Start Grading For New Road
San Francisco Call
April 6, 1905
Grants Pass, Ore., April 5. — With much pomp and ceremony and in the presence of several thousand people the first dirt was turned in the grading of the Medford and Crater Lake Railroad south of here Tuesday.
The Medford and Crater Lake Railroad is the first line of rail to push from the main line of transportation to the newly established Crater Lake National Park. This park covers an area of 250 square miles. At present it is eighty-five miles from the nearest railroad point, but the new road will put it within reach of the thousands of tourists who cannot at present visit it because of the long mountain road that separates it from the outside world. The new line will not only tap the park, but will penetrate the Upper Rogue Forest Reserve, the greatest forest of sugar pine in the world, and will open a vast area of country that is at present isolated.
