Highway History

THE NATIONAL OLD TRAILS ROAD

PART 4: From Named Trails to U.S. Numbered Highways

Completing the Road in Indiana

In 1923, Indiana was working to complete its segment of the National Old Trails Road, classified as State Road 3. In July, Director John D. Williams of the Indiana State Highway Commission announced that the road was now open from Indianapolis west to Mt. Meridian. Good Roads reported:

Mr. Williams points out that since work started this year closing the last gaps in the road, traffic has detoured at a point about 4 miles west of Stilesville.

The National road will be opened to traffic over the new Reelesville cut-off by August 15 which will mark the elimination of all detours on this road west of Indianapolis.

On Labor Day, September 3, 1923, a scout car from a motor club traveled the road from Terre Haute to Indianapolis. Main Street in Richmond, Washington Avenue in Indianapolis, and Wabash Avenue in Terre Haute, “together with all the main streets of all points in between, are now tied up as all one thoroughfare, state-wide in scope and a part of a mainly-hard-surfaced highway extending from St. Louis on the west to Washington, D.C., and the Atlantic Seaboard as the result of the lifting by the State Highway Commission of detours between Indianapolis and Terre Haute. New construction east of Richmond to the Ohio State line is expected to be completed early this fall”:

The National Old Trails Road is thus stepping forward as the main contender for cross-continent touring and Indiana cities and towns hold strategic positions on this famous route. At the present time the pavement is complete on the route between Indianapolis and Terre Haute with the exception of three places, but in such instances the old macadam has been left in passable condition. A motor club road scout who traversed the National Road from Terre Haute to Indianapolis shortly after the last detour barricade had been removed, states that on these short stretches the going is none too smooth. This situation will exist for only a short time, it is believed, pending the construction of viaducts over railroads tracks at Glenn crossing just east of Terre Haute and at Putnamville. A relocation including a new bridge is not yet complete near Mt. Meridian but the old route is useable, it is stated. The road in the eastern city limits of Brazil is now undergoing hard surface pavement, but only one-half of the roadway alongside trolley car tracks is being paved at a time, leaving the other side of macadam still open to traffic. The Reelsville hill and the two death trap grade crossings are eliminated by the well-paved cut-off.

The report issued a speed warning:

On Labor Day holiday when our road scout car passed over this route, it was an almost continuous procession all the way from Terre Haute to Indianapolis. It was noted that many drivers in the procession on this new highway were taking deadly chances by dashing around a curve in the middle of the road or to the left, or rushing up a hill near the top, past another car. The motorist who takes chances on this sort of driving is only inviting an accident that is apt to have very serious consequences. [“Condition of National Road From Terre Haute to Richmond,” The Hoosier Motorist, October 1923, page 32]

Director Williams opened bids on July 24, 1923, for construction of 37 bridges in 20 counties. One of the bridges was a grade crossing over the Pennsylvania Railroad on the National Old Trails Road 3 miles east of Terre Haute. The Indiana State Highway Commission and the railroad company were to divide the cost.

In addition, Williams opened bids on August 10, 1923, for grading and structures on approximately 49 miles of secondary roads in southern Indiana and for hard surfacing 8 miles of the National Old Trails Road in Vigo County. The project involved resurfacing 1.2 miles of brick pavement from west of Terre Haute to the city. The Indiana State Highway Commission would provide cement to the contractor. [“Indiana to Open Bids for 57 miles of Roads,” Good Roads, August 8, 1923, page 53]

A September report on Indiana’s good roads work explained:

The National Road will be the first transcontinental highway completed in Indiana’s modern road system, and will be opened its entire length across this state from Richmond through Indianapolis to Terre Haute about September 15. Indiana highway officials plan to commemorate the event with a fitting celebration to include a parade over the route. Governors of Illinois, Ohio and Indiana will be asked to participate, and various industrial concerns, farmers, motor firms and citizens of towns on the road, together with chambers of commerce and automobile clubs will join to make the event notable in Hoosier road progress. It is proposed that pioneer methods of travel such as ox teams, horseback riders and prairie schooners be portrayed, followed by the evolution of antiquated gasoline chariots of a few decades ago to the luxurious automotive creations of today that, through good roads, annihilate distances and symbolize progress. [Parrish, C. H., “Indiana’s Good Road Program,” Good Roads, September 5, 1923, page 70]

Chief Engineer C. Gray, in his annual report for 1923 stated:

All paving contracts have been completed on the National Road, designated as State Route No. 3, east and west through the central part of the state. The pavement is continuous except for three small gaps, each of which is approximately three-quarters of a mile in length, the paving of which has been omitted to provide for the construction of grade separations with railroads.

Notable bridges completed during the year included “the 280 foot reinforced concrete arch bridge (3 spans at 72 feet) over the Eel River on what is known as the Reelsville Cut-off, on Road 3, the National Road, between Brazil and Greencastle” and “the 325 foot open-spandrel reinforced concrete arch bridge (4 spans at 65 feet) over Deer Creek on a slight relocation of Road 3, at a point just south of Greencastle.”

Several larger bridges had been awarded in 1923, but were still incomplete, including, “the 125 foot concrete-encased steel plate girder bridge (1 span at 33 feet and 2 spans at 44 feet) over the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad on Route 3, the National Road, just east of Terre Haute.” Upon completion of this bridge over the double tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad, “there will be removed from the National Road the last of the grade crossings with steam railroads, except those within the corporate limits of cities and towns and two crossings with the Pennsylvania Railroad where the visibility is good and the separation of which will require an unusually large expense.” [Yearbook of the State of Indiana for the Year 1923,” The Legislative Reference Bureau, 1924, pages 1034, 1049-1051, 1110]

The Federal-Aid System

Under the Federal Highway Act of 1921, BPR was assigned the task of working with State highway officials to identify roads that would be eligible for Federal-aid highway funds. The roads, which could not exceed 7 percent of all public roads in each State, were to be further divided into two classes. Up to three-sevenths of each State’s system were to be primary or interstate highways, with the States able to spend up to 60 percent of Federal-aid funds on these roads. The Secretary of Agriculture was to give preference to projects that would expedite “completion of an adequate and connected system of highways interstate in character.”

The second class of eligible roads was to consist of secondary or intercounty highway.

Chief MacDonald considered the selection of the two classes of eligible roads one of the most important tasks ever assigned to BPR. As discussed in part 3 of this history, he established a task force to devise ways to evaluate how well each State’s proposed system met the statutory requirements. In his annual report for FY 1923, MacDonald explained that proposed systems had been submitted by the States or proposed by BPR for all States:

As the result of conferences with officials of the several States and groups of States, 35 of these systems had been definitely approved by the Secretary at the close of the fiscal year, and it was anticipated that the systems of the remaining States would be approved by the fall of 1923.

The total mileage of highways existing in the United States at the time of the passage of the Federal highway act (Nov. 9, 1921), as certified by the State highway departments, was 2,859,575 miles. The maximum mileage that can be included in the system for the whole country, being 7 per cent of the total mileage, is 200,170 miles. The mileage included in the 35 systems approved up to the end of the fiscal year was 111,699 miles; and as the permissible 7 per cent of existing mileage is, in general, not being included in the system as initially approved, it is not likely that the initial program will include more than 180,000 miles.

He emphasized that the approved system would cross the western mountains “at practically every one of the important passes. “These passes are the controlling points on the transcontinental routes westward. They are the passages through which the national roads must cross the mountain barriers.” Among the passes across the Rockies was Raton Pass on the Colorado/New Mexico line. Several named trails used Raton Pass, including the Colorado to Gulf Highway, the Buffalo Highway, and the National Old Trails Road.

System designation was completed on November 1, 1923, with the issuance of a Federal-aid system map. The initial map, published in a relatively small edition, covered 168,881 miles. Several States subsequently increased their mileage, bringing the total to 171,687 miles at the end of the fiscal year. BPR then published a larger edition of the maps consisting of 18 sheets, each sheet comprising several States. Most of the approved mileage was consistent with the mileage BPR’s task force had identified.

By then, three States — Delaware, Maryland, and Rhode Island — had reported they had completed their systems. Maryland’s original system, for example, of 1,036.7 miles was recognized by the Secretary of Agriculture as completed or provided for on August 23, 1923, at which time the Secretary approved additional mileage. [Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture for the Year Ended June 30, October 15, 1923, pages 464-465; Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads, Report of the Secretary 1924, pages 1-2; America’s Highways 1776-1976, pages 108-109]

Colorado had almost left a segment of the National Old Trails Road from Trinidad to La Junta off its primary system. Colorado Highways magazine explained:

Everybody in that section of the state was disappointed when the first draft of the seven per cent system for Colorado was announced.

This draft did not include the historic old roadway.

However, it had not been forgotten in the shuffle. L. D. Blauvelt, the state highway engineer, all the time had had the road in mind.

He ordered a recheck of the figures before they were finally submitted to the Federal Bureau of Public Roads for approval.

In the recheck it was found that an error had been made in the original figures. This made it possible to include the old Santa Fe Trail in the seven per cent system, which gives this highway the benefit of federal aid funds.

As the article added, the addition of the section to the seven percent system “was good news, to put it mildly,” adding:

Work of improving the Santa Fe Trail already is under way. During the tourist season, hundreds of autoists pass over this road, and with the improvements contemplated, it will attract still a greater number of visitors each year.

The trail is used particularly by transcontinental auto parties in the early spring and fall and during the winter months, when the more northern routes are made difficult from rain and snow. [“Historic Road Gets Federal Aid,” Colorado Highways, April 1922, page 6]

The Arizona System

From the early days of the National Old Trails Road, advocates for the alternative Arizona-New Mexico links had battled for traffic. New Mexico had placed the Gallup-to-Lupton on its seven per cent system, as had Arizona although with BPR prodding. Even after Arizona’s Federal-aid system had been approved, the Holbrook-Lupton connection with Gallup, New Mexico, remained controversial, at least in Springerville, as the Mangums explained:

Springerville’s Gustav Becker was chairman of the Apache County Highway Commission and a long-time good roads activist, powerfully connected. He declared war on the Lupton Road, and both sides went to battle with a will. Editorials, letters to the editor and other propaganda filled the air.

