A Snowbound Road That Would End at Newport's Doorstep
State Road No. 2 — a $25,000 legislative appropriation — is about to go to bid, but contractors must first wait for the Calispel Mountains to thaw before they can walk the line.
Hon. R. A. Thayer received a letter from State Road Commissioner Snow the fore part of this week, stating that calls for bids would be published in the Spokesman-Review and the Colville papers as soon as the snow is off sufficiently for contractors to inspect the line, which is state road No. 2, and for which the legislature appropriated $25,000. This road extends from Orient, Ferry county, by way of Marcus, Colville, across the Calispel mountains to Tiger, and thence south to Newport. The greater part of the appropriation will be expended in building the road from Colville to Tiger, where no road exists at the present time. Mr. Snow has requested Mr. Thayer to advise him as to when the snow will be off sufficiently so that the contractors can make a trip over the road. — Reveille.
“This road extends from Orient, Ferry county, by way of Marcus, Colville, across the Calispel mountains to Tiger, and thence south to Newport.”
Newport's connection to the outside world in 1909 was a wagon track over a mountain pass, and the town's standing depended on whether the state spent its money on the Colville end or the Newport end. A century later the same arithmetic still governs rural Stevens County: which stretch of highway gets paved, which gets plowed, and who has to wait for the snow to melt.
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