Near the middle of the last century, various companies in North Carolina began to construct plank roads in an effort to improved transportation. One such road, the Graham and Gulf Plank Road, was laid out from Snow Camp in Alamance County to the village of Gulf in Chatham County, where it intersected another plank road which ran from Salem to Fayetteville. The original plan to extend the plank road from Snow Camp to Graham was apparently never carried out. Construction of teh Gulf and Graham Road began at Snow Camp in 1853, a long and laborious job which took several years to complete. The road bed was first graded by a method similar to that employed in constructing the modern highway. Light timbers were then placed lengthwise of the road bed on each side of the grading, over which thick planks from the nearest sawmill were laid crosswise, two inches in thickness and of vaying width. some of the roads of this period were called "washboard roads" because the rounded and bark-covered side of poles formed a jolting surface over which a wagon could travel. such a method of road construction is in use today (1949) in the sandy section of eastern Carolina. Mile posts marked every mile along the route between Snow Camp and Fayetteville, and toll stations were erected every seven miles. At the first station a teamster reached on the road he purchased a ticket, paying from two and one-half cents to five cents per mile, depending upon how many horses he had hitched to his wagon and whether or not the wagon was loaded. At the nearest station to the end of his journey he surrendered the tickets. The following information appeared on one of these tickets: G & G PLANK ROAD 185_ From To HORSE VEHICLE Vehicles must pass to the right, giving haof the plank where they can; exception, hills, the one going down must give all the plank. Sec'y John STAFFORD was president and H. W. DIXON, vice president of the Gulf and Graham Plank Road Company. Both of these men lived at Snow Camp. Many local citizens owned stock in the road. The old plank road met a very real need of this time by affording a good, solid surface over thich heavy loads of flour, pork, tobacco and other products could be hauled to market. Nevertheless, with the collapse of the South's economy during the War Between the States, the Plank Road could not pay expenses, and it was never repaired. ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange USGenWeb Orange Co, NC Archives site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nc/orangnc.htm