The north reacted vigorously, opposing southern Arizona’s persistent efforts to stonewall the construction of the Holbrook to Lupton road. Judge Root of Needles went on a promotional tour, visiting each of the towns along the line, speaking to various civic groups and alerting them to the issue. He proposed that they unite across Arizona and join groups in California and New Mexico to urge building of the Holbrook-Lupton Road. The groups passed resolutions, wrote to their Congressmen, to the Bureau of Public Roads and to others, demanding that the Holbrook-Lupton Road be built. At the behest of the Gallup people the New Mexico-Arizona Good Roads Association was created to see that a suitable road was built.

In early 1922, Apache County residents approved a bond issue to build the road. “The State Engineer refused to build it and had to be goaded again by federal engineers to take action.” The Mangums reported:

The pro-Lupton forces had prevailed and a true road was built in 1922. In the Arizona Engineer’s report to the governor for the year, he reported:

Adamma-Lupton
State is now improving this road parallel to the railroad. Work does not comply with Federal standards, but the location is good, so we hope we can improve it to standards later. It was surveyed in 1920, then relocated, cutting 7 miles off. There are two bridges over the Puerco in this proposed project, eliminating the present fords. Bridges have been designed and contract let for building them. Work will be done with state road funds and Apache County bonds. [Mangums, pages 108-109]

At the end of 1922, the administration of Governor Thomas E. Campbell came to an end after he lost his reelection big. Governor George W. P. Hunt took office on January 1, 1923; he had been the State of Arizona’s first Governor, taking office on February 14, 1917, and would ultimately serve seven terms.

A report dated December 15, 1922, appeared in Western Highway Builder magazine:

Thanks either to good luck or good management (the reader must decide for himself) the outgoing State highway administration is able to turn over to its successors a practically continuous stretch of improved highway from the Colorado river at Topock to Flagstaff, Arizona.

This road is a portion of the Old Trails Highway across northern Arizona, a route of surpassing picturesqueness and one which has increased in popularity with the transcontinental travelers from month to month as mile after mile has been surfaced with volcanic cinders, an ideal surfacing material which abounds in this section.

The last three miles have been finished by State forces under Maintenance Foreman J. B. Bristol, and just in time to make possible the turning over of a completed job, for with the spreading of the last yard of cinders snow began to fall and 19 inches of “the beautiful” was piled up on the level before King Winter decided that was about enough to put a crimp in road operations for the year.

This last 3-mile job, located between Flagstaff and Williams on the great Arizona divide, was put through in about two weeks’ actual working time between storms. But for a combination of circumstances and strenuous effort the big storm would have found the work unfinished and the road would have been impassable until spring. As it was the gasoline shovel in the cinder pit, the 20-dump-bodied trucks, the caterpillars and rollers were kept going night and day while Bristol and his crew worked like demons in the race against time and the elements.

The same crew had undertaken cinder surfacing a month earlier between Ash Fork and Seligman:

It was then a question as to whether the camp with its $75,000 worth of equipment should be moved up onto the 7,000-foot elevation in Coconino County, where remained the three incompleted miles. It was fully realized that snow might come at any time to halt operations, but against this was the record of several previous years when the weather had remained open until the holidays. Despite the indeterminate weather conditions, it was decided by the State Engineer to chance the elements and the move was ordered.

Hardly had the new camp been established up among the pine “on top of the world,” as the Coconinans like to say, when along came a storm which tied things up a bit. Again the question arose as to whether it was advisable to keep the camp intact or abandon operations. Still hopeful of two or three weeks of good weather, the State Engineer decided to hold the camp and the men were put to work felling trees on the south side of the highway to prevent the shade forming icy patches on the road.

By the time this work was completed, the weather cleared, the road dried sufficiently for hauling and the cindering operations were started with a vim and a push which saw no slackening until Old Man Winter blew his blast and ‘twas “tally” for the year.

Good luck or good management — which? Or maybe good hard work had something to do with it, too. [Rollins, Ralph, “Northern Arizona Road Improved,” Western Highways Builder, January 1923, pages 16-17]

In Colorado

On June 16, 1923, the Arkansas Valley Association of County Commissioners met at the Pueblo County courthouse. George L. L. Gann of the advisory board of the State Highway Department and secretary of the National Old Trails Road Association, addressed the gathering about the importance of keeping the Santa Fe Trail/National Old Trails Road in good condition. He urged the counties that the trail passed through to give the road special attention in view of its status as part of a major national highway open from coast to coast. He emphasized the history of the National Old Trails Road, its many scenic segments, and its role in the country’s westward movement. It was, he added, well marked in red, white, and blue.

Overall, 2.8 miles of concrete paving of the Santa Fe Trail east of Pueblo had been completed, joining 3 miles laid between Pueblo and Blende. Another 2.5-mile segment of concrete paving had been submitted to BPR. When the project was constructed, Pueblo County would have a continuous concrete road from Pueblo to Vineland, which carried more traffic than any other highway in southern Colorado.

The county commissioners also were concerned about the capability of contractors. They appointed a committee to confer with State Highway Engineer Blauvelt about contractors who failed to complete projects as specified in contracts. Some segments of State highways had been closed as much as a year because of contractor delays. The commissioners planned to recommend that time limits be made on all contracts, and that when the contractors failed to complete the work on time, that they should be fined or penalized in some other way. [“Gann Urges Commissioners to Keep Historic Santa Fe Trail Smooth,” Colorado Highways, July 1923, page 8]

In New Mexico

In 1923, New Mexico highway officials were concerned about the cost of maintaining the gravel road from Albuquerque north to the Bernalillo County line on the National Old Trails Road:

Although the road north from Albuquerque had been improved with a gravel surface, the state highway department found itself confronted with rapidly mounting maintenance costs as the daily traffic reached 1,000 motor vehicles. Under the present system of maintenance patrol by truck as used on the 3,000 miles of primary roads that make up the state highway system, it was possible to keep the road in fair repair, but looking ahead it was evident that hard surfacing would soon be necessary. Accordingly, a federal aid project agreement was drawn up and contract let to the Lee Moor Construction Company of El Paso, Texas, for a 16-foot concrete road from Albuquerque to the north county line. This stretch is known locally as Roosevelt Road, but is a part of State Highway No. 1 and of the transcontinental National Old Trails Road. The New Mexico Auto Club has marked all of the state highways so that they can be followed between cities by numbers alone.

The road was on the east bank of the Rio Grande River “through a productive irrigated district, and passes many old adobe dwellings as well as the modern homes of the ranchers.” Because of the high level of the water table along the river, “precautions were taken to prevent injury to the slab through insufficient supporting power of the subgrade”:

At such points, an eight-inch layer of gravel secured from deposits near the road was spread over the subgrade and rolled before the concrete was placed. In all cases the grade was raised at least two feet above the surrounding country, and at some places it was made considerably higher to give room for irrigation ditches, which at many points cross under the road through inverted siphons. Where the ground water level was three feet below the subgrade, no gravel layer was considered necessary. While there are occasional cold snaps in the winter season, frost does not penetrate into the ground. Mesh reinforcement was placed two inches below the surface of the concrete as an additional precaution where there was any doubt as to the stability of the subgrade, and particularly over all irrigation and drainage structure.

These details, and others, were necessary to protect the road:

In five years’ time, through traffic on the National Old Trails Road near Albuquerque has increased from 50 motor vehicles daily to about 600. As the many interesting points reached along this route become more widely known, inter-city and interstate travel is sure to increase greatly. Picturesque Indian pueblos hundreds of years old, prehistoric cliff dwellings, deep canyons and snow-capped mountains, all are to be found along the way. Local traffic is now about equal in volume to through traffic, giving 1,200 motor vehicles a day. This includes a number of trucks used largely in delivery service and produce hauling. Already the City Electric Company has placed in operation a truck line to Alameda, seven miles north over the finished concrete, and will supplement its street car service by a passenger bus line north to several small villages as soon as the paved road is completed to the county line.

Eventually, all the State’s “main highways will doubtless have to be paved.” [Sellers, Col. D. K. B., “Albuquerque Linked to Santa Fe by Concrete-Paved National Old Trails Road,” Concrete Highway Magazine, December 1923, pages 280-282]

In Arizona

State highway officials conducted a census of traffic on September 22, 1923, as reported in Flagstaff’s The Coconino Sun:

That the National Old Trails highway east and west through Flagstaff — the transcontinental highway that offers much more of interest to auto tourists than any other — leads all other highways in number of tourist cars that use it is abundantly proven by a census taken on September 22 by State Highway Engineer Frank Goodman of the auto traffic on each of the leading highways of the state.

The census shows that on our Old Trails that day — despite flood conditions that entirely closed the Winslow-Holbrook section east of here and that held many hundreds of cars headed in either direction in California and east of Holbrook — 346 tourist cars used the highway between Flagstaff and Williams. The next heaviest tourist traffic in the state was the Seligman-Peach Springs section of the Old Trails; the third heaviest in the Ashfork-Seligman section of the National Old Trails; the fourth heaviest on the Williams-Ashfork section. The Phoenix-Mesa route (paved) then breaks in as fifth. The sixth heaviest made for the day was on the National Old Trails, on the Kingman-Oatman section.

