What is the history of the disputes between Texas farmers/ranchers and
the Government with respect to the consruction of the Interstate and
farm-to-market highway systems in the 50's? Specifically, what sort of
compromises were brought about that provided the middle ground to get
the Interstate and farm-to-market systems built? Did the Federal or
State governments offer royalties? Did they offer to provide other
property? How were some of the disputes resolved between the
landowners and the Government so that these important systems could be
built?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 05 May 2005 18:45 PDT

powhatan-ga,

Can you tell us anything more about what you've learned or heard
regarding the history of these disputes?

From what I can see thus far, both the farm-to-market roads and the
Interstate roads were welcomed pretty much throughout Texas in the
1950's.

The controversies that arose primarily had to do with how to fund the
road-building -- gasoline tax, general revenue funds, earmarked
highway funds, etc --  and how much of the available funds should go
to the (then) under-utilized farm-ro-market roads, vs how much to the
more heavily used major highways.

The more context you can provide for what you know about these
disputes, the better we can target our research.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by powhatan-ga on 06 May 2005 07:23 PDT

Thanks for your clarification request. It seems that I may have been
misled. Perhaps I should tell you the purpose of my question. Although
you may have some philosophical problem with it. If so, I'll certainly
understand. In Texas a controversy has arisen over the Trans Texas
Corridor initiative. Basically, the initiative calls for three major
transporation corridors (2 north/sount, 1-east/west). There are
farmers and reanchers who believe this to be a government land grab
and an initiative that could ruin some of their livlihoods. In one
article someone was quaoted as stating this was just like the days of
the Interstate and Farm to Market highway initiatives. So I thought it
would be good to find out how these matter were settled in those days.
However, it sounds like you have found that there were no
controversies. That is actually better to know about than what my
perception is. So, I guess the bottom line is to either (1) find out
what the solutions to the controversies were or (2) find out what the
Government offered the good folks of Texas to avoid controversy.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 06 May 2005 19:42 PDT

powhatan-ga,

Thanks for that extra bit of background.  It's a good help, but I'm
still not sure how to best answer your question.

I have access to the archives of the Dallas Morning News, and I am
able to pull up the articles from the '50s (and other time periods)
regarding the farm-to-market highways and the interstates.

Surprisingly, there is only indirect reference to any sort of
resistance to the roads.

Conceptually, almost no one seem to oppose the building of highways in
Texas in the 1950's-- it was just a given that roads were needed, and
the controversies arose over matters of balance -- interstates vs
rural -- and funding.

There were some right of way issues, but again, the chief issue was
funding, rather than any "land grab" type of concerns.

The only real problems were from folks who thought they weren't
receiving a fair assessment for their property when rights of way were
brought up through eminent domain, etc.  But when this issue arose,
the counties had so-called "condmenation juries"  set up to adjudicate
any arguments over land value.

Beyond that, the biggest right-of-way issue was between counties and
the state.  Initally, the counties were required to secure the rights
of way for roads within their borders, and at their own cost.  They
resisted this, though, and projects were often delayed from failure to
obtain the rights of way.

Eventually (around 1958, I believe) the state took over the
responsibility of obtaining and financing all the necessary rights of
way.

I can certainly provide excerpts on these issues from various
newspaper articles from the 1950's if that would meet your needs (I
can't provide the full articles, though, since they are copyrighted).

Is that what you're after?  It's a bit hard for me to tell...Texas was
a really different place fifty years ago, and the building of the road
system brought up some really different issues then than they do
today.

Let me know what your thoughts are on all this.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by powhatan-ga on 10 May 2005 05:46 PDT

This is very interesting, particularly that the issues in the 50's
were different than those today, although your remarks do sound
consistent with the issues today. I thik if you could:

1. Provide the issues of the 50's
2. Excerpts that discuss the condemnation juries (I think Harris
County - Houston uses a similar model)
3. What caused the lack of funding and what were the politicians
saying was the reason for needing the new roads?
4. What if anything did the Federal Government have to do with the
funding and/or the emphasis on having new roads?
5. Were toll roads ever offered as an option?

Thanks for helping to get this into focus.