From the files of The Crittenden Press are found many interesting articles that tell us of hardships many years ago. One of them was the inconvenience of the condition of our roads.
This article was written in Feb. of 1927 and the picture at the right shows how bad the mud had become. The car in the back in mired down to its axles and the poor team of mules are having the hard time of trying to pull the car out of the mire.
Poems have been written and pictures painted of the snow-bound communities, whole books have been published about the flood-bound, but little attention has been paid to the mud-bound sections. It is literally true that many parts of this county are really mud-bound; work has been hindered and trading halted while activities of all kinds have been slowed down almost to a standstill.
Few of the roads in this county have been in a condition that would make wagon traffic fairly easy and none, aside from the graveled highway, will permit the use of automobiles. The problem of obtaining household supplies has gotten to be a serious matter for families in several sections and trips to the market have been made with expenditures of great effort and loss of time.
A few days ago a man from Shady Grove was in Marion, after having made an eight hour tirp from his home in a wagon without a load, drawn by four big mules.
The Salem mail carrier, who is due to leave the Marion post office at 2:30 p.m. was so delayed by the mud on the Salem highway ( now Highway 60) that it was ten o'clock the next morning before he reached his destination in Salem.
It took many years for the county to be able to acquire a county tax that could be applied toward the maintenance of the roads.
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