From the Kansas City Star, June 7, 1896

100,000 YARDS OF EARTH, THIS HAS GONE TO BUILD UP A BOULEVARD

Two Great "Fills" on the Independence Boulevard at the Concourse
- 1,000 Young Elm Trees Set Out This Spring Are Thriving.

An earnest of coming parks and boulevards may be seen by any citizen of Kansas City who will take the trouble to follow Gladstone avenue north from Independence avenue and around to where Scarritt avenue arrives at the city limits. This must be done on foot as there is at present no thoroughfare for vehicles.

At Independence avenue the boulevard on Gladstone opens out broad and level, and lined on both sides with thrifty young elms. To within 180 feet north of Smart avenue it has been made on old ground, beyond that it is a succession of "fills" or hollows brought up to a level with thousands of tons of earth, taken from the surrounding country and dumped upon the hillside.

At Anderson avenue the boulevard suddenly terminates, for below it runs the tracks of the electric street railway, but beyond it the roadway takes up again in another fill.

At St. John avenue is the first great sweep of the boulevard as it turns to the east, and then the concourse. There begins the "big fill," as the boulevard turns to the north. This is one of the remarkable sights of the town just now. Where the concourse is the ground fell away to the northwest into a deep valley with tree covered sides. Now there appears a broad level roadway made of new earth, from the edge of which one may look on the tree tops in the valley below, and through vistas between them see the Missouri river in two bends and the green hills away into the distance.

A little further on the roadway falls down into a basin with a myriad of teams working in it, coming with loads of earth and departing for more. And on the hill above this basin stand the houses of Peter Day and V.R. Andrus, who are fighting the city's right to condemn their houses for park purposes.

Into this basin and along the hillside have been dumped 80,000 wagon loads of earth. In all, since the work has been going on, 100,000 yards of earth have been placed. There is a cubic yard of earth to every wagon load. This has been taken from every available nearby place to keep down the expense of moving it as much as possible. At present it is being taken from the ground south of the Scarritt Bible and Training school.

The method of its removal is as expeditious as it is interesting. Forty wagons are kept filled and on the move constantly by the grading machine in use. The old fashioned wheel scrapers have no place in this busy scene. The "grader" is a plow machine propelled by twelve horses. In the distance it looks like a threshing machine - without the noise and dust. On one side is a plow, which throws the earth on an inclined rubber belt, which is revolved by the gearing of the machine. The earth is carried up this belt and falls off into the wagons, which are driven alongside. By means of it 1,000 yards of earth can be moved in one day. The park commissioners have three of these machines at work most of the time.

The scene about the "grader" is a very animated one. Lines of loaded and empty wagons are coming and going constantly. The horses strain and pull at the great machine, and the teamsters shout "huddogh" or "cubbogh" at their animals and cheery cries pass back and forth.

That portion of Independence boulevard on Gladstone avenue between Independence avenue and Smart avenue will be finished this summer. In two months Anderson avenue will be graded down six feet to allow the cars to pass under the viaduct, which will be built over it. From Smart avenue north the boulevard will not be finished, but a wagon roadbed will be laid of limestone, which will give a thoroughfare around the brow of the hill to Walrond avenue. From thence the boulevard along Scarritt avenue to the city limits will be finished, an ordinance authorizing the paving and curbing thereof having been passed by the council.

The filled roadway around the concourse is only seventy-five feet wide at present, instead of 100 feet wide, as authorized. This was made necessary on the score of economy. To fill to a width of 100 feet would have taken an enormous amount of earth. It is the intention later to build up the face of the "fill" with benches or terraces, retained by rock walls, which will allow the widening of the roadway to 100 feet with less expense and danger. The roadway will not be finished until it has settled thoroughly.

On Gladstone avenue sewer, water and gas pipes have been and are being laid at the expense of the property owners thereon. The city has no funds to bear the expense and it was deemed the part of wisdom to lay all such pipes before the boulevard surface was laid. All the pipes are laid to the curb in front of each lot. Smart avenue has been graded and sewer and other pipes are being laid therein at the expense of Mr. Smart, who is relieving the city temporarily. The elms along the boulevard, 1,000 of them, three rows deep on the parked side, were put in this spring and very few of them have died. They appear to be in a healthy and flourishing condition and will prove a magnificent legacy to future generations. Each tree was put into the ground surrounded by two wagon loads of top soil taken the property of Mr. Smart.

Evidences of the care of boulevards are already seen on Independence avenue where the park commissioners have carts at work gathering up refuse from the streets, and sprinkling carts keeping the macadam dust down.

This spring it was found that the larvae of the seventeen-year locusts were destroying the foliage of the young elms, so they were doctored vigorously with sprayed solution of London purple. The spraying of the trees is done from a tower on wheels. A man stands on the tower with a force pump and is drawn along from tree to tree. Thousands of tree have been thus doctored and, as the result of the attention, the trees are now in a healthy condition. The spraying apparatus is jocularly know along the avenue as the "bug pump," and is the source of interest to the grown-ups and lots of fun for the children.

The park commission is ready to collect the assessment for the East boulevard and hope to begin work upon it this fall. Work will also probably begin in the park area bounded by Lexington, Prospect and Bellfontaine avenues and the river cliff.
There is much encouragement in the work already accomplished for Kansas City's park and boulevard system, and it is of an apparent nature and not confined to paper and maps.