The Final Dedication — Bethesda, Maryland

On April 12, 1929, Mrs. Moss visited Bethesda to see the site of the final monument that would be dedicated at Wisconsin and Montgomery Avenues, facing the Montgomery County Building. She conferred with S. H. Miller, chairman of the Bethesda Chamber of Commerce, who was in charge of erecting the monument. He supervised as workers completed the base on April 12.

Walter R. Tuckerman had donated the site for the monument near the subdivision known as Edgemoor. Tuckerman was an attorney, entrepreneur, banker, and philanthropist; he founded Edgemoor. He and Mrs. Tuckerman presented the deed for the site to Mrs. Moss and Mrs. Enoch G. Johnson, Maryland’s national vice chairman of the National Old Trails Road Committee. [“Last D.A.R. Marker Rising at Bethesda,” The Washington Post, April 13, 1929, page 3]

The dedication took place on April 19, beginning at 4 p.m. The continental congress had cleared its afternoon schedule to allow delegates to drive to Bethesda for the dedication. Mrs. Moss’s report on the dedications explained:

The day of the dedication, April 19th, was one of sunshine and clean crisp air after a week of spring rains and cloudy weather. A large crowd attended the exercises, which were held out in the open, near the site and under the shelter of century-old trees. National Officers, State Regents, and hundreds of D.A.R. members from almost every State in the Union, as well as officials of Bethesda city government, and prominent residents participated.

The special guest was Vice President Charles Curtis, who had represented Kansas in the House of Representatives (1893-1907) and the Senate (1907-1929). He had taken his oath of office on March 4, 1929, along with the new President, Herbert Hoover.

The dedication, presided over by Mrs. Robert A. Welsh, State Regent of Maryland, began with a concert by the First Tank Group Band of Camp Meade in Maryland. After an invocation, a salute to the flag by the Children of the American Revolution, and the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” Mrs. Johnson gave an address of welcome. President General Brosseau “recounted the hardships and self-sacrifice of the early pioneer mothers who followed ox carts along the early trails”:

It is preeminently fitting that in following a plan of dedication of the statues in each of the twelve states, the first should be last, and that Maryland, which was the scene of the first questing, should experience the fulfilment in this tribute to her pioneering spirit.

In eleven of the states, statues have been erected and dedicated, and now we come to Maryland, the twelfth state and the source of inspiration. Here we rest, and into the keeping of the citizens of Bethesda do we commend in imperishable stone, the soul of the pioneer mother.

Proud as I am of the joint accomplishment of the National Old Trails Association [sic] and the Daughters of the American Revolution in their notable plan of marking this historic highway with the statues dedicated to the pioneer mothers, I shall make no comment upon the glorious monument itself. When it is revealed to you, I know you will be reminded, as I am, of the definition of eminence as “something that is created in stone, stops in animals and lives again in man.”

But I shall indulge in a bit of personality and allow you to share with me a secret which I am sure is known to but few, and that is the bit of beautiful and patriotic sentiment which attaches itself to the creation of this symbolic group.

The young college student, son of Mrs. Moss, our efficient National Chairman, whom you have here today, designed the statue. That the mother was able to capture the past, envisage the future and, through the rare gifts of her son, synchronize all with the present — with the ideals and the practical aims of our great Society is quite the perfect expression of patriotic service.

Also do I want to pay a tribute to our own Mrs. Talbott and the years of service that she gave to the work of this Committee. But for her zeal and patient efforts we would not be standing here today, helping to make immortal this phase of our nation’s early history.

She closed by reciting William D. Foulke’s “The Settler’s Wife,” previously read during the dedication in Richmond, Indiana. [“The 38th Continental Congress, N.S.D.A.R,” Daughters of the American Republic Magazine, June 1929, page 344]

Judge Truman was the next speaker, delivering a version of his address on the Old Trails:

The National Old Trails Road Association, ladies and gentlemen, has helped the Daughters of the American Revolution to finish a Memorial to the woman who made this country great — the Pioneer Mother.

It was the grand old pioneer mother who made the settlement of the original thirteen colonies possible. She came to Virginia in 1609, she came to Massachusetts in 1620 and after that to all the colonies, thus making their settlement a permanent undertaking.

When that great and fertile plain, west of the Alleganys [sic] needed settlement, she went with the hearty pioneers who made an empire of it. She crossed the Mississippi and she went to Oregon and California.

She made this country what it is by being the hearty morther [sic] she was and producing sons and daughters to make it great.

It is exceedingly appropriate that the Daughters of the American Revolution should have originated the idea and it is also proper that the National Old Trails Association [sic] should have helped them to carry it out. It was over the old trails that those wonderful women made their treck [sic] to the Ohio Valley and from there to Louisiana territory and the great west.

The Old Trail started here, or some where not far away. The first road from Baltimore to the west was laid out over the trail taken by Braddock and Washington in the French and Indian War. It is yet the best and shortest road from here over the mountains and to the west.

From 1750 to Revolutionary times those good women were going over that trail to the head of navigation on the Ohio and down that great river to Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.

After the Revolution the National Government recognized the necessity of land transportation and adopted and laid out the National Road from here to St. Louis and later to Jefferson City, Mo. Daniel Boone used the road to Booneville, Mo., in his salt business and it is today known as Booneslick trail.

About 1825 the National government recognized the necessity of a trade route to old Mexico and after making treaties with the Plain’s indians authorized and had completed a survey from Sibley, Mo., to Sante [sic] Fe, Mexico, then in a foreign country. Therefore the National Old Trails Road follows the history and development of all this country beyond the Alleghanies. There isn’t a foot of it but what is linked with the history of the country. Over it those pioneer mothers went to make the winning of the West really and truly stay won. They were just as brave or braver than their men, because in many cases they went with sad hearts and trembling bodies. They went, however, and endured every hardship that befalls a pioneer. They fought Indians, want, and loneliness and won. My grandmothers were pioneer women and that is why I am here.

There she stands, ladies and gentlemen, the mother of the country — the finest thing on earth and here at the beginning of the trail and the foundation of the country it is appropriate that we erect the last monument to the pioneer mothers, originated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and carried to completion with the assistance of the National Old Trails Association. [Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum; Quoted in Mallinson, Jane, “Harry Truman and the Selection of Sites for the DAR Madonna Statues, Part II,” Wagon Tracks, May 1995, page 6]

As Algeo explained, the Pioneer Mother monuments were “a project close to Truman’s heart” because both of “his grandmothers had made the arduous trek from Kentucky to western Missouri in the 1840s.” [Algeo, page 50]

Tuckerman formally presented the deed to Mrs. Moss, who presented it, in turn, to Mrs. Brosseau to be placed in the national society’s archives.

Mrs. Moss delivered the dedicatory address, which was reprinted in the Daughters of the American Republic Magazine:

The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution organized under a constitution, of which Article 11, Section 1, reads:

“The objects of this Society are: To perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women who achieved American Independence — the acquisition and protection of historical spots — and the erection of monuments.”

And wholly in keeping with this very first sentence in this section “to perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and woman who achieved American Independence,” in 1911, the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, established a National Committee known as “The National Old Trails Road” Committee, whose work primarily was to definitely establish the Old Trails Road as a great National Memorial Highway — a Memorial to be of great National scope, expressing a great National love for those sturdy pioneers whose memorials shall live forever like a “thing devine.” To that end, this loyal band of women went about their work enthusiastically and untiringly, an inspiration to the country at large, awakening interest in locating, exploiting and advertising old historic roads, and influencing the new automobile roads in course of construction at that time all over the country, to be built upon the old historic trails.

During the early work of the Daughters, the National Old Trails Road Association came into being, stating in its own By-Laws, Article II, Section 1 —

“The object of this Association shall be to assist the Daughters of the American Republic in marking the Old Trails and to promote the construction of an Ocean-to-Ocean Highway of modern type worthy of its memorial character.”

They also adopted the temporary marking of the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway as suggested by the National D.A.R. Committee, of marking the National Highway with our own National Colors, and they, too, went forth with the paint-pot in hand, as many of the Daughters had done before, banding the telegraph and telephone poles with red, white, and blue, so that the character of this road might be evidenced to the traveler of the day, whose slogan was “Follow the flag of the D.A.R.”

From that time on these two patriotic groups, the National Old Trails Road Committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Old Trails Road Association, have had much in common, and while our D.A.R. Committee gave the first organized impetus to this plan of a Pioneer Memorial Highway across the Continent, and issued the first map, named the road, originated the first road-sign, and painted it on telegraph poles and introduced a bill in Congress calling upon the Government to build the road, we Daughters most gratefully acknowledge the impetus and far-reaching power, the able assistance, and never-ceasing cooperation given to this movement by the splendid men of the National Old Trails Road Association. Like the wise men of old, we have followed the same bright star together, and it has been “a long, long trail awinding into the land of our dreams” — there has been “the long night of waiting” — but even that is spent, and we are here to realize the vision we caught of this “Thing Divine,” and, while we know that “Gone is the last frontier and the steady grind of the wagon train,” we know that the Great Spirit of the Pathfinder, the Trail Blazer lives — and will ever live in our heart of hearts — for the trail he took to the glorious West was that wonderful trail of Love!

