Histories: Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:
"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":
Chapter 9:
Roads and Bridges
-As transcribed from pages 117 - 118
Road
and bridge matters have constituted much of the heavy work of the
successive county boards. The early roads in Trempealeau County
followed the river courses. The trail along the Mississippi and
the trail down the Beef River Valley early became much frequented
highways. Beef River Valley, Trempealeau Valley and its two great
northern branches, Pigeon Creek and Elk Creek (Pleasant) Valleys; and
its eastern branch, the Big Tamarack Valley; Bruce, Chimney Rock and
Borst Valleys, tributary to Pleasant Valley; Beaver Creek Valley and
its tributary, French Creek Valley, are all natural lines of travel,
while the Trempealeau Prairie affords routes west and south from
Galesville and north and east from Trempealeau.
The greatest difficulty in road building in the county is in crossing
the ridges which separate the valleys. None of the roads of the
county follow the crest of the ridges for any considerable distance,
the longest ridge road being one of several miles between Pigeon Valley
and Osseo. The southern part of the county abounds in rock, but
in the northern part of the county rock for road building must be
shipped in.
The territorial and early state assemblies designated certain routes as
state roads; the early county boards co-operated with various other
counties in laying out roads which would connect the widely separated
pioneer hamlets, and also laid out such roads as extended across more
than one township. The care of the roads and the laying out of
short roads was left with the townships. Bridges were built in
whole or in part by the county when it appeared that the construction
of such bridges would impose too great a hardship on the individual
towns.
Modern road building in Trempealeau County was inaugurated under the
laws of 1907. In that year the county board outlined a series of
"proposed county highways" covering the natural routes of communication
within the county. E. J. Matchett was appointed county highway
commissioner. Under this system the county was to pay one-half
for the construction of county roads and the township one-half.
Under the laws of 1911 the state pays one-third, the county one-third
and the town one-third. The state money available, however, has
not thus far been sufficient to meet the entire one-third, so in
reality the county and township are paying considerably more than their
respective thirds.
Trempealeau County was one of the first counties in the state to build
roads under the laws of 1907. In 1912 macadamizing was started on
the Arcadia-Dodge and the Galesville-Ettrick roads. The work of
macadamizing, grading and surfacing has since continued until something
like $400,000 has been spent within the county. The heaviest
piece of relocation work in the state was done on the so-called Decorah
Peak cut, near Galesville, where something like 35,000 cubic yards of
earth were moved in a stretch of a little more than a mile, at a cost
of about $25,000. The new road considerably modifies the grade
and eliminates many dangerous curves. In 1916 Emil F. Rotering
was appointed county highway commissioner, and under his able
supervision, with the co-operation of the county board committee, the
highways of the county are being gradually improved and the system
extended.