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Mail Tribune 100, Aug. 31, 1922 By Alissa Corman Aug 31, 2022 12:00 AM A A News from 100 years ago The following news items were drawn from the archives of the Mail Tribune 100 years ago Aug. 31, 1922 STATE HIGHWAY ENGINEER EXPLAINS C. LAKE HIGHWAY State Highway Engineer Herbert Nunn, when in Medford today en route to Crater Lake with Governor Olcott and party, was informed by a representative of the Mail Tribune that there had been much criticism of the new road recently opened between Medford and Agate on the Crater Lake Highway. “That is to be expected,” said the state highway engineer, “because the road though new is still rough and the people suppose it will get rougher. But it won’t. It will get smoother and more firm, and in a very short time will be as fine a dirt highway as there is in the state. “The cause of this is a new and better system of road building. We used to build dirt or macadam roads as hard as they could be built, watered them down and rolled them and then opened them to traffic. The result was the surface soon rutted out and stayed rutted, and became worse and worse until it had to be resurfaced. “The present system is to put on the surface loose, have no binder and no wetting down and let the traffic pound the road together. After this has been done for a time, then there is a solid foundation, the surface can be smoothed and rolled and there will be a permanently smooth highway or as smooth as a macadam highway can be, with the tremendous motor traffic that now prevails. “We have thousands and thousands of miles of these roads in the state. There is always complaint when the road is first opened, sometimes mass meetings of protest are held. But when the matter is explained the feeling naturally disappears. And when the road develops into a good road there is, as there will be in Jackson County, general satisfaction.” RUNAWAY BOY PREFERS MEDFORD TO YREKA, CAL. Roy Montgomery, a thirteen year old boy of Yreka, Calif., decided early Monday morning that he would seek adventure, riches and independence and left the home of his father, War Montgomery of Yreka, starting north. He walked along the highway and caught rides with three different cars, finally reaching Ashland where he remained for several days. Yesterday morning he came to Medford. In the afternoon he found a job. Roy went to work for the Rogue River Valley Canning company in the afternoon and worked until 5:30 when he was paid one dollar and thirteen cents or at the rate of 28 cents per hour for his labor. Chief of Police Timothy who received word form the boy’s father discovered the youngster last evening and gave him a bed in the local jail until this morning when his father wired a ticket for him to return. When asked why he left home he said, “Oh, I don’t know. I just wanted to get out a little and look things over. Yreka is a heck of a burg. Dead? Gee, but it’s sure dead. I like Medford lots better. I guess I’ll go to school when I get back, I’m in the seventh grade now.” — Alissa Corman; [email protected]