The census illustrated where the tourist travel is:

At the 14 various points of observation in the northern section crossed by the Old Trails there were 2,082 tourist cars on September 22; while there were only 959 at the 20 observation points in the southwestern district, 395 at the 8 observation points in the central part of the state and 1,399 at the 15 observation points in the southeastern part of the state. If, as is generally conceded, Arizona’s greatest source of future revenue is tourist travel — which is also generally conceded to be our greatest asset in getting outsiders acquainted with us and influencing them to settle permanently here — then the fact that the National Old Trails highway through northern Arizona is their favorite route should be taken into consideration by the rest of Arizona in mapping out any general program for road improvement. Also, it may as well be understood by the rest of the state that the climatic and scenic attractions of the National Old Trails will keep the bulk of tourist travel along this highway no matter how much effort may be wasted in trying to get it into and across the state over some other route.

The sensible thing for Arizonans generally to strive for is more perfect road conditions along the National Old Trails; then for good roads leading from it to other sections.

A paved highway through southern Arizona would not detract from travel along the National Old Trails. But if the latter were paved, or even well surfaced from state line to state line, it would mean an immediate and tremendous increase in tourist traffic that would be beneficial to the central and southern parts of Arizona as well as to the northern section.

The census broke the traffic into segments of interest to Flagstaff:

St. Johns-Springerville road, 242 autos, 146 being foreign.
St. Johns-Holbrook, 255 cars, 164 being foreign.
Adamana-Lupton, 216 cars, 208 being foreign.
Holbrook-Winslow, road closed.
Flagstaff-Williams (the observer being stationed 13 miles east of Williams) 456 autos, 346 being foreign.
Williams-Ashfork, 400 autos, 273 being foreign.
Ashfork-Seligman, 317 autos, 276 being foreign.
Seligman-Peach Springs, 351 cars, 314 being foreign.
Kingman-Oatman, 310 cars, 225 being foreign.

[“There’s Lesson in the Fact Old Trails Leads Every Road of State By a Big Margin in Tourist Travel,” The Coconino Sun, October 12, 1923, pages 1, 3]

Senator Jones’s Transcontinental Trip

The March, April, and June 1924 issues of AAA’s American Motorist carried a series of articles by Senator Wesley L. Jones about his transcontinental motor trip. In 1923, he and his wife decided to make a round-trip automobile journey from Washington, D.C., to their home in Seattle, Washington. (In the three-part article, Senator Jones did not mention his wife’s name. She was the former Minda Nelson.)

Senator Jones, a Republican and chairman of the Committee on Commerce, had been in Congress since winning election to the House of Representatives in 1898. He became a Senator in 1909, but would lose his reelection bid in the Democratic wave election of 1932 that gave incoming President Franklin D. Roosevelt large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Shortly after his election loss, Senator Jones died on November 19, 1932, at the age of 69.

The first part of the trip was along the National Old Trails Road. Senator Jones began by recalling the growth of the automobile:

Twenty years ago the automobile was a curiosity. Ten years later pioneer drivers began to cross the continent. Such trips were deemed very dangerous and when made were thought wonderful achievements. If it had been suggested to me that I would drive to Seattle from Washington and back, I would have ridiculed the idea. Now thousands of people make the trip each year and the number is increasing rapidly.

While the idea now seemed reasonable, he acknowledged his inexperience:

I know nothing of mechanics and have learned nothing of the philosophy of a car. If anything goes wrong short of a flat tire or broken rod, I am helpless. I don’t know where to look for trouble, and I don’t know it when I see it and I don’t know what to do when it is pointed out to me. I know how to steer a car, clean a spark plug, change a tire if there is an extra one around and fill and turn grease cups. With this lack of knowledge, it may have been a reckless thing for me to try to make this trip and especially to take Mrs. Jones along, but she was game . . . . If I could drive across the country and back again, anyone who can steer a car can do the same thing.

I had all sorts of advice before I started. Much of it was rather discouraging . . . . One friend said I might run into a cyclone, and another had me stuck in the mud many miles from help; one saw me marooned in the desert with a flat tire and no extra one to put on; another predicted sickness with a doctor many miles away; one saw rain storms making roads impassable ahead, and another saw highwaymen . . . coming on from behind, and all said I could not stand driving day after day for a month. Thus did good friends help us on our way . . . .

The weather had been rainy and the Joneses “were determined to leave Washington on a clear, bright day.” They had their car serviced to ensure it was in shape for their trip. Finally, the day arrived. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover met with the couple to wish them “good luck” on their trip:

We left Washington, D.C., Monday morning, April 9, and stopped 40 miles west of St. Louis Thursday evening about 6 o’clock. This part of the trip was uneventful but very enjoyable. The road was the “National Old Trail” and is paved all the way. I made 314 miles one day with but little effort. It is no trouble to follow the road through the cities, as it is the main street in all of them and plainly marked.

The road through the Alleghany Mountains are cultivated here and there to twelve in number, going down one side almost to the level where one starts up on the other, in this respect differing very much from the mountains of the West. These mountains are cultivated here and there to the top and the trip through them when everything is green is entrancing. Aside from going into the Yosemite Park, the heaviest grades and hardest pull going across the country are those through here from about forty miles west of Cumberland to Wheeling, W. Va. Gasoline and repair stations are all along the way every few miles, and camping grounds may be found at frequent intervals, some free and some where a small charge is made. Frequent warning signs are seen and if they are heeded there is little danger of accidents.

They traveled “along this splendid pavement” for almost a thousand miles. He envied the easterners:

They are nearer the big markets of the country and have at their service a network of steam and electric railways, in addition to the network of gravel or hard-surfaced roads.

Things began to change west of St. Louis when the hard-surfaced road came to an end:

Thursday evening it began to rain about 10 o’clock and rained hard until 4 or 5 o’clock Friday afternoon. The pavement was behind us and the dirt roads of Missouri were in front of us. Missouri people do not talk of the roads they have, but of the roads they expect to have when the one hundred and twenty-two millions of dollars now available are spent. They expect to have a concrete road completed from St. Louis to Kansas City within twelve or eighteen months. We found about ten miles of this concrete road completed on our return to Washington six months later.

When the rain ceased, the sun came out. There was considerable wind and the road dried rapidly. We started on our way Saturday morning, but after going about twenty miles we concluded to stay over for another day, as the roads had been recently worked and were slick and rutty and we were told of some very deep holes a little way ahead.

Senator Jones and his wife left the next morning around 10 a.m. Driving to Kansas City, they found the mudholes, but had no difficulty “in getting through in low gear, and 20 rods in distance would cover all the really bad road we had to Kansas City”:

We were often told of the bad roads ahead and it is peculiar how bad they make roads in telling of them. We looked forward many times with considerable anxiety to the roads we had been told about, but we never found any of them as bad as we expected.

In Missouri, they found sufficient gas stations, as well as stops for meals and lodging:

From Kansas City two or three different routes can be taken to Colorado, one just about as good as the other in the same kind of weather. We took the route through Ottawa, Emporia and Dodge City.

They followed the New Santa Fe Trail, not the National Old Trails Road:

We had just enough bad road to appreciate what Kansas roads are when wet. Three or four miles from Ottawa a shower had passed through during the night and for about a mile the road was as if it had been soaped. We went into low gear and could hardly keep out of the side ditches, not having put on our chains. After a couple of miles there was less rain. The road was drying up and after another mile we had a good dry road and we had no more wet roads until we struck our own State of Washington.

He summed up the experience in the two States:

Kansas and Missouri at the present time are uncertain states for the autoist. If it rains, the roads are bad, but they soon dry and one will not be long delayed, unless the rain continues from day to day. The farther west you go in Kansas the less danger of rain. We had little dust during the entire trip but doubtless there is considerable as the dry weather continues.

They made it from Dodge City to La Junta, Colorado, “easily in a day,” a distance of 255 miles.

At this point in his narrative, Senator Jones discussed the cost of travel:

Talk of profiteering — it ends after you leave Cumberland going west and it begins at Wheeling coming east. Outside of these places as indicated the cost of living is cut in two. At Cumberland we paid $7.00 for a room and bath for the two of us. At Zanesville we had a larger room, better beds, a better bath, had a fine supper and breakfast for both and it all cost just $6.50. Garage storage dropped from a dollar a night to 50 cents and at some places it was 35 cents. At La Junta, Colo., for dinner for the two of us we had two good steaks, corn, rice, potatoes, a fruit salad, spring onions, two pieces of blackberry pie, a baked apple, glass of milk, biscuits, rye bread and butter and the entire cost was $1.20. We can motor across the country at less expense, and live better, than if we had stayed in Washington.

The road through Colorado and Raton Pass was good, mostly gravel. He concluded that “barring a very hard rain, [it] must be good most of the year,” adding that Raton Pass is “kept open all the year”:

The elevation of this pass is seventy-eight hundred feet, but the rise is so gradual that the summit is easily reached in high gear, barring forced stops.

Senator and Mrs. Jones found the road good all the way to Santa Fe, although they followed detours in some places where road construction was underway. They took 2 days, “although we could have made it in one very easily.” The good roads were interrupted as they neared Santa Fe. “About 20 miles out from Santa Fe there were a few miles of rather rough roads which would be really dangerous if wet.” The bad spot was in Glorieta Canyon.

They stayed in the Santa Fe area for 3 days of sightseeing. Part one ended with Senator Jones musing:

The dreamer, the poet and the archaeologist can revel among the mysteries of this enchanted land and dream and speculate about a people who lived and struggled and fought and died and passed away without leaving a line or word to tell us of themselves. [Jones, Senator Wesley L, “Motoring Across the Continent is Easy,” American Motorist, April 1924, pages 24-26]

Part 2 began:

The road to Albuquerque is fine and one can make almost any desired speed . . . . From there to Holbrook you can take either of two roads, one being about eighty-six miles shorter than the other. We took the short road by Gallup. It was slow driving, but the road was not bad. Some of it was a fine dirt and gravel road, but there was a great deal of detouring on account of road work going on. The entire road should be in fine shape by next year and almost the entire distance through New Mexico and Arizona should be in splendid shape, and almost like a boulevard. We saw some places where it has been quite muddy a short while before we passed along, showing that rains do come in this section. The chances are, however, that you will have dry weather, but, if you strike it when it is raining, there are places in the road that may be quite bad.