The National Old Trails Road that we memorialized at Bethesda was the “Homing Trail” of a young nation, for it was the most natural route of travel when our early Americans began to pour across the Alleghenies and plant their homes in the Great Western wilderness.

This road was built, not by road engineers, but was marked out by the Indian and the buffalo, their choice always being the quickest and best line of travel. In the olden times, day after day, year after year, was heard the music of the creaking wagon and the lowing ox. Just why the mighty host of Pioneers left their comfortable homes to plunge into the Great Unknown, we will never know, except that the restless spirit of adventure possessed them. And after the heat of the warfare and strife of the early Revolutionary days, they had one desire in their souls — to establish their own homes and live in peace and happiness with their neighbors the rest of their days. To come into this great possession they were willing to pass down the great “Homing Trail” of the Nation, into the land of mystery and romance, of hardship and endurance, and with them they took, not the ammunition wagon and artillery, but herds of livestock and their household goods, implements of the farm land; they took with them their women and their children — the guarantee of a future state, the earnest of a permanent settlement, the basis of an American home.

We carry our banner aloft for “Home and Country”; hence the Daughters of the American Revolution have long interested themselves in preserving all State and National Highways. They have studied the Old Indian trails or traces, the stage coach lines, military roads, federal roads, and the old post roads and mail routes, and marked them all over this country. The Pony Express, The Rainbow Route, and The Santa Fe Trail, the Cumberland Pike, Ye Old Kings Highway of the East and the King’s Road of the South and East; the Oregon Trail of the West, the Old Indian Agency Road and the Mormon Trails; also The Old Territorial Road of the North, the Natchez Trace, the El Camino Rail, the Dixie Highway of the South; the Jackson Trace, the Lincoln Highway, the Old Boston Post Road and the Mohawk Trail, the Boone’s Lick in Missouri, and the Old Braddock Road in Maryland — all these and hundreds of others, have been marked, and are as sacred to us as battlefields. They record the steady triumph of peace; they are the true index of a Nation’s progress — the life-history of a people. That they are linked in a complete chain from ocean to ocean is not a matter of chance, we are told, each link representing an epoch in the growth of the Republic.

In the words of the late Honorable W. P. Borland, of Missouri, who supported the National Old Trails Road to the end of his days, “they are the autograph of a Nation written across the face of a Continent.” Surely, these sacred names shall not perish — numbers must not, shall not, take their places. These time-worn, time-honored names ring down the ages like sweet music of old. They tell the story of hardship you and I will never know; they speak to us of the old Prairie Schooner slowly wending its way, — of the tent, — of the plain — “and dust, alas, on breasts that rose not up again!” They interpret the fortitude of the Pioneer Fathers who opened the way and the enduring faith and ever-abiding hope of the Mothers, the great hosts of known and unknown Mothers, who went forth “with mother love” in their hearts, and a “mother song” upon their lips, who represented then — and we pray God they do now — the very heart of the whole world!

These mothers of the covered-wagon days never faltered, never ceased to hope, though they stalked the dreary plains with unsteady footsteps, privation and suffering their constant companions.

Possessing the sterling qualities of duty and sympathy, sacrifice and joy, stern reality and romance, gentleness and severity, justice and mercy, faith in God Almighty, and a great dignity of soul — the “Madonnas of the Trail” entered the threshold of their new-found homes and erected an altar therein to country and to God. We are told Mary, the Mother of Christ, entered into sacred history with song, “My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord.” Our Pioneer Mothers have passed into sacred history, and we catch the refrain as it wafts back to us across the mountain and plain, along the Old Trails and Pathways, an echo growing stronger with the passing years — “Praise the Lord, Oh, My Soul!” And the strength of this great echo has made this Nation.

And today we Daughters of the American Revolution present to the Nation our tribute of love and veneration, a great National Shrine reaching from ocean to ocean, and as we unfold the veil that hangs over her, revealing to the world the outward beauty and magnificence of our Monument, may we feel the great benediction of that glorious anthem ringing in our hearts, “Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, last [sic] we forget, lest we forget.” May we dedicate ourselves anew to the great and hallowed ideals of the past, and live true to the Spirit of our Pioneer Forbears, and with their abiding faith, believing in our Nation, and steadfastly upholding her institutions, we dedicate this, the twelfth link of our Beautiful National Shrine this day — we dedicate it to the honor and glory of our Pioneer Mothers of the Past, and in the name of God, amen. [“The Madonna of the Trail,” Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, July 1929, pages 399-404]

Wisconsin Avenue, as Mrs. Moss explained, was the road that Major General Edward Braddock marched on April 14, 1755, on his way to Fort Duquesne, later the site of Pittsburgh, during the French and Indian War. The British officer, whose troops included young militia leader George Washington, was on his way to dislodge the French. The soldiers had to build or widen a path through the wilderness. The British force was attacked shortly after crossing the Monongahela River. Braddock died on July 13 from wounds he suffered during the battle, leaving Washington in charge of a retreat. Daniel Boone, a wagon driver on the march, barely escaped with his life. Washington also presided over a funeral for Braddock. To ensure the body could not be found and desecrated, Washington buried Braddock in the middle of the road his men had just built; wagons were driven over the grave and the troops marched over it to hide the site.

According to an account in The Evening Star, Mrs. Moss explained beyond her formal remarks, “It is of peculiar interest to recall today that the State of Maryland, where our trail is now completed, the first road law was passed in 1666, and the first mail route was established in 1695. She recalled that the Maryland chapter of the D.A.R. had begun marking the trails about 18 years earlier:

Past records mention Mrs. Morris Croxall as your first chairman, whose zeal and constant efforts were rewarded by interested co-operation from all chapters.

You own Mrs. W. H. Talbott of Rockville, was an interested member of this committee from the beginning — one of the pioneers — and it was while she was serving as vice chairman under the leadership of Mrs. Henry McCleary that the fund to mark the road was established. Mrs. Talbott served as national chairman of this committee for six years, and her untiring efforts kept the interest alive during the war period. I wish to pay Mrs. Talbott this tribute today.

I find the following names mentioned in the records of the past: Mrs. Herbert M. Galt, Mrs. F. H. Markel, Mrs. Albert A Doub, Mrs. Enoch Johnson and Mrs. Samuel Tubman. All have contributed time and effort in the past in the interest or memorializing these sacred old paths.

Numerous monuments and markers have been erected, but today we are dedicating our long-dreamed-of memorial to our mothers of the past. We are at last paying tribute to the silent and patient “Madonnas of the Trail” — brave in their sacrifice, loyal to their men, following them trustfully, carrying the coming race in their arms.

Former Postmaster General Harry S. New (March 1923-March 1929), a former Senator from Indiana (1917-1923) but now a Bethesda resident, accepted the monument on behalf of the people of Bethesda. Mrs. Robert A. Welsh, State Regent of Maryland, accepted the guardianship of the monument on behalf of the Maryland Daughters.

A parade of State Regents followed:

The escort of State Regents from the 12 States through which the National Old Trails Road passes, formed in line with their State flags carried by their personal pages . . . . Coming forward to the front of the platform, each State Regent in turn gave the data recorded on the base of the monument in their own State respectively. They were then escorted to the monument by the Boy and Girl Scouts, and surrounded the statue during the unveiling by Mrs. W. H. Talbott, who was assisted by 2 small pages, Masters E. Windsor Offutt, Jr., and M. Wilson Offutt 3d, America was sung and the American’s Creed was led by the author, Mr. William Tyler Page.

The Offutts were the grandchildren of a pioneer father.

Following a benediction, the ceremony came to an end. [Proceedings, pages 207-210; “Old Trails Road Marker Unveiled,” The Evening Star, April 20, 1929, page 4; “Statue Is Unveiled To Pioneer Mother,” The Washington Post, April 20, 1929, page 20]

A Kick for Truman in Santa Fe

Jesse L. Nusbaum was the National Park Service’s first archeologist. In 1921, he became superintendent of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. In 1927, he was given the additional title of lead archeologist and prime enforcer of the Antiquities Act of 1906 for the Southwest. He lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for many years until his death there in December 1975 at the age of 88.

