Page:Tioga Road (HAER No. CA-149) written historical and descriptive data.pdf/9

 Major H. C. Benson, the Acting Superintendent of the park in 1907, criticized the condition of the Tioga Road in his annual report to the Secretary of the Interior:
 * ...as this road leads through one of the most beautiful parts of the park, and is one of the most accessible, it should be put in a proper state of repair. Either the alleged owners of this road should be required to put it in a state of repair which will permit the passage of wagons, or it should be recognized that the alleged owners have no claim whatever to the road, as they certainly have not, no title ever having been acquired to the road except under the general law authorizing the construction of highways over public lands. After the road was built and the mine salted and sold together with the road, no work was done on it for many years, and no tolls were ever collected; therefore, the franchise as a toll road lapsed many years ago. It is recommended that the Government put this road in a condition for travel.39

By this point, nearly all of the bridges and culverts on the road had been washed away, along with much of the road surface.40

The Sierra Club also called for improvements to the Tioga Road. The Sierra Club Bulletin of 1909 heralded the completion of the new state motor road up the eastern slope as far as Tioga Lake. Although cars were at the time banned from the park, the Bulletin urged that the road be repaired "without delay, so as to afford one of the most wonderful trans-mountain roads in the world."41

Mary Hall Crocker, whose husband, H. R. Crocker, had once overseen road work for the owners, challenged Major Benson's assessment of the road's condition and value. In a letter to Benson, dated 28 September 1907, she argued that the owners had probably invested a quarter of a million in the road and the mine, and denied that the road was in nearly worthless condition. She held that only a few miles out of the 56-mile route were in poor condition, and attested to the traffic continually passing Crocker's station at the west end of the road.42 Despite her protest, two years later Benson reported again that the Tioga Road was still in "wretched condition."43

In June 1912, Mrs. Crocker filed a deposition concerning the road in which she stated that maintenance and repair work had been continually conducted on the road. This work for the most part consisted of repairing and replacing bridges, sawing logs which had fallen across the road, and removing other obstructions. The road, she said, had never been closed except by snow. Mrs. Crocker estimated that only $10,000 would be required to put the road back in good order.44

Although Mrs. Crocker contested the charges that the road was in terrible condition, other evidence suggests it truly was. In 1912, Major W. T. Forsythe, Acting Superintendent of the park, wrote the Secretary of the Interior, describing the rescue of a stranded party on the road:
 * Several wagons passed over the road last summer,...but also last summer I had to order a gratuitous issue of rations to a destitute family who were moving by wagon across the park from the east side by the Tioga Road because their team became exhausted on account of the difficult road and their food supply gave out before they could get through.45

Forsythe repeated the need for the government to take over the road. However, Swift's attorneys maintained that taxes had been paid on the road, and that