From Gallup to Holbrook it was very windy and the air was full of sand and dust. The sand drifts during these winds like snow. We came near sticking in a sand drift at one place, and coming up the bank of a dry wash we were stuck with our rear wheels in the drifted sand. We played like children in the sand for a while scratching it away from the wheels. We pulled some sage brush and laid it down to give our wheels a purchase and so got out all right. You can imagine what happened to Mrs. Jones when she pushed at the back of the automobile while I put on the power and the wheels turned swiftly without moving the car forward. It would have been laughable to any onlooker, but no one came by until just after we had gotten out.

They reached Holbrook about 7:30 p.m., “with the air full of dust and sand and wind blowing a gale.” They visited one of the area’s petrified forests before returning to the road west:

In going to Holbrook from Gallup you go within about a mile and a half of it and can easily turn off and see it before going into Holbrook. It was so windy and dusty, however, that we did not turn off, consequently we had to drive back to it.

The two roads from Albuquerque united at Holbrook, “and there is one main line to California:

For a considerable distance you pass through a barren desert section, comparatively level. We had been told by several persons that there was twenty or thirty miles of extremely bad road beyond Winslow and we had been approaching it with considerable dread. However, we were advised at Holbrook to detour through Leupp, and we did so and found the road good.

Just beyond Flagstaff, they took the road to Grand Canyon, around 60 miles from the National Old Trails Road:

The road passes largely through national forests and there are no gasoline stations or garages along this road. This was the longest stretch anywhere on the trip without these places.

They spent 3 days in Grand Canyon National Park, before returning to the main road and continuing their journey:

The road to the Colorado River is fine, being largely gravel and almost as good as pavement. Across the river for about fifteen or twenty-five miles to Needles, we had a rather rough road through a sandy section that would be rather disagreeable and probably somewhat difficult if the wind should be flowing very hard.

They encountered bad roads in California:

The country from Needles to Barstow contains more real desert than any other section of the trip. It was warm, but I suppose nothing like it would be later in the summer. We stayed all night at Ludlow, about one hundred and twenty miles from Needles.

We had twenty-five miles of bad, worn-out asphalt road, narrow, bumpy, and very sandy on the sides, so that if you had to turn out you would have trouble in getting back on the road. One should be careful about water for the radiator, but there are stations every fifteen or twenty miles, where you can get water if needed.

From Ludlow it is about sixty miles to Barstow, with twenty-five or thirty miles of the worst road of the trip. It is rocky, bumpy, and narrow, with a great deal of sand on the side. We made about 10 miles an hour. I understand this road will be paved the whole distance from Barstow to the Colorado River beyond Needles in the near future.

The Joneses found a very good road from Barstow to Victorville, though it was not paved. They struck pavement again in Victorville, “and from here on for about nine hundred miles to Redding, California, we had paved roads or their equivalent”:

One who has driven over the road from St. Louis to Victorville, California, knows the real pleasure of a paved road.

After a few days in the Los Angeles area, they left the National Old Trails Road and turned toward their home in Seattle:

As we neared the end of our journey and coasted down the grade overlooking Seattle, an arrow-shaped rock which we had evidently picked up somewhere in California gave us a flat tire. While putting on a new one, we feasted our eyes on our home city, and the end of our own journey, thinking what a wonderful trip we had made and how fine to be home. Tired? Not a bit.

Our speedometer registered 5,200 miles from Washington City. [Jones, Senator Wesley L, “On Our Way to Seattle from Albuquerque,” American Motorist, April 1924, pages 10-11, 40]

Part 3, in the June 1923 issue, covered their return to Washington. With the 65th Congress set to begin on December 3, 1923, Senator Jones intended to drive back to Washington in the middle of September, but was delayed. They finally left Seattle on October 13. Their trip took them through Walla Walla, Washington; Ontario, Oregon; Twin Falls, Idaho; Salt Lake City, Utah; Granger, Rawlins and Cheyenne, Wyoming; Fort Collins, and Denver, Colorado; and Colby and Topeka, Kansas. The crossed Kansas on the Golden Belt Highway to Topeka:

There had been considerable rain a week or two before and the good roads agency in Denver feared we might have bad roads, but we got along very well, making from one hundred and seventy to two hundred miles a day until we got to Glasco, where we caught up with a rainstorm and had to put up for a few extra hours. The Kansas roads dry very quickly after a rain if the sun comes out. We got into Glasco about four o’clock in the afternoon with the roads so slippery that one could make only three or four miles an hour and then we had great trouble in keeping out of the ditches along the roadside.

From Kansas City, the Joneses continued east in the morning “and got along very well, making fifteen to twenty miles an hour.” They made it 80 miles to Manhattan where they spent the night:

“We had very good roads to Topeka, where we struck pavement reaching into Kansas City and found ourselves lucky again in crossing Missouri. There had been no rain for four or five days and we found the roads fairly good. The second night in Missouri we stopped sixty miles west of St. Louis, at the homelike little hotel where we had put up on our way west. We had no further worries because we knew that a paved road to Washington, D. C., was but a few miles ahead of us.

Our speedometer registered 3,800 miles from Seattle when we reached Washington. We had taken thirty days for the trip. Though our car was an open one we had not put up a single curtain. We had no mechanical trouble of any kind, not even a tire puncture. We reached Washington about five o’clock, picked up a couple of friends and went to dinner and then took a pleasant ride around the Speedway, feeling as fit as the day we lift Seattle.

(The members of the Road Drivers and Riders’ Association, formed by horse lovers in 1903, wanted a roadway where they could speed their horses. The association called it the Speedway. The Speedway, which opened in May 1904, extended from the Tidal Basin to 26th Street, SW. It would be reconstructed and extended through East Potomac Park as Riverside Drive. In 1949, Ohio’s congressional delegation succeeded in renaming the road Ohio Drive.)

Senator Jones ended his series with general observations based on his experiences. He found “garage men” to be pleasant and reasonable in their charges, “although I had to call upon them for very little service.” Similarly, hotel charges “were reasonable and accommodations generally good”:

With ordinary care in planning from one day to another, good stopping places can be reached so as to avoid driving after dark.

With reasonable care in filling your radiator and gasoline tank, you need not carry any water or extra gasoline, although during the summer it may be very wise to carry some water through Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, and on the stretch in California from Needles to Barstow.

There are no really difficult or dangerous hills or mountain climbs on the way, unless it be the climb to the summit on the Hill Road between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, and that is not dangerous, nor is it really difficult, but your car may heat up considerably before you get to the top. The worst road in this respect is through the Alleghenies.

There is little danger of getting off the road, as it is well marked where marking is needed, although I must say that the road that we followed coming east is not so well marked or easily followed as the road going west. We had but little trouble in the towns and cities when we gave careful attention to the signs and directions. [Jones, Senator Wesley L., “Summer Best Time for Transcontinental Tour,” American Motorist, June, 1925, pages 9-10, 52]

Judge Lowe included the first part of Senator Jones’s narrative in the 1924 edition of National Old Trails Road: The Great Historic Highway of America (pages 240-245). He did not reprint the article in the revised 1925 edition.

Motor Tour by the Old Trails Highway

Around the time the first part of Senator Jones’s article appeared in the April 1923 issue, The New York Times offered advice on transcontinental travel on the National Old Trails Road. The article began:

One of the great transcontinental highways extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific is the National Old Trails Road. It has been called “The Broadway of America.” It traverses mountains, plain and forest and is rich in varied scenery, while offering splendid road conditions and very little desert country. By many motorists it is regarded as the most practicable of all highways for transcontinental tourists.

Its importance as a through highway is evidenced by the fact that it is traveled by thousands of motorists, who come from the Pacific Coast direct to New York and from there into the New England States. There is also a great volume of travel from States in the Mississippi Valley and from the South to New York and New England. It also affords a direct route from the large centres of population in the East to Southern California and the Southwestern States.

Although the official eastern terminus was Baltimore-Washington, the National Old Trails Road Association often referred to New York City as an eastern terminus. The Times article described the route as starting in New York and going in a westerly direction “over a hard-surfaced road by way of Washington or Philadelphia”:

It is hard-surfaced from St. Louis east to New York. West of St. Louis, particularly across Missouri and Kansas, weather conditions govern the traveling. In rainy weather across these two States skid chains should be carried, and when overtaken by sudden storms the motorist would do well to lay over a day or two in the nearest town, as the roads dry off quickly after storms.

As for supplies, “it is no longer necessary carry large supplies of gasoline.” Two backup quarts of oil “may be carried, but gasoline supply stations are found all along the roads. Motorists are advised to keep the tank filled at all times.” As for other equipment, the article recommended the following:

One set of skid chains, one good horn for use on mountain curves, one set of tools, one jack, good cutting pliers, two extra casings, four extra inner tubes, tube patches, three spark plugs, 1 to 2 gallon water bag or canteen, one flashlight, one axe, one small shovel, radiator hose connections, lamp bulbs, one motormeter and one tow rope or a short cable.

Good hotel accommodations were available and auto campgrounds “will be found in almost every city, and the mountain regions of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona natural camp sites can be found along some stream, close to the highway, at almost every necessary stop.” The camps usually charged from 25 to 50 cents per day. [“Pacific Coast Motor Tour by Old Trails Highway,” The New York Times, April 6, 1924, page XX12]

A week later, the Times returned to the subject of cross-country motoring. The best roads at the time were “the Lincoln Highway and the National Old Trails.” Both went “through historic and interesting country.”

Motorists should consider practical matters:

Care should be taken in selecting a camping place. A good place to camp is in a level spot where water is obtainable. Ascertain whether there are flies around, for they are very annoying. The ground should be fairly dry. Park the car in the direction of the wind. Then make camp on the other side of the car.

