In 1965 Judy Collins sang about the heartbreak that followed the coming of the roads to a mountain paradise. Now, in 2012, new roads have come near our Paradise, changing forever the landscape we knew by heart.
A new four-lane is gradually replacing the old, dangerous Highway 59 that we have used to travel to Lawrence for 35 years. The project started to the south near Ottawa. The section from Ottawa to Baldwin has been open for more than a year, rendering unrecognizable the old Baldwin Junction, where generations of Baker University students went to drink beer at a roadhouse. Now the section from Baldwin to Lawrence is nearing completion.
We have watched in amazement the destruction and reconfiguration of the terrain. Countless tons of earth have been relocated, creating hills where there were valleys and valleys where there were hills. When I took this photo, looking south, I was standing on a new bridge approximately where a gas station used to be, just four miles east of Paradise. Now the nearest station is ten miles away. The new four-lane is not open for public use, but the road crews use it day and night.
To my dismay, the crews graded up the base of Sleeping Dog Hill where wild white penstemon and ashy sunflowers bloomed each year. Now that wild garden is two lanes of concrete. As a consolation wild Queen Anne's lace has sprung up in abundance in the new road sides.
For several years a major construction hub has been located just north of the intersection of our county road and the old highway. In the process of creating the new roadbed, heavy machinery has dug up many tons of limestone which is carted by truck to a gigantic rock crusher. Mountains of crushed rock have come and gone over the months as crews used the rock to create new roadbeds. The current mountain is on the right side of this photo, taken from the same bridge as the previous photo. The cluster of trailers and vehicles on the left is just part of the operation.
The construction hub is located on the site of two ranch-style houses and a failed Christmas tree farm. A few of the dead pines remain as testimony to the past.
Here is the exit we would use if, when the project is complete, we choose to travel from Lawrence on the new highway.
Like Judy I might lament the changed vistas, the loss of the familiar countryside, but I don't. Old Highway 59 is a highway of death. The two-lane road has no shoulders and passes over one hill after another, making passing another vehicle a gamble with death. Numerous crashes occurred at the intersection where our old gas station stood, some with fatalities. Every time I approached that intersection, which was blind on the south side due to a hill, my heart rate and blood pressure went up.
Just yesterday afternoon as Dennis and I were driving to Lawrence on the old highway we came upon a terrible accident scene where two tractor-trailer rigs had collided. The cab of one was crushed, its door hanging open, the driver thrown out and lying motionless in a growing pool of diesel fuel leaking from his truck. The accident must have occurred just before we arrived. No emergency vehicles had arrived. Road crews working nearby were wandering the scene, apparently helpless in the face of such devastation. Both Dennis and I were deeply shaken.
Nope, I don't regret the coming of the roads. The sooner they are finished, the better.
A new four-lane is gradually replacing the old, dangerous Highway 59 that we have used to travel to Lawrence for 35 years. The project started to the south near Ottawa. The section from Ottawa to Baldwin has been open for more than a year, rendering unrecognizable the old Baldwin Junction, where generations of Baker University students went to drink beer at a roadhouse. Now the section from Baldwin to Lawrence is nearing completion.
We have watched in amazement the destruction and reconfiguration of the terrain. Countless tons of earth have been relocated, creating hills where there were valleys and valleys where there were hills. When I took this photo, looking south, I was standing on a new bridge approximately where a gas station used to be, just four miles east of Paradise. Now the nearest station is ten miles away. The new four-lane is not open for public use, but the road crews use it day and night.
To my dismay, the crews graded up the base of Sleeping Dog Hill where wild white penstemon and ashy sunflowers bloomed each year. Now that wild garden is two lanes of concrete. As a consolation wild Queen Anne's lace has sprung up in abundance in the new road sides.
For several years a major construction hub has been located just north of the intersection of our county road and the old highway. In the process of creating the new roadbed, heavy machinery has dug up many tons of limestone which is carted by truck to a gigantic rock crusher. Mountains of crushed rock have come and gone over the months as crews used the rock to create new roadbeds. The current mountain is on the right side of this photo, taken from the same bridge as the previous photo. The cluster of trailers and vehicles on the left is just part of the operation.
The construction hub is located on the site of two ranch-style houses and a failed Christmas tree farm. A few of the dead pines remain as testimony to the past.
Here is the exit we would use if, when the project is complete, we choose to travel from Lawrence on the new highway.
Like Judy I might lament the changed vistas, the loss of the familiar countryside, but I don't. Old Highway 59 is a highway of death. The two-lane road has no shoulders and passes over one hill after another, making passing another vehicle a gamble with death. Numerous crashes occurred at the intersection where our old gas station stood, some with fatalities. Every time I approached that intersection, which was blind on the south side due to a hill, my heart rate and blood pressure went up.
Just yesterday afternoon as Dennis and I were driving to Lawrence on the old highway we came upon a terrible accident scene where two tractor-trailer rigs had collided. The cab of one was crushed, its door hanging open, the driver thrown out and lying motionless in a growing pool of diesel fuel leaking from his truck. The accident must have occurred just before we arrived. No emergency vehicles had arrived. Road crews working nearby were wandering the scene, apparently helpless in the face of such devastation. Both Dennis and I were deeply shaken.
Nope, I don't regret the coming of the roads. The sooner they are finished, the better.
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