Nusbaum recorded an incident — a legend, really — involving Harry S. Truman, and the plan to erect the Madonna of the Trail in Santa Fe. In a recollection for his daughter Rosemary, he wrote that when he moved to Santa Fe in 1932, the arts community was “buzzing with a recent triumph” by refusing the plan to install the Madonna of the Trail monument in the city’s Plaza. During the New Deal era of President Roosevelt, Nusbaum was Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology, but “also had a small part in the management of the local chapter of the Arts Commission.” At the time, following the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the city’s artists and writers were suffering:

Preliminary to New Deal time a Commission was set up in Washington to assist artists, and it was decided that sculptures be included. Joe Davidson, a well-known and fine sculptor was commissioned to sculpt a larger than life size version of a Pioneer Mother. Several copies were to be placed along the old Santa Fe Trail, all at the direction of the Washington Commission and Santa Fe was designated to be one of them.

When the arts community heard of the plan “a great controversy raged.” Writer Mary Austin, who had moved to Santa Fe in 1918, and others “decided that the intrusion was unfitting,” but debate continued in person and by letter and telegrams with Washington. However, “decisions had been made far away and there was insistence that Santa Fe was a proper place”:

Well, the day came for the sculpture to appear and indeed the afternoon the Pioneer Mother arrived at the corner of Shelby and San Francisco Streets on the Plaza by truck, all swathed in wrappings and accompanied by three men — one a short fellow named Harry Truman, then working for the Penderghast [sic] bosses of Kansas City, and soon to become Vice President of these United States under Franklin Roosevelt. As the truck came to a stop, the Santa Fe group there to meet it immediately expressed refusal and loudly ordered the truck to move on. Someone shouted that life was not lived merely consisting of breathing but in acting and the controversy raged loud and heated, as the Pioneer Mother was unwrapped by the equally determined men on the truck.

When an attempt was made to move the sculpture, Mary Austin, known to all of us as a lady of great literary brilliance and independence, and a formidable and large lady of stature, stepped forward and with no offense to modesty began to kick Harry Truman on the shins.

The Pioneer Mother never left the truck. She was hastily rewrapped and taken to grace the little park on Fourth Street in Albuquerque. [Nussbaum, Rosemary, Tierra Dulce: Reminiscences from the Jesse Nusbaum Papers, The Sunstone Press, 1980, pages 59-60]

While the image of Mary Austin kicking Harry Truman in the shins is vivid, Nussbaum’s recollection gets a few details wrong. Actually, he got all the details wrong.

The date is wrong. In fact, 1932 was the year President Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election and would take office in March 1933. The New Deal had not begun in 1932. In any event, the decision on where to place the New Mexico monument was made in October 1927.

In a letter to his wife Bess on October 3, 1927, quoted earlier, Truman recalled the monument committee’s consideration of New Mexico. The Albuquerque delegation had “backed me into a corner and tried to force me to promise to vote for this town.” Then Santa Fe “did me the same way,” even following Davis and him to the hotel, “and wouldn’t let us loose.” The next day, they were going to drive to Santa Fe, 66 miles, “hear Santa Fe come to a decision,” and then start on the location for Colorado.

Clearly, he was talking to boosters, not the Santa Fe arts community.

In Santa Fe, the committee viewed possible sites for the monument before meeting at the

La Fonda Hotel for a luncheon and further discussion. J. D. DeHuff of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce explained why Santa Fe was the logical site for the New Mexico monument.

Mrs. Francis Wilson, a former regent of the State’s D.A.R. and a Santa Fe resident, supported the city for the monument, but a Mr. Kloch of Albuquerque spoke in favor of his city. (This probably was “the Honorable George S. Klock,” who would preside over dedication of the monument in Albuquerque.)

Mary Austin and writer Frank Applegate spoke in opposition to the monument in Santa Fe. Jane Mallinson, in the Santa Fe Trail Association’s Wagon Tracks, wrote about these events:

As DeHuff later explained in the October 14, 1927, Santa Fe New Mexican, “it had never once occurred to me, and I feel sure that it had never occurred to Mrs. Wilson or any other supporter of Santa Fe’s claim, that any one living here would, or could object to the location of the monument in Santa Fe.” Thus he was surprised when “Mr. Applegate soon got up and began with an uncomplimentary reference to the Santa Fe chamber of commerce, stating that this was another case of where the chamber of commerce was attempting to put something over on the Santa Fe public without letting the public know anything about it. Mrs. Wilson interrupted him immediately . . . . Mr. Applegate then made a statement to the effect that he had canvassed all the artists and writers in Santa Fe and that none of them wanted this monument here, that it was not artistic, and Santa Fe did not want something unloaded on it that it didn’t want. Mrs. Austin made a few remarks the tenor of which was that the so-called Pioneer Woman monument did not represent the real pioneers of this region at all, that the real pioneers were the Spanish people and that they had not been consulted and were not represented at all.”

Mallinson quoted Austin from the Santa Fe New Mexican issue of October 18, 1927, as saying she had been suspicious “when I asked what artists had seen and approved the monument. I was informed that ‘you will have to rely upon us for that.’ Now in matters of art that do not come within my own profession, I am not accustomed to rely upon the judgment of any but experts”:

She continued, “Had I known nothing else of the matter, this answer alone would have been enough to make me oppose the acceptance of the monument. When a picture of the monument was shown me, I felt that I would have no right to let Santa Fe in for anything in the way of art so atrocious. Not only is the monument indifferent art, but as a descendant of a long line of Pioneer Mothers myself, I felt that the monument did not represent them truly . . . . Moreover . . . the Pioneers of New Mexico are not the Pioneers of the D.A.R. . . . I considered it profoundly discourteous for the D.A.R. to think of setting up one of their monuments in the city of Santa Fe without the widely expressed approbation of the New Mexican pioneers. Austin made it clear that she objected to the “rude interruption of the D.A.R. official who presided [Mrs. Moss].” According to DeHuff, “Mrs. Moss was infuriated.”

In the October 19 issue of the New Mexican, Applegate stated that when he was asked to address the meeting:

I replied that I would be willing to give ten dollars toward a fund to keep the statue away from Santa Fe and that if the statue was wanted here I had better not be asked to the meeting. Thus I gave fair warning.” According to his recollection, Applegate listened to the statements made in favor of Santa Fe at that meeting and spoke out when it “seemed from the tenor of the meeting that Santa Fe was about to be handed the statue.

Now it is an old saying that one must not look a gift horse in the mouth, but I had seen some cuts of this statue and was adversely impressed by it and raised the question of whether Santa Fe, as a whole, wanted the statue unloaded on it in this manner, that the Old Santa Fe association, to my knowledge, had not been consulted and that I had spoken to a number of artists and writers and that none of them cared for the statue. I said further that if a single artist in Santa Fe was found who approved of the statue I would withdraw all further protest. Mrs. Moss interrupted me at this point and said artists had nothing to do with this statue, that it was between the D.A.R. and the chamber of commerce.

Applegate also recalled that Mary Austin, “in a manner to which no one could possibly take exception, questioned the propriety of placing a monument of this subject in Santa Fe on the ground that Santa Fe was an old Spanish pioneer town, and also that the descendants of these pioneers had not been consulted in this matter.” Applegate further clarified his own position, stating that “I had no quarrel with the D.A.R. but what I did object to was the inartistic quality of this particular statue. I said I did not consider it a work of art.” At this point, as he remembered, “Mrs. Moss lost her temper . . . and said I was excused from the meeting. I thanked her very kindly in my most suave and courteous manner and departed bearing no rancor whatsoever. Up until my last remark Mrs. Moss seemed intent on the statue’s coming to Santa Fe, but her anger overcoming her she tossed it to Albuquerque.”

Mrs. Moss asked everyone but the committee to leave the room. The committee then voted 5 to 2 to place the New Mexico statue in Albuquerque. DeHuff and Wilson cast the only votes for Santa Fe.

Mallinson quoted Nusbaum’s recollection of Mary Austin kicking Harry Truman in the shins until he got back in the truck to take the statue to Albuquerque, adding, “This account has no basis in fact, but it may represent the strong opposition of some Santa Fe artists to the Madonna.” [Mallinson, Jane, “Harry Truman and the Selection of Sites for the DAR Madonna Statues, Part III,” Wagon Tracks, Volume 9, Issue 4 (August 1995), pages 10-11]

Fern Lyon added details to the meeting. The local Kiwanis Club, which hosted the luncheon, “had invited interested citizens of Santa Fe to join the guests and contribute their own ideas on the statue matter.” Only Applegate and Austin showed up:

Mary Austin has been described by publicists as an internationally known “feminist, mystic, southwestern naturalist and environmentalist.” In Santa Fe she had been described as “God’s Mother-in-Law.”

She and Applegate, “a sculptor, painter, and writer,” were “triumphant veterans of a good many artistic battles.” Lyon wrote:

The two of them were kept cooling their heels in the De Vargas lobby for more than an hour as the luncheon went into overtime.