For tourists making their first trip, it may be well to advise them not to permit a car coming in the opposite direction to push you off the road, for it is often very difficult to get back, especially in many parts of the West, where the roads are none too wide. Road hogs will be encountered now and then. Do not be misled by people who are employed by stores and garages off the main road to go the way they direct for a short cut, as those roads are invariably longer and in a worse condition than the main one.

When purchasing anything in a small store always bargain if you think the prices are too steep, as some storekeepers try to take advantage of motor travelers. It is well to carry money in American Bankers’ Association or American Express checks and have them in ten-dollar denominations so as to avoid carrying too much cash.

It is advisable to carry a revolver. It is seldom used, but still an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When driving keep it on the seat beside you, when sleeping have it close at hand. When sleeping it is wise to take the key out of the car.

A reliable road map is, of course, absolutely essential and they are readily obtainable from many automobile organizations. A general map of the United States will also be helpful. [“Cross-Country Motoring Will Be Heavy This Year,” The New York Times, April 13, 19243, page XX15]

The Baltimore Sun carried a variation of the Times article, based on the idea that spring was accompanied by thoughts of “the open road and some even extend over the 3,050 miles between Baltimore and Los Angeles” along the National Old Trails Road. The article restated the Times advice that the road was hard-surfaced to St. Louis, but after that, conditions would vary. In addition to the cautions and advice from the earlier article, the Sun warned motorists:

Never ford a stream until testing the nature of the bottom and the depth. Go in under low gear and drive slowly. Pitch camp on high ground near good water and boil any water that seems at all suspicious. Build small fires and extinguish them carefully before going to bed and when breaking camp . . . .

The year of 1924 is going to be a banner year for transcontinental motor travel, and better road conditions along the main arteries of travel is one of the basis reasons for the substantial increase in the volume of travelers journeying both ways across the Continent.

The Sun estimated that, “The entire expense of a trip should not be more than $5 a day per passenger. [“Road Data To Coast Is Given,” The Baltimore Sun, April 13, 1924, page F10]

On August 20, 1924, the Sun carried a contrary view in its letter-to-the-editor column. L. D. Davis of Towson in Baltimore County, Maryland, explained that his State took pride in its roads:

It was therefore a surprise to me in motoring from St. Louis, over the National Old Trails route to find that in some respects there is room for improvement.

Anyone who goes over this route will notice that west of Frederick and through Pennsylvania and West Virginia the road is not so good as most of the way through Ohio and far inferior to this route in Illinois, where the entire distance across the State one travels on a wide and well-graded and banked concrete road. Now, part of this route west of Frederick is in Maryland. Beyond Hagerstown it is narrow, very high crowned and frightfully rough at the edges.

But the most marked difference is to be found in the system of marking the route and traffic directions. In Illinois and Ohio a uniform way of doing this has been adopted. The signs are neat. Coming into Maryland you immediately meet old, dilapidated, unreadable signs. You notice very soon that there is no uniformity. Why not adopt a uniform sign and use that in all cases, showing by the wording that a curve is ahead, a road crossing, etc. Then the motorist knows what sign to look to for traffic directions. Why not have such a sign at entrance to towns, giving the name, at bridges over important streams, giving the name of the stream.

I hope the Highway Commission has plans for improving the marking of the State roads. Now this route, traveled by cars from every State, is both poorly and slovenly marked. [Davis, L. D., “Thinks The Marking Of The State Roads Should Be Improved,” The Baltimore Sun, August 20, 1924, page 8]

D.A.R. Congress — 1924

As D.A.R. convenient for its Thirty-Second Continental Congress in April 1924, its Committee on the National Old Trails Road had a new chairman. Mrs. Arline B. N. Moss of St. Louis, also known as Mrs. John Trigg Moss, had been silent for several months after accepting the position of National Chairman of the committee while she adjusted her thinking:

It was late in the summer before the files of this committee were received by the National Chairman. After very careful inspection and the reading of numerous letters, etc. etc., that took weeks of time, your National Chairman decided that she could not follow the policy of previous committees and continue to ask the Chapters for contributions to mark or “sign” the National Old Trails Road with the markers stipulated by the previous committee. In the first place, the cost of same was to be an amount that she considered decidedly prohibitive, taking into consideration the style of marker and the service they were to render to the people at large. In the second place, such markers, interspersed among the thousand and one other markers already placed along the highway, would reflect no credit to our Society and certainly would detract from, rather than carry the high honor intended to confer.

In view of the need for the committee to change directions, she had submitted a report to the National Board that was discussed during the October Board Meeting, as follows:

I believe almost every other National Chairman has complied with the request of the President General and has sent out instructions to State Chairmen and have a program planned for their committee work for the coming year. I am chagrined to think that I have not been able to do likewise, but under the existing circumstances I felt that it was not my prerogative to continue the policy that had been outlined to me by the past National Chairman as one that I should follow, until the matter has been discussed thoroughly in the board and I had the consent of the National Board to either continue the work or to discontinue the work, until such future time that legal action might be taken. This matter of raising thousands of dollars for Committee work is a very serious responsibility that I shall not assume alone, but if directed to do so by the National Board I shall consider this great co-operative force is back of me and proceed to the best of my ability.

She did not want to give the impression she was criticizing past National Chairmen. “I think the past National Chairman and their Committees were untiring in their labors and as earnest in their endeavors as they could possibly have been.” She simply saw things differently, based on three facts. First, the bill introduced in each Congress to designate the National Old Trails Road a national highway had never passed, and might never pass. The committee, therefore, was asking “the Chapters to mark a National Highway not yet in permanent existence with a permanent name and the interest does not seem to be exceedingly keen.” Since 1917, the committee had raised $3,505. “The amount alone stands out as a goodly sum when not compared to the actual cost of the markers, stipulated as those we must use.”

Second, the cost of the markers was $14,786.40, “and this does not include the cost of freight from one end of the United States to the other, nor does it include the labor of erecting the said markers, which amount will be equal to the cost of the ‘signs’ themselves”:

This means another $14,000.00, making a total of $28,000.00, and this is no doubt a very conservative estimate. The above figures are for three thousand and fifty signs or markers to be placed every mile from Ocean to Ocean, and I am told that these signs were to be accepted by the National Congress of 1917 and must be used.

Third, she could not find any record that D.A.R. had ever pledged to sign the National Old Trails Road. Each Continental Congress had accepted the committee’s reports, but “without recommendations, etc., and there is no recommendation on this matter on record that I can find during Congress, 1913, and the same applies to Congress, 1917.

Mrs. McCleary, the late chairman, had confirmed this fact in a letter. Mrs. McCleary had never found a record of the D.A.R. receiving a permit, State or national, to post signs along the National Old Trails Road. She had written, “Until we have some authority for such proceedings or the United States Congress passes the Bill you have had introduced, I feel it a waste of money to sign-post it.” She had asked, “What is to prevent any other organization from deciding to combine these roads or a part of them into one Highway and mark it with the title they choose?” Mrs. McCleary thought the focus should be on getting the bill through Congress.

Mrs. Moss wrote in her report that the plan for the committee had been “mapped out, signed, and sealed by pledge, ten years ago, to be explicit.” Many changes had taken place in 10 years:

We have had a World War and almost every phase of our work has taken on a different angle. Originally we were to ask that this National Old Trails Road be made a great Memorial Highway and we were to mark this memorial highway in honor of our pioneers. This original program mapped out ten years ago under different circumstances may be far from suitable now and possibly far from being practical. The ten years past is long enough to outlaw any pledge, if pledge was given, and who of us can look forward ten years and say we would likely want to pledge to do the things we are planning to do and consider most vital right now at this day and time?

During those years, the States, counties, and cities had proceeded with building the National Old Trails Road, which “is on a fair way to completion without the Government stamp being placed upon it as the great ‘Memorial Highway’”:

The National Old Trails Association [sic] has spent time and money as have the Automobile Associations also in marking this Highway and remarking it. You can go from one end of the country to the other and where the two above associations have not marked the road, the state has put markers of its own. In many places there is an overabundance of markers.

Was D.A.R. operating on sentiment alone for a 10-year old plan? “Are we not builded instead on solid facts backed up by the highest patriotic ideals and purposes?” D.A.R. had initiated the idea of an Old Trails Road, but Mrs. Moss did not believe sentiment alone was behind the idea, “nor should we advance the sentimental side of the question now, losing sight of the common sense, conservative and practical side”:

I want to ask the members of this Board if it is conservative, if it is practical, if it is patriotic, to mark a road or “sign” it with over three thousand signs that will, in the end, cost Thirty Thousand Dollars in all probability, when every sign is bound to be a duplication. We are to do this in honor of our Revolutionary Ancestors. Will it be such an honor, after all, to erect signs with no direct purpose, and they will not be put to any definite use? Would it not be more honor and more in keeping with the dignity of our Society to place markers of more pretentious proportions along this Highway at certain chosen spots that might well be commemorated for sake of historical interest. Is it the wish of the Board that I continue the present program with the perfect understanding on their part that I am seeking contributions from the Chapters to the extent of at least Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars or is it their wish that I work out a more practical program along a more practical line and present it for legal action at some future date.

As a result of Mrs. Moss’s presentation, the board approved the following motion on October 16, 1923:

That the National Chairman of Old Trails Road Committee formulate plans for the coming year’s work according to her own ideas, delaying, if necessary, any further work in ‘signing’ the road until such time as will be more propitious, when she shall present a more practical and complete program for this work.

Based on the board’s action, Mrs. Moss asked all State Societies in the National Society five questions:

1. How much money has your State contributed to date toward the markers or signs that were to be erected every mile of the Ocean-to-Ocean National Old Trails Road?
2. Knowing that the cost of erecting these markers will be $30,000.00, conservatively speaking, will your State vote to continue this plan of marking, thereby pledging their support and their full per capita contribution toward this $30,000.00?
3. Will your State vote to hold the fund you have already contributed for these “Mile Posts” or “signs” (funds now in the hand of the Treasurer General) until such time as your present National Committee, Old Trails Board, shall have formulated plans for a dignified and a more practical and up-to-date marking system?
4. Will your State favor a plan to place markers along the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway fewer in number, each marker erected to mark some historical spot, or commemorate some great act of historical interest?
5. Will you come to Congress, ready to vote on this matter and give your National Committee all the assistance you can?

