Traveling the Old Red Trail

ESTABLISHING A PUBLIC ROAD SYSTEM
In 1899 the North Dakota legislature recognized the need for public roads. They standardized the minimum width of 24 feet and also stated that the roads should be laid out on a grid system. However, the legislature did not set aside any money to build the roads.

The responsibility for paying to build the roads was left to the counties and often to even smaller units of government called townships. In the richer counties and townships the roads were quite good, but in counties and townships that did not have much money, the conditions of the roads were very poor.

To raise money for building the roads, the counties had two sources of revenue. Property owners paid a property tax and all male residents between the ages of 21 and 50 were required to pay a poll tax. This was a tax people paid to be able to vote and, since women were not allowed to vote until 1919, only men paid the tax.

The cost for the poll tax was $1.50. Many men were not able to pay this amount, so it was decided that these people were obligated to work on building and maintaining the roads. The pay for doing this work was $1.50 a day. The workers would go out with shovels and scrapers, creating a relatively smooth surface for the roads. A scraper was a horse-drawn blade.

In 1911, the legislature recognized that the automobile was more than an amusing toy and passed a law that all automobiles needed to be registered. The tax or fee for registering an automobile was $3.00 and the money was to be used to help build and maintain roads. In that year, North Dakota registered 7,201 vehicles. How much money did the state raise for building roads that year?