When they got into the meeting, Mary Austin announced that the statue was inappropriate for New Mexico, that New Mexico’s pioneer mothers were not those of the D.A.R. They were Hispanic. She added that she, herself, came from a long line of pioneer mothers and none of them looked like that statute. She called it a caricature.

Frank Applegate in turn pronounced the Madonna a cheap copy of a work that was inartistic in the first place. He said there had been too much supervision of the sculptor by the D.A.R. and repeated the rumor that Mrs. Moss’ own child was one of the models. Then he pointed out that Santa Fe citizens would be asked to raise some $1,500 for moving and installing the statue. He offered to donate $10 to a fund for keeping the thing out of town.

Mrs. Moss was understandably infuriated. She told Applegate to apologize or leave the room. He left the room. Mary Austin left with him.

Lyon added that on the 50th anniversary of the dedication in Albuquerque, Mayor David Rusk and others gathered to extract the time capsule. She quoted an account in The Albuquerque Journal:

The first bad sign came last week when drilling revealed the stone behind the plaque was eight inches thick . . . with Mayor David Rusk, husbands of D.A.R. and perhaps a dozen guests circling the base tapping it with their rocks . . . . They found a hollow sounding spot, but no capsule. The D.A.R. president says if they find it they will put in a new one with a copy of the program, a 15-cent stamp (because it’s such a horrible postage compared to 50 years ago) and several bicentennial coins. “But we’re not going to seal the instructions. They’re going in the file.”

A week later, the Journal published a photo of the senior radiographer at Sandia Laboratories X-raying the base of the Madonna. Still no memory box.

That seems to be the last story so far about the Madonna of the Trail.

If on some Elysian Field the spirits of Mary Austin and Frank Applegate meet they must be exchanging knowing thought waves. [Lyon, Fern, “Madonna of the Trail,” La Crónica de Nuevo México, Issue number 27, March 1988, page 2]

Some apocryphal stories are too good to fact check. One of those stories is the image of Mary Austin kicking Harry Truman — then-president of the National Old Trails Road Association, future United States Senator, future Vice President, and future President of the United States — in the shins until he drove the Madonna of the Trail monument to Albuquerque. But unfortunately, it is not true.

The Master Highway

In 1921, Cy Avery had encouraged a friend to launch a magazine called The Nation’s Highways. Kelly wrote, “Most issues carried an article with Cy’s byline, pieces about him, or stories about one or more of his projects. It was another bully pulpit.” After adoption of the U.S. Numbered Highway System, The Nation’s Highways was named the official publication of U.S. 66. The U.S. 66 Highway Association brought on a public relations and promotion man named Lon Scott of Springfield, Missouri, as corresponding secretary. Kelly suggested that, “Scott ultimately may have been almost as responsible for Route 66’s international fame as was Cy.” [Kelly, page 74, 191]

The June 1927 issue featured Scott’s article titled “The Greatest Highway Project in America.” It began:

America’s master highway! The main street of a continent is rapidly passing from the realms of dreamland and fantastic imaginations to become one of the magnificent realities of this wonder age in which we are blessed with the privilege of living.

Believing the time has come when America must be served by a great continuous highway to connect, like a railroad, the centers of population with a region capable of expansion by younger generations, the business men of America’s Great Southwest have formed an organization, “The U.S. 66 Highway Association” to bring into being, at the earliest possible date, through Federal and state cooperation, America’s widest concrete thoroughfare. They propose to concrete the U.S. 66 Highway from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, to be known as “THE MAIN STREET OF AMERICA.”

The association was gathering information on the cost of converting the entire route to concrete. The goal was a unified effort by members to convince their State legislatures and State highway departments to establish “by the end of 1928, an unbroken concrete slab from the Great Lakes to the Pacific.”

Scott gave credit where due:

Much of the honor for precipitating the public concern that brought about the U.S. 66 Highway Association, goes to Cyrus S. Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and John T. Woodruff, of Springfield, Missouri, both of whom have had in recent years a deal to do with promoting good roads in the United States. Avery, former Chairman of the Oklahoma State Highway and Chairman of the Federal Highway Marking Committee of the United States Department of Agriculture, looks upon the U.S. 66 Highway as the most important transcontinental road in America.

Woodruff, the association’s president, envisioned “a great development, the result of completing at the earliest possible date, a wide concrete highway.” The entire route through Illinois and Missouri “has been paved in the usual width,” so the focus was on Oklahoma through California:

By every token, he points out, the 66 route should be concentrated upon by the various states to the end of providing soon for its final completion as America’s widest strip of concrete road. No other route is so feasible of maintenance, no other route affords so much completed concrete now; no other route to the great centers of population of the Central West and East affords the large cities of the Southwest as good a highway as does U.S. 66. Woodruff’s claim, and of particular importance to southwestern cities, is the fact that U.S. 66 intersects every other east and west Federal Highway besides transecting a good portion of the north and south roads. [Scott, Lon, The Greatest Highway Project in America,” The Nation’s Highways, June 1927, pages 4-5]

These ambitious goals far exceeded the possible reality. A December 1929 article in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified the surfacing for the entire Route 66, including its detour through Santa Fe. Contrary to Woodruff’s statement, the route in Illinois and Missouri was a mix of asphalt, brick, concrete, and gravel. The National Old Trails Road portion of the route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles was described as:

Then 42 miles gravel; 24 miles concrete, to Albuquerque. Then 19 miles concrete; four miles gravel; 31 miles oiled; 46.2 miles gravel; 20.6 miles earth; 50.2 miles gravel, to Gallup. Then 7.6 miles gravel; 13.4 miles earth, to New Mexico-Arizona State line . . . .

Then 75 miles earth (23 miles construction to be completed in December) to Holbrook. Then 75.5 miles gravel; one mile concrete; 12.2 miles earth; 1.6 miles concrete; 23.4 miles macadam; 19.3 miles gravel, to Williams. Then one-half mile concrete; 98 miles gravel; 40 miles earth (32 miles construction to be completed in December). Then 23 miles gravel; 16.6 miles earth; 32.6 miles gravel; 3.1 miles earth, to Arizona-California State line . . . .

Then 131 miles earth; 35 miles oiled to Daggett; 45 miles oiled; 16 miles macadam; four miles oiled; 11 miles macadam; eight miles concrete; 5.6 miles of San Bernardino streets. Then 28 miles asphalt; two miles macadam; three mile [sic] asphalt; four miles macadam; 15.7 miles of Claremont, Glendora, Azusa, Monrovia, Arcadia and Pasadena Streets. Then two miles macadam and 10 miles of Los Angeles streets. [“U.S. Highway No. 66 From Chicago to Los Angeles,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 15, 1929, from Texaco National Road Reports]

Despite promotion of a completed concrete highway in 2 years, the States were not cooperating. In late 1929, California highway officials reported:

Eastern travelers entering southern California via the Old Trails Highway and southern travelers to the Grand Canyon and Zion Park regions, all go through the Cajon Pass.

The upper part of the old Cajun Pass road has long been a source of anxiety and danger to travelers. The combination of narrow road, many sharp turns and the great chasm below has resulted in in many serious accidents in past years.

An entirely new road is now well toward completion, eliminating the worst part of the present road.

In order to construct a new road on modern standards in this rough country, it is necessary to make great cuts and fills. This has resulted in very heavy construction.

The article stated that the present traveled road included 56 sharp curves, “many of which can not be traveled safety at more than 15 miles per hour.” The new road, when completed, would include “11 easy curves, all of which can safely be traveled at full legal speed limit.”

The article quoted an October 3 article in the San Bernardino Sun describing the work:

Mountains are being moved along the westerly side of Cajon Pass in the reconstruction work being done on the National Old Trails. The work is of such a stupendous nature that the topography of the pass will show a material transformation. Few people conceived the magnitude of the project until they saw the mountain crest moved away and deep, wide cuts made huge fills in the canyons below the new road.

The contractors have progressed with the construction work until it is possible to get an adequate conception of the new highway curves for more than three miles through the pass. The new road will be safe as compared with the present route with its many acute curves. The scenic outlook will be as entertaining as from the present road, and the occupants of an automobile may enjoy it without fear of meeting some wild driver trying to take all of the roadway on a sharp turn.

Those who have traveled day after day through the Cajon Pass may have become so accustomed to it as to fail in appreciation of its charm, but those who traverse the region for the first time are delighted with its peculiar beauty and ever changing phases of interest.