She introduced a resolution for consideration by the continental congress that used a series of “Whereas” introductions to lay out the facts just stated in support of adopting the following:

Be it Resolved, To erect in each one of the twelve States through which the National Old Trails Road passes, namely: Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, one marker of dignified and pretentious proportions, to cost approximately one thousand dollars each, these markers to be as nearly alike in size and design as will be consistent with the location and surroundings and each marker to definitely mark a historic spot or commemorate some great act of historical interest of the Revolutionary period, these markers to bear with other inscriptions the insignia of the N.S.D.A.R. and to be known as the National Old Trails Road Memorial Markers, and Be it Further Resolved, That the funds contributed by Chapters and State Societies toward the Old Trails Marker Fund, amount reported by the Treasurer General to date as $4,876.65, be applied to the cost of erecting the markers as stipulated in the new plan, and that chapters and state Societies be requested to continue their contributions toward this fund.

Respectfully submitted, The National Old Trails Road Committee. (Applause.)

By motion of the President General, Mrs. Moss’s motion was referred to the resolutions committee. [Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 14-19, 1924, pages 126-130]

The resolution was adopted.

La Bajada Hill

For motorists on the National Old Trails Road, La Bajada Hill (the “descent” or “the drop” in Spanish) in New Mexico between Santa Fe and Socorro was an expected test of their nerves and their motor vehicle’s capability. Judge Lowe often cited this section of the National Old Trails Road as the oldest road on the continent, part of El Camino Real. In the 1924 edition of his compilation of material, Judge Lowe helpfully explained that the name was pronounced “Ba Hoddah” [page 126]

In an article about the La Bajada Mesa, the National Park Service says:

Beyond its importance as a geological landmark, La Bajada escarpment is a major cultural landmark. The routes built to cross La Bajada between 1598 and 1932 follow precontact pathways across the mesa, indicating its importance to native cultures who utilized natural topography, grade changes and drainage systems to best utilize the mesa top. Following the arrival of Spaniards in the region, La Bajada stood as the dividing line between New Mexico’s primary economic and governmental districts: the Río Abajo (lower river) and the Río Arriba (upper river).

For those traveling the north-south El Camino Real between the districts, there were three clear routes: one gave travelers the choice of scaling the basalt behemoth, another followed the Santa Fe River through the yawning canyon of Las Bocas (the Mouths), and the third required another, longer trek around La Bajada through the Galisteo Basin. Initially, the La Bajada option was limited solely to pedestrians or livestock. Despite legends to the contrary, the heavy supply wagons and commercial caravans that traveled El Camino Real could not take the La Bajada route until the 1860s, when the U.S. Army made improvements that allowed for wagon passage.

Archeological evidence indicates that, despite its challenges, the La Bajada route was an attractive option. A water hole in a canyon directly adjacent to El Camino Real highlights a system of handmade dams that formed a deep plunge pool. A trail leading from El Camino Real to and from the pool indicates continuous human and livestock traffic. By the early 1700s, Spanish settlers had established the small village of La Bajada at the base of the escarpment. The settlement sat beside the Santa Fe River, close to an abandoned pueblo village that was still occupied when Don Juan de Oñate led the first colonizing expedition to northern New Mexico in 1598.

Diverse voices have referred to La Bajada, the place and the landmark, throughout history. In 1776, a Franciscan priest, Fray Atanasio Domínguez, described La Bajada Mesa as “a mesa [that] rises . . . flattening out on top . . . to a very steep slope . . . .” In 1807, explorer Zebulon Pike mentioned both the village and the escarpment as he detailed his journey across La Bajada Mesa on his way to Mexico, writing, “We ascended a hill and galloped on until about ten o’clock, snowing hard all the time, when we came to a precipice which we descended, meeting with great difficulty, from the obscurity of the night to the small village where we put up in the quarters of the priest . . . .”

Chroniclers of the early Territorial period made less frequent reference to the El Camino Real-La Bajada route as traffic through Las Bocas and the Galisteo Basin became more common. With Mexico’s victory over Spanish lands in 1821, and the strengthening of trade connections between Mexico and the U.S. via the Santa Fe Trail and El Camino Real-Chihuahua Trail, the La Bajada route regained traction as the most direct path to and from Santa Fe. Little La Bajada village, whose population peaked at 300, emerged as another important trading center, freight depot, stage stop and rest stop for El Camino Real travelers heading north and south. With the American occupation of New Mexico in 1846, the U.S. Army took note of the route’s potential, finally improving the roadway for heavy wagon use.

Even with the improvements, La Bajada remained a grueling excursion. In 1869, U.S. Army Lieutenant John Bourke described the descent as “. . . so risky that stage passengers always alighted and made their way on foot, while the driver found abundant occupation in taking care of his train and slowly creeping down with a heavy brake on the wheels locked and shod and the conductors at the head of the leaders….”

Three years later, John Handson Beadle recalled his trip south across the mesa to the escarpment on a freight wagon, writing, “Crossing the high mesa, level as the sea, we approach an irregular line of rocks, rising like turrets ten or twenty feet above the plain, which we find to be a sort of natural battlement along the edge of the big hill. Reaching the cliff we see, at an angle of forty-five degrees below us, in a narrow valley, the town of La Bajada. Down the face of this frightful hill the road winds in a series of zigzags, bounded in the worst places by rocky walls, descending fifteen hundred feet in three-quarters of a mile.”

El Camino Real was abandoned as a major commercial corridor with the 1881 arrival of the railroad, but La Bajada Mesa’s importance as a transportation corridor continued. Not long after the wagons stopped running there, Model A automobiles began lumbering along the path. Between 1903 and 1926, a segment of the mesa trail as it approaches the escarpment edge became New Mexico Highway 1, part of the National Old Trails Road Highway system. During the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, scores of vehicles a day are estimated to have traversed the mesa path on the way to California. Between 1926 and 1932, the same area became the avenue of the fabled Route 66. Adventurous tourists of the period traveled the roads with the famous Harvey House Indian Detours while on their way to explore area pueblos and other cultural sites. By the time the route was abandoned and moved a few miles to the east where the interstate is located, an estimated 1,200 vehicles were traversing La Bajada Mesa a day.

The article was illustrated with a postcard image of the switchback Automobile Road on La Bajada Hill.” [https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/new-mexico-la-bajada-mesa.htm]

Judge Lowe, in his 1924 compilation, published a photograph of a vehicle on a narrow path between two cliffs in La Bajada, calling it:

A Section of the Oldest Road in North America, Established in 1606

Labajada (pronounced Bahoddah) [sic], a section of the National Old Trails Road in New Mexico between Santa Fe and Socorro about one hundred and fifty miles in length. The oldest established road on the North American Continent. The picture makes the walls look like granite and experience has shown that they are really about as substantial. I doubt if this piece of road was ever graded except by the traffic that passed over it. But the Highway Board of that State is now engaged in widening and grading this pass.

On May 11, 1924, the Santa Fe and Albuquerque Kiwanis Club held a celebration of the opening of the rebuilt La Bajada:

The opening of the new road on La Bajada hill on Sunday, May 11, was attended by fully 1,000 people from Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

The hill is about 20 miles southwest of Santa Fe on the main highway to Albuquerque. It rises abruptly to a heighth [sic] of about 1,000 feet. The road winds up the side in a series of turns and switchbacks.

The road was widened and the outer edge lined with a rock wall, and partly relocated to reduce the grade. To climb this hill “in high” has been an ambition accomplished by few motor car drivers, but now it is considerably less of a feat. When it rains torrents rush down the hillside and, to carry the water off and save the new road, a large number of culverts were put in — spaced at frequent intervals.

The work was done by convict labor at a cost of $11,000. Speaking on the occasion of the opening, Governor James F. Hinkle said the work if done as a Federal Aid project would have cost $250,000. [“La Bajada Hill Road is Rebuilt,” Western Highways Builder, June 1924, page 30]

Author Joe Sonderman, writing in the 2010s, explained that the road dropped 800 feet in 1.6 miles and included 23 “razor-sharp switchbacks,” with only an occasional guardrail. A skull-and-crossbones sign warned motorists of the danger. Another sign warned motorists, “The road is not foolproof but safe for a sane driver.” A bypass in 1932 spared later motorists from the dangers of “the drop.” He discussed La Bajada today:

La Bajada has served as little more than a cowpath for 85 years, so to say the road is a little rough is putting it mildly. The road is impassable by vehicles. In 2017, the Cochiti Pueblo blocked access to La Bajada from the bottom. The top half remains accessible from Santa Fe and can be explored on foot. But the heat can be brutal, rattlesnakes are common, and it’s been decades since anyone has seen a tow truck out here.

The photograph Sonderman used to illustrate the item (identified as circa 1920) depicted the same switchback section as the postcard the National Park Service used, then and now. [Sonderman, Joe, Route 66 Then and Now®, Pavilion Books, 2018, page 94]

Opening the Boonville Bridge

The Boonville Bridge, also known as the Old Trails Bridge, across the Missouri River opened on July 4, 1924. It consisted of six steel truss spans and ten concrete approach spans, with an overall length of 2,666 feet.  A contemporary news account began:

A salute of forty-eight guns, fired from the river bluffs at 4:32 o’clock yesterday morning, ushered in the day set aside for the formal dedication of the Old Trails bridge at Boonville, which marked the culmination of the efforts of the progressive citizens of Boonville for the last fifty years.

