." (The Klamath News)

March 8, 1929: "Present indications point to the expenditure of $34,000 on roads following up Sprague river from Bray's Mill to Yainax, it was revealed today by County Road Engineer E. B. Henry following a recent conference with reservation authorities.

Fifteen thousand dollars of Indian money will be expended on the Chiloquin-Sprague River road and on the Sprague River-Yainax road.

On the other hand the county has $19,000 in bond money for work on the Sprague-Yainax road and $10,000 for work on the Chiloquin-Sprague road." (The Evening Herald)

May 12, 1929: "L. F. Ireton was yesterday awarded a contract for the grading and surfacing of a nine and one-forth mile stretch of highway from the town of Sprague River to a junction with the Klamath-Lakeview highway at the meeting of the county court.

Ireton's bid was for $15,204. Contract for the grading and surfacing of a mile stretch from Robinson Springs to the Klamath-Lakeview highway was not let." (The Klamath News)

June 14, 1929: "With the grading nearly completed and with about two miles of surfacing yet to be laid, the ten-mile county road connecting Sprague River, lumber community, with the Klamath Falls-Lakeview highway should be completed by July 15. according to County Engineer E. B. Henry today." (The Evening Herald)

July 21, 1929: "The highway from Beatty to Sprague River is nearing completion." (The Klamath News)

November 1, 1929: "The highway between Sprague River and Chiloquin will be improved during the fall, as a crew of county road builders arrived here last night for the purpose of reconditioning a stretch of road which has been too rough for agreeable travel for some time." (The Klamath News)

June 12, 1931: "Plans are nearly complete, the engineer states, for the 20-mile Chiloquin to Sprague River road construction job. Construction work will cost in the neighborhood of $75,000 and will be done on a 50-50 basis between the Indian service and Klamath county.

Present plans call for the Indian service to grade the road while the county will do the surfacing with rock." (The Klamath News)

June 21, 1934: "Reports from those who travel the Chiloquin-Sprague River road indicate that the 28 mile stretch of highway is the worst county road in Klamath county. Many times those who have to drive from Chiloquin to Sprague River drive around by way of Klamath Falls to miss covering the bad section of highway.

The highway is a through road and is travelled by as many stranger in our state as by local people. It is a terrible advertisement to this county to have a road like that over which an amount of travel passes." (The Chiloquin Review)

February 26, 1936: "Many cars and trucks have been stuck on the Sprague River road between the state highway and town. We had some high winds which partly dried the roads, but it is snowing hard again so we probably will have to go through it all again. The Chiloquin road is not so bad, probably due to the fact that there has been no heavy trucking over that way lately." (The Evening Herald)

October 24, 1936: "We are happy to learn that the Sprague River road is undergoing much needed repairs." (The Evening Herald)

November 9, 1936: "Work has commenced in earnest on the road from the state highway into the town of Sprague River. Several pieces of road equipment are located in the Yainax vicinity and a number of men are employed on the project. Everyone is pleased to see this work go forward as this road is almost impassable in the spring of the year when the snow is melting and the weather is rainy." (The Evening Herald)