The contractors hope to have the new section of the highway complete and ready for travel in January or February unless the early part of the winter is unusually wet. [“Heavy Work on Southern Roads,” California Highways and Public Works, November 1929, pages 11-12]

The National Old Trails Road in the Age of Numbers

Before November 11, 1926, newspapers carried articles about interstate travel on the named trails. After AASHO approved the U.S. numbered highway system on that date, the newspapers still carried articles about interstate travel, but focused on the U.S. numbered highways. Still, they recalled the fading names of years past.

On June 2, 1929, for example, The New York Times carried an article by Leon A. Dickinson titled “Good Ways Lead Across Country.” It began:

Vacationists desirous of “Seeing America First,” particularly that part west of the Mississippi, which abounds in natural wonders, may follow any one of a variety of routes out of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington . . . .

Three of the main routes shown [on the accompanying map of the West] converge at Chicago, there to spread out again, one toward Milwaukee and Minneapolis, another through Dubuque, Mason City and Spencer, and a third across Cedar Rapids, Boone and Omaha. A fourth stems out of Chicago in the direction of St. Louis, where the motorist may turn westward in the direction of Kansas City or southwest through Springfield, Mo., to Tulsa, Okla. All these highways, like so many trees, have branches spreading out into the surrounding territory.

Any such journey “takes a little planning at the outset if one is to see as much as possible in a few weeks”:

As most of the better-known scenic marvels lie west of Denver, one way for the Eastern tourist to gain time is to pass rapidly across the Middle West. This may now be easily accomplished, as most of the main east-and-west highways across the country are paved at least as far as the Mississippi, and several of them offer pavement for a hundred miles or more west of that river.

The National Old Trails Road, to cite on example, is now continuous surface all the way to Topeka, Kan. This is marked as U.S. Route 40 to Salina, Kan., where most tourists drop south for a few miles to Hutchinson, and then west again, following U.S. 50 to La Junta, Col.

Here there is an important parting of the ways. Those headed for Los Angeles via the National Old Trails Road (Santa Fe Trail) will turn southwest to Trinidad and then over the Raton Pass into New Mexico.

Other motorists may pass through La Junta to Pueblo, and then to Colorado Springs and Denver and several National Parks:

If he so desires, the tourist may continue west to Salt Lake City and then across Nevada direct into San Francisco. A more pleasant way, however, considering that Nevada roads are in none too good condition, is to drive south through Pueblo to Trinidad and then follow the National Old Trails Road across New Mexico and Arizona into Southern California. This will permit visits to the cliff dwellings and Indian pueblos in the vicinity of Santa Fé and Albuquerque. Then there are the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Grand Canyon in Arizona and the trip across the Mojave Desert in Southern California.

The article was accompanied by a maps of the western United States showing the routes mentioned. Prepared by Dickinson, the map lacked names or numbers on the routes depicted. [Dickinson, Leon A., “Good Ways Lead Across Country,” The New York Times, June 2, 1929, page XX12]

A year later, Dickinson advised readers of the Times:

A cross-country motor trip is very different from the usual vacation tour. Not much special preparation or planning is required for a jaunt through the White Mountains or the Adirondacks, but when one intends to drive to the Pacific Coast and back it is a different story . . . . So great has been the progress in road improvement throughout this entire region in recent years that it is now possible to travel from coast to coast along a number of different routes, all of which offer excellent conditions, particularly during the months from May to October.

He discussed the attractions available via the Lincoln Highway, which he added was U.S. 30:

Contrast with this the National Old Trails Road, as it has been known for years. This latter, which is now a combination of United States Routes 40, 50, 350, 85, and 66, is celebrated for the wide diversification of its scenery, especially in the Southwest.

This time, Dickinson’s map included the U.S. numbers for the routes shown. [Dickinson, Leon A., “Across the Continent,” The New York Times, May 18, 1930, page XX6]

A year later, with the country well into the Depression, the reporter wrote again about a western trip, beginning:

There are indications that, in spite of business conditions, long distance motor touring will be as popular this Summer as ever. One reason for this is the continual and rapid improvement of roads throughout the country. This is especially true of some of the Western and Middle Western States, formerly bugaboos for motorists from the East . . . .

It is important for the cross-country tourist to recognize the fact that route numbers, and not names, are the essential designations nowadays. A few years ago, when improved roads were few in the West and sign posts almost non-existent, the so-called “marked trails,” bearing such curious names as “Sunflower Trail,” “Red Ball Trail,” “Rocky Mountain Highway,” “Black and Yellow Trail,” “Custer Battlefield Highway” and Pike’s Peak, Ocean to Ocean Highway,” served a useful purpose. They were marked and often maintained by private subscription. But the universal adoption of the Federal numbering system, following a similar numbering of practically all State roads, has done away with most of these romantic appellations. To be sure, a few still persist, notably the Lincoln Highway, Atlantic-Yellowstone-Pacific Highway, Custer Battlefield Highway, Pacific and the National Old Trails Road, but even these are also known by numbers.

Despite his recognition of the U.S. Route numbers, they were absent from the map accompanying the article. [Dickinson, Leon A., “Across the States,” The New York Times, May 17, 1931, page 126]

D.A.R. Congress, 1930

When Mrs. Moss reported in April 1930 on the work of the National Old Trails Road Committee, she could not help but address the Thirty-Ninth Continental Congress with a note of triumph. She began:

This committee, known as the National Old Trails Road committee, functioned for many years past to achieve two outstanding endeavors: First, to secure State or National legislation creating an Ocean-to-Ocean National Highway; and second, to establish this highway as a National memorial to our worthy pioneer fathers and mothers of the past.

Triumphantly, this was reported as an accomplished fact last year, and a full, detailed report was given to Congress, April 1929. The erection of 12 monuments, beautiful in design and heroic in size, had been completed and dedicated as a National shrine, reaching across our land from ocean to ocean, and for a year or more the Daughters of the American Revolution, in different sections of this country, marched down the old sacred pathway, celebrating with song and pageantry the dedication of this National shrine. Conceded to be one of the most outstanding memorials ever erected by any organization, our beautiful Pioneer Mother continues to receive applause and commendation and nationwide publicity. Reports are received from time to time of extensive improvements being made to beautify the sites in these 12 States, respectively, and over 11 of the 12 monuments a strong floodlight shines brightly at night, that the belated traveler may recognize the monument and pause to note its beauty.

Lagonda chapter, of Springfield, Ohio, deserves first honorable mention for the very extensive and expansive improvements they have made, beautifying the site of the Pioneer Mother monument on the grounds of the State Masonic Home in Springfield. The plot was outlined by placing a serpentine wall of West Virginia brick around the small park; sodding and flowers, shrubbery and vines, were planted under the personal supervision of a well-known landscape gardener and artist, creating a very beautiful background and surroundings for the Ohio Madonna of the Trail. The cost of this improvement was approximately $3,000.

At the Pennsylvania State Conference, last October, a resolution was adopted endorsing the proposed improvements of the site of the Pennsylvania Pioneer Mother monument, between Washington and Uniontown, in Washington County. This resolution called for the laying of concrete walks and steps and planting of trees and shrubbery and rambling roses, all forming a beautiful picture up on the hilltop, surrounding the monument — a view that can be seen for miles. This will cost approximately $1,000.

Reports come in from the other States that certain improvements are being made to care for the different monument sites — trees, flowers, and shrubbery planted; and in every State the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution keeps a watchful eye and assumes guardianship over the monument located there. Accounts of interesting programs have been sent in; vesper services have been held at the feet of the Pioneer Mother; radio talks have been broadcast, from all sections of the country, telling about the monuments; requests for information and the loan of cuts for printing purposes have been received from historical societies and schools and authors; and very splendid newspaper articles have been sent to the National chairman from all over our own land and from foreign countries, one of the best coming from Shanghai, China, others from Philippines and from London, England.

All of this, together with the requests from ten other States that they, too, should be permitted to own a Pioneer Mother monument, creates within the hearts of your Old Trails Road Committee a feeling of gratification and satisfaction. As a matter of information, the Pioneer Mother monuments were designed as a memorial for the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, marking specifically the pioneer progress from East to West, and any deviation from the original plan would be a mistake. In due course of time, however, if the demand be justifiable, a further distinctive plan of marking other trails might be considered by your National committee.

Three thousand reprints of the National chairman of the Old Trails Road committee for Congress, 1929, were sent by mail to every State regent and National officer, and to every chapter chairman. Including the invitations sent out for the dedication of the Maryland monument, together with historical books on Old Trails, supplied by the National Old Trails Association [sic], as well as maps and circulars of information, over 4,000 pieces of mail passed directly through the hands of your National chairman of Old Trails this past year.

Following the 1929 continental congress, the name of the committee was changed to The National Old Trails with a goal to “continue the study of old trails and traces in a more general way in every section of the country,” rather than focus on a single route:

Years ago, when this committee was organized, every State society entered into the study of old trails enthusiastically, each and every State studying its own pioneer trails. Many boulders, granite shafts, tablets, and markers were erected in almost every State. When it was first decided to mark the National Old Trails Road, the pledge was made that when this memorial highway was completed we would take up the study of the old trails in every State again.