Early in the morning a continually growing stream of vehicles began to pour their hundreds of passengers into the town, and the bridge, center of attraction, was lined with spectators where, at 12 o’clock, Mayor W. G. Pendleton of Boonville and a party of citizens representing New Franklin, met and shook hands in the middle of the structure to symbolize the union of Cooper and Howard counties, made possible by the crossing. The United States army dirigible TC-3 from Scott Field circled over the town while the ceremonies were in progress.

Officials held a dedicatory ceremony on the courthouse lawn. Colonel T. A, Johnston, superintendent of the Kemper Military School at Boonville, presided over the ceremony, which included speeches by Governor Hyde, Chairman Gary of the Missouri State Highway Commission; Chief Highway Engineer Peipmeier; and Judge Richard Field of Lexington. Governor Hyde offered his congratulations to Boonville and Cooper County, adding:

The State of Missouri is most of all to be congratulated on this enterprise. I rejoice in this structure because, together with other bridges, it will weave Missouri together, generating a new State patriotism and a new State pride.

Here is a great river. Sixty years ago it carried a mighty cargo. The most magnificent waterway in the world, excepting the Mississippi, it ought to be carrying the commerce of the Nation. It ought to be reducing the freight rates for farmers of the Mississippi Valley, but the only cargo it carries now is mud. The Missouri remains to be developed as our great artery of commerce. As it is, it is the greatest source of waste we have.

Chairman Gary called for support of Amendment No. 2, which voters would act on in November. It called for maintenance of the 7,640 miles of good roads provided for under the $60 million bond issue. “If it comes to a question of building more roads or maintaining those already built, we will do the latter.”

With the bridge a key link in State Route 2, Peipmeier estimated that the road, when completed, will carry 2,000 vehicles a day, all of which would cross the Boonville bridge. The bridge, he said, cost about $200 a foot, “and is to be maintained at State expense by indirect taxation. The automobile owners will pay the bills out of their license fees.”

After the ceremony multiple parades took place, including a military parade and one of automobiles, one of industrial floats, and a Mardi Gras-themed parade in the evening. The day included acrobats on Main Street, two aviators doing stunts, and a dance in the gymnasium of the Kemper Military Academy. [“Celebration at Boonville Draws Crowd,” The Columbia Missourian, July 4, 1914, page 1]

At some point in the celebration, Judge Lowe addressed the crowd assembled for the opening ceremony. He began:

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — I congratulate you upon this red-letter day in the history of Boonville. Some of you, no doubt, have looked forward to this great day with fond but doubtful anticipation for a great, great while. If there be those who pay little regard to celebrations and dedications like this, I do not agree with them. If there be those who deem it unwise to mix “sentiment” with the every-day-affairs of life, I do not agree with them. If there be those whose sordid souls never rise above a very limited horizon, and regard “Idealism” as only fit for the indulgence of women and “visionaries,” I do not belong with them. If there be those backward looking, pessimistic souls whose horizon is limited by their front dooryard, I do not agree with them.

He recalled the day in 1907 when State officials in Jefferson City met “in one of the greatest conventions of any character that ever called the people together” to select the cross-State highway. “What a wonderful day that was, and how we love to recall it!” He also recalled “that other red-letter day in the history of this road” on April 16-17, 1912, that “launched the first National Organization pledged to the building of a great paved highway from Washington City to Los Angeles on the Pacific, and christened it ‘The National Old Trails Road”:

So we were the first in organizing a State Good Roads Association; we were first in the organization of a National Association which had for its purpose the building and maintenance of a great National Highway System through the length and breadth of the United States, in April, 1912.

He recalled the history of the National or Cumberland Road, dating to President Jefferson in 1806, and stated that the National Old Trails Road was completely paved to St. Louis in 1923, “one half of the states through which it runs.”

The Boonville Bridge was, he said, “one of the essential links in this great Highway.” He traced the origins of the structure to a banquet in Columbia “when the first steps were really taken toward the construction of this splendid and magnificent bridge.” Colonel Johnston gave a “brief and eloquent address” before announcing he was ready to subscribe $10,000 toward construction of the bridge, “and we came so near tearing the house down with the applause which followed that I knew the question was settled, and this bridge would speedily follow.” Funds for the bridge were readily subscribed “and steps were immediately taken for its construction.”

He resented any implication that the State of Missouri had financed construction of the bridge under the Federal-aid highway program:

Let me state with emphasis that this is not true. The State of Missouri from its $60,000,000 road fund, or from any other source, has never contributed one dollar toward the building of this bridge, of either of the other three bridges now in process of construction at Glasgow, Waverly and Lexington. On the contrary, it is but fair to claim and to state the truth, that they were financed by the National Old Trails Road counties and towns through which the road runs, and by individual contributions, together with Federal Aid.

The 130 miles between Boonville and Kansas City would soon include not only the Boonville Bridge but the three other “magnificent bridges along side the National Old Trails Road between Boonville and Kansas City, with the prospect of soon taking over the Toll Bridge at St. Charles and making it free — thus tying together not only the Interstate roads crossing the State, but the entire road system of the State”:

What, let me ask, has materialized these great movements, except the Idealism of the people who so early enlisted in this great campaign, and who have adhered to it until its consummation is well nigh complete?

He denounced the “pessimistic, non-sentimental crowd” who “would now hawk at, desecrate, and destroy this great work in which we, and a great host of others, have labored so long to develop and perpetuate.” (The reference is unclear, but he may have been talking about those who decided not to include the entire National Old Trails Road in Missouri in State Route 2.) They would “be swept away into that oblivion to which they are so well entitled.” These “laggards and drones who forever hang on the outskirts of the march of civilization . . . have never won a victory on any of life’s great battle fields.” They “never gave birth to a great purpose.” He lived by the vision, “Keep your eyes toward the sunrise, and your wagon hitched to a star.” He recalled the motto from Victor Hugo: “My motto is: Always forward — if God had wanted man to go backward he would have put an eye in the back of his head. Let us always look toward the Sunrise, Development, Birth.” The “Sunrise of Hope” has no night:

Standing by the side of this Old Road and looking down toward the “end of the Trail,” I see it paved at least fifty feet in width, widened by the addition of at least one hundred feet in depth on either side of it; splendidly parked and ornamented with trees, shrubbery, and flowers; monumented and marked along its borders with appropriate devices.

He spoke of the association:

A great writer has said, “What kills propaganda, (in general) is the obvious purpose behind it. One little admixture of self interest and your effort is wasted.” This was the foundation principle upon which our Association has stood from the beginning. Some small people said in criticism of us: “It is true that they stand for the construction of one road, but we favor an enlarged system of roads.” Why, bless their hearts, this Association introduced the first bill in Congress since 1824, declaring in favor of establishing a great splendid system of National Highways to be built and maintained forever by the Government throughout the whole of the United States. Then, we stood staunchly and earnestly for the $60,000,000 bond issue in this State, to be applied to the building of a great State System of roads, and now, when a final campaign is on to increase the Automobile Tax fifty per cent, and to level a two cent per gallon tax on gasoline for the purpose of raising an additional fund to go toward completion of this State System, we appeal to those in charge of that movement that we will gladly get behind it with all the power we possess.

This Association has had no ax to grind, no selfish interests to serve, no salaried officers, no one trying to make this a stepping stone to political preference, no side issues to maintain. We have made no appeal for support in order that some one may be personally benefited thereby, nor has this Association any selfish interests behind it, nor has it received one dollar, knowingly, from any selfish source, but has relied solely on the contributions of those living along its line. Founded upon a great principle like this, we have never worried about the indifference of the multitude, nor the criticisms of the unfair.

(The “great writer” Judge Lowe referred to was Henry Ford, who included the reference in Ford Ideals, The Dearborn Publishing Company, 1922, page 266.)

He concluded:

Let our friends tie their fortunes to this fact! In due time it will find its place. Agreements do not make facts, but facts make agreements. People who do not agree with the truth get bumped by it. It is not our place to do the bumping — the truth takes care of that. The only legitimate propaganda along all lines of material and spiritual endeavor is the ascertainment and establishment of true principles. A true solution of any worth while question is as permanent as the fixed stars. Winter nor indifference will not freeze it; summer nor heated opposition will not melt it; apathetic and sordid pessimism will not affect it.

I cannot close without asking you to join me in giving three cheers to Theodore Gary, chairman of the State Highway Commission, who has so helpfully, so successfully, so loyally supported the best interests of the state; and also to the great State Highway Commission’s Chief Engineer, Mr. B. H. Piepmeier. [National Old Trails Road: The Great Historic Highway of America, 1925, pages 261-265]

Promoting the Road

One purpose of each named trail association was to promote its road. Sometimes, the associations relied on allies, as in the case of the National Old Trails Road Association and the Automobile Club of Southern California. In April 1924, the Automobile Club announced publication of the 137-page book titled National Old Trails Road. It answered the “thousands of inquiries that come to the organization from motorists contemplating the transcontinental trip over this particular highway”:

Sixty-nine strip maps are used on which, in addition to the highway, are marked the garages, hotels, filling stations, auto parks, mileage and other information desired by the tourists. Opposite each of these maps is a description of the road traversed, with notes on the history, legendry and romance of the continuous territory.

Transcontinental motoring to California has averaged a fifty per cent increase annually for the past four years, so the new volume was prepared to meet a definite and growing demand. Motorists actually contemplating a tour across the continent will be furnished a free copy of “National Old Trains Road: by addressing headquarters of the Automobile Club of Southern California. [“Automobile Club Issues Old Trails Highway Book,” The Windsor Mail, April 11, 1924, page 1]

Perhaps because of Judge Lowe’s poor health, others stepped in to do some of the promotional work that he and the National Old Trails Road Association had undertaken.

On July 31, 1925, for example, The Winslow Mail reported:

One month ago a daily newspaper, The National Old Trails Tourists’ Daily News, created expressly for tourist distribution, was started by the publishers of the Winslow Mail. The initial copies, 600 in number, were sent to distributors along the line of the National Old Trails from Los Lunas, N.M., to Needles, Calif.

