Steam Rollers Grade IMS

On April 4, 1909 the Indianapolis Star published several images and a brief article (which can be found elsewhere on First Super Speedway) describing progress on the construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Curiously while they note that the first official event would be the national championship balloon race it also reports that plans called for racing to begin April 23. Given the images associated with the article this is obviously a stretch. The article suggests that the Speedway, while six miles to the west of downtown, was easily accessible especially to the motorist as Fall Creek Road provided ideal "spinning around." Garages, restaurants and "spacious restrooms" were reportedly under construction.
 
The attached is one of the images from the paper. To me this is a classic burgeoning industrial age image as it combines steam-powered multi-ton rollers with mule-drawn carts - and lots of human labor as well. It's the stuff of steampunk lore.  The contract to do much of the work was  to a company known as the King Brothers. One hundred men were employed using 72 mules three 15-ton steam engines. Beyond the track the plan called for grandstands as well as training quarters for the factory teams to be constructed. Railroad tracks were being built that led up to the course. The project plan called for the work to be complete in 60 days.
 
By April 25 the Indianapolis Star reported that 300 mules, 150 scrapers (I'm guessing these were metal blades affixed to wagons), five steam engines, four six-ton and three 10-ton rollers were all applied to the task of building the giant Speedway. Obviously all these numbers are appreciably greater than those reported above.  In all likelihood the project team underestimated the magnitude of the task, especially within the time frame they had set out for themselves.
 
Additional images from this edition of the newspaper include: a blueprint, three mule teams and mules on banking.