In going over the past records, your National chairman finds many interesting detailed reports of very splendid work accomplished. It is hoped that the Southern States will continue their work, started in the early days when, though remote from the National Old Trails Road, they searched for and marked the pioneer trails of the south that helped to open up our entire County.

She cited the northwest’s “sacred old Oregon Trail,” which would be “celebrated with a centennial this year.” Similarly, the northeast’s chapters had been “very active, indeed, in this splendid work.” They had studied and marked “many of the old military roads and post roads.” The chapters from the midwestern States “have records to be very proud of. Missouri has never ceased her interest in the study of her old trails. Years have passed since these records were made.”

To encourage renewed interest in the old trails around the country, Mrs. Moss had offered “a prize of $50 in gold for the best State map, to be accompanied by a paper or story of the old trails in that respective State. Each map was to have the old trails properly placed, and the monuments erected to date listed, and to have the names of these old pioneer trails also listed.” She formed a committee to consider the 18 submissions, consisting of a historian, a writer, a lay member, and herself:

After due consideration, the committee . . . awarded the prize of $50 in gold to Miss Katherine B. Rowley, State chairman of the National Old Trails committee for New York. Miss Rowley’s paper and map received the highest number of points in the grading of the entries. She herself lives “by the side of the road,” and her paper included historical facts and romantic sentiment told vividly.

Honorable mention must be accorded Mrs. Lillian Rice Brigham, of Denver, Colorado, whose very beautiful pictorial map of the State of Colorado was a work of art. The romance of the early history of the State of Colorado lends itself particularly to this beautiful method of portrayal.

She thanked all the participants “who demonstrated that the desire is still great within the hearts of the Daughters for definite knowledge of patriotic lore attached to the old trails of our land.”

She emphasized:

One purpose we should all have in view, no matter whether in the north or the south or the east or the west — we want these old names firmly attached to these old routes in the minds of the people. The Lincoln Highway, the Dixie, the National Old Trail, the Appalachian Way, and many others of like character, are loved and cherished in the hearts of American men and women who have labored long and faithfully that these memorials might serve as an inspiration to future generations.

Mrs. Moss reported that erection of the national monuments had cost approximately $50,000, “yet the actual money expended by the Daughters of the American Revolution chapters has been approximately $13,000; of this, the sum of $580.24 was left as a balance.” This balance had been transferred into the current fund of the D.A.R.

On that point, she concluded her remarks:

Not all of the requests for photographs of the Pioneer Mother monument could be granted. The supply was exhausted, and this led to giving consideration to the matter of having a small statuette made, so that anyone desiring a replica of the Pioneer Mother could have one for the nominal sum of $5. With the approval of the President General, details have been worked out by your National chairman with a company in Pittsburgh, and a model (a very beautiful piece of work) for this miniature statuette was submitted to the National Board, Saturday, April 12th. This model was accepted by the Board, and recommendation for its reproduction will come before this Congress for your approval. This miniature model is an exact replica of the monument itself, with one exception: On two sides of the pedestal base will be the names of the 12 States in which the monuments are located, instead of the local historical data which occupied the space on each one of the original monuments. (Applause.) [Proceedings of the Thirty-Ninth Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1930, pages 477-480]

After the resolution was adopted unanimously, an order was placed for 1,000 statuettes.

Touring — a Different Perspective

On December 10, 1927, The Baltimore Afro-American published a travel article by a Negro writer named Joseph N. Hill. (At the time, the terms “Negro” and “colored” were in common usage. The term “Black” will be used here, but it did not come into common use until the 1960s.) During this era, Black motorists had less access to accommodations, and were subject to segregated facilities, suspicious police officers, and sundown laws (dating to the 1890s, they prohibited Blacks from being within their borders after sundown unless they were with a White employer).

Hill and his wife Louise began their trip in Baltimore, followed the National Old Trails Road, for the most part, to California, then continued on to Portland, Oregon, before returning to Baltimore — a trip of 12,000 miles:

We had but a faint idea of the many things that awaited us as we left Baltimore and Washington behind. Glad to be on our way we yet had a little misgiving over leaving well-known persons and places so far behind.

Within 60 miles, they had reached the Middletown and Cumberland Valleys of Maryland. “Fifteen times we ascended to the top of Blue Ridge summits rising to altitudes of from 2,000 to 2,900 feet above sea level.” Hill noted that the road barely touched Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but he commented on the people they had seen thus far:

As for the people: we found that they followed the same occupations that most of us followed. Some were farmers, many had black faces of mine workers, while still others refused to be classified. Negroes were not numerous and often seemed to be filling the menial positions. At least they seemed to be insignificant in the world of great economic factors.

They stopped at Wilberforce University, a historically Black college in Wilberforce, Ohio, just east of Dayton. It was, Hill wrote, a “beautiful campus with several beautiful buildings. Considerable support from the state of Ohio, a large student enrollment, and all this in the hands of somebody who insists on squabbling, firing men from office or otherwise giving evidence of mismanagement.” While at the university, Hill and his wife picked up two women from the Baltimore-Washington area, Miss Annie Williamson and Miss Lucinda Cook.

Continuing their journey, the four reached Indianapolis, “the city with an excellent new high school for our youths and with another addition to the Poro College enterprises. (Annie Turbo Malone, a self-made Black millionaire based in St. Louis, founded businesses and the related college in St. Louis to help Black women. They learned hair and beauty work with the hair care and beauty products of the Poro System for merchandising and marketing. [Johnson, Erick, “Who Was Annie Malone?” Chicago Crusader, April 24, 2018]

In St. Louis, they saw evidence “of the disastrous Mississippi flood” as they entered the city:

We would not dare leave the city, however, without visiting Poro College. This institution is a distinct credit to the race. Well equipped, beautifully appointed, quiet and perfectly managed and oh — how clean and comfortable.

Hill also commented on another St. Louis institution for the Black community:

By the way, there is a Peoples’ Finance Corporation in St. Louis, Mo. that is doing a great business as the people of Baltimore and Washington have not yet dreamed of doing. They handle loans of various descriptions and handle them speedily, efficiently and apparently safely.

Professor Candacy Taylor, in her history of the Green Book guides for Black travelers, wrote about the Peoples’ Finance Corporation:

For those who couldn’t afford to purchase a car outright, it was nearly impossible to get credit or financing from a bank. Some black industrial workers in need of financing went to the People’s Finance Corporation. Created in 1922, it was the first bank of its kind to loan money to black people who had little collateral. The People’s Finance Corporation started in St. Louis and then spread to Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, and Kansas City. [Taylor, Candacy, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America, Abrams Press, 2020, page 39]

The next big city Hill commented on was Kansas City:

Before long we were leaving the extremely progressive and hospitable people of Kansas City, leaving the paved road and actually facing the true West. Not until you have left the good road behind and have faced the possibility of getting stuck in the mud roads of Kansas or of being almost imbedded in the soft newly scooped up earth can you say that you have tasted the real tourist fare of the middle West.

We spent our first uncomfortable night of the trip in the hovel of a good-hearted fellow- being in the little town of Oakley, Kansas.

A Black tourist passed many accommodations that accepted only White customers. The tourist, therefore, often had to rely on the good will of Black residents of the towns they passed through.

Hill and his companions speeded on to reach Denver by noon. Hill wrote that he would never forget the thrill of seeing the massive peaks of the Rockies:

We must have seen most of these peaks, for we climbed to the tops of mountains, descended to the bottom of canyons, rolled over the foothills, skirted the surrounding country for several days. This is the scenic state of America. For two days we drove almost continually in second gear. Climbing or descending the process was slow but never painful.

He thought the city dwellers who see these roads would come to hate cities.

After seeing Mesa Verde National Park, they “finally tore ourselves away from Colorado, passed through the poor Indian reservations of New Mexico. Drove for seventy-five miles without seeing any sign of habitation and stopped for the night at Gallup, New Mexico.”

At this point in the narrative, the subhead in Hill’s article asked:

Prejudice?

Prejudice? Not so much as we had left in Baltimore and Washington. Yes, even Arizona was kind — no I should say civil. And we checked that fact in our little memorandum book. We saw more Mexicans, half-breeds and Indians in New Mexico than any other nationality. In Arizona we were entertained at the homes of members of our own race who opened their doors from the genuine friendliness of people who know no cast, who know no discrimination within the race, who know and care only about being human. I could but pause to make comparisons with the folk back East.

In Arizona, the travelers experienced their first desert experience and two mild sandstorms, but also “the mighty climax — the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.” For Hill, the experience was almost spiritual, more so than “all of the gospel sermons put together.”