During the month, distribution has been extended until now it embraces many points between Kansas City and Albuquerque on the east and San Bernardino on the west.

Distribution consists of nearly 1, 200 per day — almost twice the circulation a month ago.

The papers are put into the hands of the tourists at service stations, garages, hotels and camp grounds along the line between the cities mentioned.

An endeavor is made to provide each tourist party at least one copy of The News every day, while they are on this particular section of the highway.

The object of The National Old Trails Tourists’ Daily News is obvious. It is to acquaint the travelers with conditions presented along the route, to enumerate and describe the scenic attractions, and advertise and direct attention to the conveniences provided for him at the different towns, and to describe to him the great advantages presented by this all-year route over any of the other transcontinental highways.

Many motorists from the eastern and middle western States had been convinced that “the arid country of the southwest, spoken of in school textbooks as the Great American Desert, is a region of perils to travelers, and a section of the country good to keep away from.” Tourist travel stemming from the “See America First” movement was “handicapped by fear of people of the eastern states to attempt auto passage across the thousand-mile section between the fertile plans and the Pacific coast.” The Daily News was intended to “allay, in a measure, this fear” by providing truthful information about the conditions motorists can expect:

That the service, which is entirely new and unprecedented, has met with the approval of the tourists themselves, who appreciate the accurate maps and detailed description of the country, tables of distances and other classified information, is manifested by the many inquiries received from people in eastern and coast cities, who have seen copies carried there by tourists who have previously passed this way.

The article discussed the concern leading to The Daily News:

There are now an average of 250 cars per day traversing this section of the National Old Trails. During 1922 the average per day during the touring season was in excess of 500. In 1924 the average fell to below 400 per day. This year it has fallen off again.

There are possibly several reasons for the decline in travel on this route. One of the most important is that competing highways have been successful in drawing tourists to other roads. Systematic advertising has resulted in other highways becoming better known.

However, the advantages of the National Old Trails are too manifest, to people who are aware of them, for other roads to be exploited long to the detriment of this highway.

Following, as it does, close to the right of way of the greatest transcontinental railway system, providing quick access to other transportation in case of accident; its high elevation and consequently cool summer climate, and its southern latitude, which insures mild climate in winter; its well-built grade and constantly improving surface; its splendidly mapped and signed conveniences, and many other factors make this great highway the superior of all transcontinental roads.

The economic value of the tourist trade is enormous, and constitutes one of the assets of the region through which the National Old Trails passes. [“The Tourist Paper,” The Windsor Mail, July 31, 1925, page 2]

An early example was titled “In the Land of Enchantment” by Indian Miller (“Crazy Thunder”):

This is the land of enchantment!

A spell has been cast upon this region. From Gallup to Williams lies this land of wonders, bound by silver chains of enchantment. Ho!

The silent ruins of thousands of ancient villages and of tens of thousands of isolated dwellings lie under this turquoise sky. Around about these ruins lie the things these dwellers left behind. Pottery bearing artistic designs wonderfully executed, yucca sandals of a people gone on, grinding utensils which bespeak an agricultural people, reservoirs which bespeak a provident people, dainty arrowheads of petrified wood apparently made by a people who could distinguish the beautiful from the ugly — these are some of the things they left behind.

And they left their graves here in this soil. With beautiful pottery around their heads the skeletons lie unnumbered through the land.

Were they ever to rise again our population would increase at least a hundredfold.

Who were these wonderful people who were prosperous and artistic agriculturists in this land where the white man can not raise a hill of beans?

They were red children of the Creator, the forefathers of the Hopis and the Zuñis, peoples who still thrive and are happy and artistic and graceful and musical in this land of wonders.

To them the land is not enchanted. For them the rains never fail to fall; for the white man the rains fail to fall, because the land is enchanted. But the day will come when the chains of enchantment shall be broken, and white men may thrive as the Indians do.

It will still be a land of wonders. The Painted Desert, the Grand Canyon, the cliff dwellings, Meteor Mountain, and many other wonderful things of this region will never by common things. They will always be world wonders.

The mirages may cease to be miracles when the chain is broken, but they will always cause wonderment.

The walls of the ancient ruins will always be sacred, though marred by the scribblings of a rude race.

Let the chains be broken, let fancy and the imagination be wrecked, this region will still be a land of world’s wonders. [Miller, Indian, “In the Land of Enchantment,” The Winslow Mail, July 21, 1925]

Another example of the information contained the Tourist Daily News involved Meteor Mountain:

Did you know that, once upon a time, a star collided with the earth, and dealt it what must have been the greatest blow it ever received? That the scar of the impact is still visible? That the heavenly visitor is now buried beneath the arid soil of Northern Arizona, and that you might, with a little effort, find fragments scattered over a wide area a few miles west of Winslow? That looking down into the pit is one of the most remarkable sights on this earth — one that awes the beholder with its mystery?

Fifty or a hundred times as fast as a bullet flies, the million ton meteor blazed out of the blue sky collided with the earth, showered an area of 75 square miles with many thousands of white hot iron, nickel and platinum missiles, after the manner of a huge shrapnel letting go, tore a stupendous hole in the solid rock surface and imbedded its metallic head far beneath. The appalling planetary crash, which left the earth wound that is a world wonder centuries ago.

Winslow derives its slogan, “The Meteor City,” from this unique and bizarre work of nature.

For more than 25 years mining operations have been conducted in the hope of locating the great mass of valuable ore. Thousands of pounds of surface specimens have been picked up, and within recent weeks one 200-pound piece was found on the desert five miles away from the pit. Every day there are minute fragments found. A 400-pound specimen is on display before the sales room of the Payne & Funk Studebaker agency in Winslow, and several are to be found at the court house at Flagstaff. Museums all over the world have purchased the [sic] most of the large pieces discovered.

Within a radius of ten miles of the pit has been found more meteoric iron than on all the rest of the earth’s surface. The sunken meteorite is estimated to be at least 300 feet in diameter and to weigh 1,000,000 tons. Some experts who have studied the subject would double, treble, and even quintuple these figures.

Its impact gouged a basin nearly four-fifths of a mile in diameter and 1,250 feet deep, but now the bottom is partly filled with sediment, and the average depth is 570 feet, with a level bottom of about 300 acres, and a rim 120 to 160 feet above the level of the surrounding country, sloping outward from 600 to 1,700 yards. More than 300,000,000 tons of stone were broken, crushed and expelled by the inconceivable pressure, and half as much more violently displaced. On the south side for half a mile along the rim all the strata were vertically lifted as a mass 105 feet above their original position, turned outward sharply on edge, and so remain.

A number of years ago a drill rig was erected by the Guggenheim mining interests to explore for the main body of the meteor. At a depth of 1,600 feet a mass of some substance far too hard for the drills to penetrate was discovered, and it is thought the drills reached the meteor, but no practicable means was ever devised to continue the explorations through the crumbled and pulverized strata above. The derrick is still standing and is visible for 20 miles in all directions. Most tourists scowl or smile at the thought of “another wildcat oil well,” little realizing that the tower is a monument to a strenuous endeavor to solve one of the most perplexing riddles of the universe. Good roads lead up to the very edge of the gigantic pit, and tourists are more and more learning to visit this supernatural appearing spectacle, which has for its only counterpart the craters of the moon.—Tourists’ Daily News. [“Meteor Mountain Crater Made by Celestial Visitor,” The Winslow Mail, June 11, 1926, page 10]

Another article informed tourists about the Painted Desert:

Within the year past nine miles north of Adamana, on the edge of the Painted Desert, there has been erected the Painted Desert Inn, the cost of which has been $28,000. It is the last place one would look for such an investment but the patronage of tourists and others has more than justified the undertaking. It is perhaps the only building in the world constructed from petrified wood taken from forests that grow in a remote geological era of the earth long before the advent of the human race. One might go to the uttermost corners of the earth and not find the duplication either of nature’s work or man’s work such as is found here.

The erection of this building was the conception of H. D. Lore, of Holbrook, who was in Gallup Monday. Mr. Lore says that on last Sunday there were 65 cars at the Inn and the travel that way is increasing as one gets a good view of the Painted Desert, a vast stretch of forbidding country but marvelously picturesque — a miniature of the Grand Canyon itself.

Two educated Hopi Indians, man and wife, are in charge of the Inn, Mr. Lore only occasionally visiting the place and checking up on the business. He says that the Hopis are entirely reliable and tourists who visit the Inn see and deal only with the Indians. It only takes a little more than two hours’ drive to reach the Inn from Gallup. Tourists’ Daily News. [“Painted Desert Inn is Built of Petrified Wood,” The Windsor Mail, June 25, 1926, page 7]

To assist in publicity for the road, AAA announced on March 12 that in line with its plans for mapping the great transcontinental routes, it had just undertaken a thorough survey and logging of the National Old Trails Road. The tour book was to be released on May 31, 1926, in time to aid the summer travel season:

“One by one, the bogies of transcontinental travel are disappearing,” says the National Touring division of the A.A.A. “The Missouri mud is a thing of the past and hand in hand with the opening of new highways comes up-to-date mapping and road information.

“The diffusion of this information through every section of the country will be made possible through the fact that the A.A.A. tour books are uniformly accepted as standard and are used by the 775 motor clubs — 95 per cent of all the actively-functioning motor clubs in America — affiliated with the national motoring body. The publication of the National Old Trails Tour Book will make it virtually impossible to give misleading information to motorists traveling through the region it covers, as the Tour Book and the accompanying maps will be available at all the A.A.A. clubs located on the highway.”

Reporting on this news, The Winslow Mail’s article began:

The National Headquarters of the American Automobile Association broadcast an announcement today that for the first time in the history of the country justice is to be done to one of the nation’s most famous highways, namely, the National Old Trails which girdles the continent from Washington and Baltimore to the Pacific coast. [“Old Trails Highway to Receive Just Recognition,” The Winslow Mail, March 12, 1926, pages 1, 12]

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