From Arizona, they crossed the Mojave desert “and let us rest in sunny California.” They enjoyed the change in scenery. The roadside contained every type of fruit, flowers by the acre, and palm trees waving in the wind:

Drive from the mountain to the desert in a few minutes or, if you prefer, go to the Pacific ocean, or step over to the interesting Catalina island. Better yet, if your taste runs in that direction, drive down millionaires’ row in beautiful Pasadena. Ask what you will and it will be given unto you provided — you have the money.

Visit the poor, visit the McPherson temple, visit the Negro churches, visit the thousands of Movie houses and see the magnificent estates of Harold Lloyd, Mary Pickford or Charles Chaplin.

Hill provided few details of their trip to Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Vancouver, British Columbia, but enjoyed stops in Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. On the way east, they crossed Nebraska into Missouri and then retraced their trip on the National Old Trails Road:

We met many former Baltimore and Washington people in the West. We noticed greater business activity among the people of the race. One man said that the people out there were more honest. The enterprises are new and are therefore proof of an added progressive movement among the people. Undoubtedly, the people are inclined to be more friendly, this can be said even of white Southerners who are often forced into friendliness by the loneliness and by the experiences of travel.

Hill summarized their experience:

The mountains, deserts, famous knife edge roads, the beautiful national forests, parks and dreamy valleys lift one’s self, makes one feel the greatness of the world, the smallness of one’s self. Here is a great tonic and I recommend it to any one who has not departed from the East. Go to the West and learn of things. [Hill, Joseph N., “To the Pacific Coast And Back Again,” The Baltimore Afro-American, December 10, 1927, page 16]

As recounted in the article, Hill, his wife, and their two companions had a relatively smooth trip, unmarred by the prejudice, segregation, and fear that often accompanied Black travel well into the 1960s. He did not mention the recent change from names to numbers, but at least part of their trip, in New Mexico, Arizona, and California, along the National Old Trails Road was on the newly numbered U.S. Route 66.

Route 66 had not yet become America’s best known highway; it was just another narrow, two-lane partially paved road, subject to the prejudices of its time. Over the decades, however, it was one of the routes for those fleeing the Dust Bowl who were headed for California; featured for that reason in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which called it the “Mother Road, the road of flight”; depicted in the 1940 movie adaptation of the novel; prompted the song “Route 66” by Bobby Troup (“Take the highway that's the best”), sung initially by the King Cole Trio in 1946 and subsequently by hundreds of other singers and bands; and the CBS television series Route 66 (1960-1964) about two men who drove a Corvette from town to town having dramatic adventures; and syndication of the show to a worldwide audience.

By the mid-1980s, AASHO’s successor, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), had approved requests from State transportation officials in California and Illinois to remove the Route 66 designation for their bypassed portions of the highway. Route 66 was officially reduced to 1,162 miles.

After the opening of Interstate Route 40 in the vicinity of Williams, Arizona, in 1984, Route 66 was fully bypassed by highways on the Interstate System. On June 27, 1985, AASHTO approved a request by highway officials from the remaining Route 66 States (Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) to remove “66” from the network. An AASHTO press release began, “Route 66 — the celebrated highway of song and screen — met its final demise today, wiped off official U.S. road maps by the action of the Executive Committee of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.”

Television, newspapers, and magazines lamented the demise of the famous old highway, sparking a nostalgia for the old road and its colorful roadside attractions, motels, restaurants, and even billboards. Officials in some States acted to assign “Historic Route 66” or similar names to the remaining segments. Many books have been released on the highway, and booster associations formed in the Route 66 States to preserve the road, its history, and its roadside, and to encourage travel on what remained of the old road. The Pixar animated film Cars (1986) was based on how the opening of the Interstate highway near Williams threatened the survival of the bypassed businesses and towns on the old road.

Professor Taylor, in her history of The Green Book, included a chapter on Route 66 titled:

The Roots of Route 66: Why Black People Aren’t Nostalgic About the Nation’s Favorite Highway

She wrote that for White motorists, “No other road trip so thoroughly symbolized freedom, prosperity, and the pursuit of the American Dream as a trip along Route 66.” The experience, however, “was not the same for everyone”:

When the Green Book was first published [1936] roughly half of the eighty-nine counties on Route 66 were sundown counties. By the 1950s, about 35 percent of the counties on Route 66 didn’t allow black motorists after six PM. And although the road was open to black travelers, it was unknown where they could find a meal or a place to rest because six of the eight states that lined the Mother Road as far west as Arizona had segregation laws . . . .

The most insidious reality black motorists had to accept when traveling along Route 66 was that there was virtually no way for them to know what was coming up around the bend. And there was no such thing as a list of sundown towns to assist them in planning their itinerary.

In 1930, six Route 66 towns in New Mexico were sundown towns, as were 10 towns in Arizona, and 14 in California. [Norris, Frank, “Courageous Motorists: African American Pioneers on Route 66,” New Mexico Historical Review, July 1, 2015, page 296]

The Green Book alerted Black motorists to sundown towns along the road, but also businesses, restaurants, hotels and other facilities that served Black people either exclusively or in addition to White people.

Although Professor Taylor was writing about a period long after the National Old Trails Road had lost its identify as a single, connected route, her observations provide some idea of how Black motorists experienced the old road.

In the three western States of the National Old Trails Road, now Route 66, New Mexico towns along Route 66 in 1930 had only 653 businesses catering to Black travelers, but mostly in Albuquerque (441), Gallup (118), and Santa Fe (85). Arizona had even fewer, namely 177, with most in Flagstaff (100) and Winslow (65), and several towns had none (Seligman, Peach Springs, and Kingman).

Demographics played a role in the reception of Black motorists. Referring to a later period in the history of the road, Frank Norris observed in an article on the Black experience of Route 66:

Between Chicago and the Texas Panhandle, the racial composition of the passing landscape held a white-black dichotomy. In each of the five intervening states, whites comprised a strong majority of the population, and blacks were the principal minority racial group. West of the Texas-New Mexico line, however, this racial pattern dissolved and gave way to a more complex, multicultural racial composite. In both New Mexico and Arizona, blacks ranked a distant fourth behind white, Hispanics, and American Indians, and they comprised less than 4 percent of the population, a far smaller proportion than in the more eastern states.

Within New Mexico, the reception of blacks by the majority population varied by location. Conditions in southern and eastern New Mexico were similar to those in Texas, while San ta Fe was reputedly more tolerant. Albuquerque was somewhere in between . . . .

In Arizona, as in New Mexico, blacks ranked fourth demographically and encountered similar discrimination in public accommodations . . . . Along the Route 66 corridor in northern Arizona, blacks numbered less that 2 percent of all residents. Many blacks who lived there worked either in the Flagstaff-area lumber industry or for the railroad in Winslow. Discrimination was in full force, however, all along the way. In both Flagstaff and Winslow, for example, blacks and Hispanics had to sit upstairs at movie theaters, and the Flagstaff sheriff prevented non-whites from patronizing restaurants north of Highway 66, even though there were no specific ordinances enforcing segregation.

These observations are for a later period, but similar concerns affected travelers earlier on the National Old Trails Road/Route 66.

California was a different matter. In 1930, towns along Route 66 had 43,304 businesses catering to Blacks, with the largest number in Los Angeles (38,894). Dating to the 1890s, thousands of Blacks lived in the Los Angeles area. An 1897 law guaranteed equal access to public accommodations, and that law was strengthened in 1919 and 1923. However, “its enforcement was negligible.” [Norris, pages 297-298]

Professor Taylor, writing about the Green Book period, reported that only a few hotels served Blacks. Motels along Route 66 from the Texas border to Albuquerque consistently refused service. Outside Albuquerque, Black travelers would next find accommodations 130 miles away in Gallup; with another gap of 185 miles to Flagstaff. “Flagstaff didn’t have any Green Book listings until 1957.”

Overall, travel was challenging regardless of accommodations, as Professor Taylor wrote:

Driving in the southwestern United States was especially challenging for black motorists because they had to travel through triple-digit desert heat, and the threat of car trouble was always looming. If the car overheated, it was unlikely they would find help, as most of the towns didn’t offer tow service for black people. If they found themselves stranded on the side of the road, they had to pray that someone would give them a ride. It was also doubtful that they would find assistance from other black people, as the black residents constituted only 4 percent of the population, after whites, Mexicans, and Native Americans.

It's a mystery how black travelers made the trip through this region before the mid-1950s; there was only one Gallup tourist home listed in the 1939 Green Book, for example. And it wasn’t until 1947 that the Green Book had listings for Albuquerque, which was more than six hundred miles from the next Green Book site, in Victorville, California, on the western edge of the Mojave Desert.

We can assume that most black families survived because they were prepared, traveling with ample food and camping along the way.

In California, Murray’s Dude Ranch near Victorville (a sundown town) was the first Green Book site a Black motorist would encounter. (It was not open during the life of the National Old Trails Road.) Seventy miles east, the motorist came to Pasadena. “This wasn’t a good place to stop: There were no Green Book sites, and some of the pools in Pasadena allowed black people to swim only on ‘International Day,’ which was usually on a Wednesday, the day before the pool was cleaned.”

Regarding the Green Book era, Professor Taylor wrote that “the experience most black motorists had on Route 66 couldn’t have been more different from that of the average white American.” She added:

And it’s not that Route 66 was more dangerous than other trans-American road trips. What makes Route 66 different is the branding associated with it. The “Mother Road” lives on in the hearts of tourists as a beacon of American travel. It became a global icon and is still the most celebrated highway of its time. [Taylor, pages 200-228]

In the heyday of the National Old Trails Road during the 1910s and 1920s, the limited infrastructure for Black travelers did not exist. The numerous articles quoted about interstate travel during this period were written by White writers for White audiences. Unlike Hill’s article in The Baltimore Afro-American, the writers did not feel a need to discuss prejudice — their White readers need not worry about that.

Fighting for the N.O.T.

The National Old Trails Road Association had not given up hope of recognition. On September 30, 1931, A. D. Hosterman of Springfield, Ohio, wrote to BPR:

Recent conferences have been held and plans under way for developing increased interest in the National Old Trails Road running as you know from Washington and Baltimore to Los Angeles through the 12 states.

I have been urged to accept and have accepted the Executive Vice Presidency of the Association and plans are being considered for marking the N.O.T.R. uniformly across America and to also develope [sic] plans for publicity and developing not only greater interest locally in the historic highway but also to encourage tourists passing over the National Old Trails Road to see the beauties and the historic values every where to be found.

I will appreciate hearing from you and receive any information or publicity available that your department can furnish or you suggest is available that will be helpful in shaping the new plans.

Among other things I will be glad to have knowledge as to what plans of marking other national highways have been adopted and presume there are publications or organizations that supply this.

Appreciating a reply with any suggestions you may see fit to make now or at any time.

Herbert S. Fairbank, signing as “Highway Engineer,” replied on October 7, 1931. At the time, he was Chief of the Division of Information, a position he held from creation of the division in 1927 until 1943. [America’s Highways 1776-1976, page 181]:

We are in receipt of your letter of September 30 requesting information which will be helpful in shaping plans for the National Old Trails Road and also information concerning the plans for marking other national highways. Under separate cover we are forwarding typical examples of press releases which we have issued in order to acquaint the public with certain of our through roads.

With regard to your request for information concerning plans for marking highways, the Federal Government has not recognized any of the named highways sponsored by unofficial highway or trail organizations and to do so might establish a precedent under which it would be difficult to control recognition of highways or routes having much less significance or historic interest than the National Old Trails Road. In fact it was to remove the confusion that arose from unofficial and unrestrained marking of some of the main highways that the American Association of State Highway Officials adopted a system of interstate and transcontinental highways such as might be appropriately numbered and thereby facilitate interstate traffic. These routes are known as United States Highways. A current map of the United States numbered highway system and an illustration of the standard marker are being forwarded to you. The State name changes as required but the number remains constant throughout the route.

Notations in the file indicate that BPR sent Hosterman, under separate cover, a U.S. numbered highway map, a picture of the U.S. highway marker, and BPR press releases on U.S. Routes 30, 40, 80, and 90. [National Archives at College Park, Maryland]

After receiving Fairbank’s reply, Hosterman wrote again to BPR on October 12, 1931:

I have just received the information for the press you have kindly sent covering the two southern coast to coast highways also U.S. Highway #30 and U.S. Route 40.

Has there similar information been published as yet regarding what for a long time has been known as the National Old Trails Road which is a direct and no doubt the shortest route between Washington, Baltimore and Los Angeles, paved practically all the way? This as must be admitted, is the most historic coast to coast highway although it travels several highways of different numbers west of Kansas City where it leaves Route 40.

As possibly you know, there has for some 20 years been relations and officials connected with the N.O.T.R. Association in all of the 12 states through which the National Old Trails passes. In each of the 12 states, along this route, as no doubt you already know, the National D.A.R. placed . . . beautiful Madonna of the Trail monuments.

He explained that plans were underway for marking the road with distinctive mileposts.

I will appreciate hearing from you as promptly as possible what, if anything, has been published by the government or what has been contemplated in this direction.

I may say, representatives of the group interested in the National Old Trails in the various states will soon meet in this city for further conference and handling the plans for the future and I will be glad to hear from you as promptly as possible as this may be very helpful to us in further planning.

Fairbank replied on October 17:

We are in receipt of your letter of October 12, relative to plans for marking and issuing information concerning the National Old Trails route. In our previous letter we indicated that this bureau and the American Association of State Highway Officials, which represents the various State highway departments, have agreed upon a system of United States highways and adopted standard signs for the marking of the roads. This numbered system is now known and accepted throughout the entire country. We do not know of any agency concerned with route designation or supplying touring information which is not using the system of route numbers and the signs have been adopted by all classes of road officials. In view of the success of this plan we are not considering any plans for additional systems of route designation or marking.

With regard to your request for publications, we assume that you refer to publications dealing with plans for marking and route development. All of our publications of this character deal with the United States System of Highways such as were sent in response to your former letter. We will be glad to supply additional information concerning the standard signs and route descriptions, if so desire. [National Archives at College Park, Maryland]

Beginning in 1927, BPR issued news releases describing the main U.S. numbered highways. The releases, including line maps of the routes and photographs, were reprinted by newspapers and magazines. One dated April 29, 1928, was titled:

United States Route 40 —
Great East and West Motorway —
Traces Paths of the Pioneers.

It began:

Westward, in the path of empire, along routes traversed by the pioneers of American from the Atlantic to the Golden Gate, and including, in the Ohio Valley, the longest stretch of practically straight road in the country, United State route 40 crosses 14 States, and offers to the transcontinental motor tourist a panorama of the mid section of the country that epitomizes the westward expansion of the Nation from colonial days to the present.

The news release emphasized the history of the areas the road passed through, including the history of the National Road from Maryland to St. Louis.

On June 21, 1931, BPR released:

U.S. Highway No. 66 From Chicago

It began:

United States Highway No. 66 is an all-year round route from Chicago to Pasadena, California. Several excellent thoroughfares connect Pasadena with Los Angeles, 11 miles to the west. United States Highway 66 is 2,2430 miles long and for practically the entire distance is an improve highway. Almost half the distance is hard surfaced; the remainder is improved with low-type surfaces such as gravel and crushed stone and oiled gravel, according to the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Although Fairbank, in his two replies, tried, diplomatically, to discourage Hosterman, these press releases, which covered much of the National Old Trails Road, provided information that would have been of interest to anyone attempting to publicize the old named trail.

On September 15, 1932, U.S. Representative Clifford R. Hope of Kansas wrote to Chief MacDonald:

The Secretary of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce has just been in to inquire of me as to whether or not there has ever been any provision under any of the highway laws or appropriations made thereunder to mark the National Old Trails Highways. I know of no such provision but thought that possibly something might have been done in that connection.

The occasion for making the inquiry at the present time is that an organization known as the National Old Trails Road Association is soliciting funds from chambers of commerce along the old Santa Fe Trail for the purpose of erecting markers along the route of this highway. As far as Kansas is concerned the route which they are marking does not conform exactly with any federally designated highway or even state designated highway at the present time and my understanding is that these markers are to be erected as near as possible along the line of the old trail.

I will appreciate it very much if you will advise me as to whether the federal government has ever made any provision along this line.

Acting Chief P. St. J. Wilson replied on September 21:

Referring to your letter of September 15, I know of no provision in the Federal statutes under which distinctive markers could be erected on the National Old Trails Highways. In fact, no authority for official recognition of named highways reposes in the Federal government at present.

Recognizing the need of marking the main interstate and transcontinental highways to simplify tourist traffic, the American Association of State Highway Officials in 1926 adopted a series of warning signs and highway markers, the latter carrying an identifying number. These signs were approved as standards by the Secretary of Agriculture and upon request from the State highway departments Federal aid may be extended to the proportionate costs of purchase and erection on the same basis as any other item in a Federal aid agreement.

The enclosed copy of the manual and specifications carrying illustrations of the signs and markers in this series may be of interest to the Secretary of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.

We are also enclosing a map showing the system of interstate and transcontinental highways as adopted by the American Association of State Highway Officials upon which the numbered markers are erected. The caution and warning signs obviously have a more extended application and are in general use. [National Archives at College Park, Maryland]