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General Highway History

Left Nav - History

Motor Routes to the California Expositions

(The March 1915 issue of Motor magazine contained an article by A. L. Westgard on "Motor Routes to the California Expositions.")

Close Analysis of Conditions That Will Be Found on the Four Principal Transcontinental Highways. Most Favorable Season...

Part I

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.

Part H

Saving the Names

By 1928, the U.S. numbered highway system was an accepted way for navigating around the country. The named trails and their supporting associations were fading in importance.

That did not mean the named trail associations were not clinging to hope of revival. For example, on March 13, 1928, Representative Charles G. Edwards of Georgia introduced H.R. 12040:

A BILL

Part G

Madonna of the Trail — D.A.R. 1927

On April 22, 1927, during the thirty-sixth Continental Congress of D.A.R. in April 1927,

Mrs. Moss reported on the activities of the National Old Trails Road Committee.

She began:

Daughters, it is a great privilege and honor to introduce to you the grand old patriot of the Old Trails Road, the Honorable Ezra Meeker. He wishes to say a word to you.

Part F

As for the National Old Trails Road

In January 1926, The New York Times carried an article by author Adolph C. Regli about travel in the western States. It began:

Motorists who long had had visions of a transcontinental tour have often cast aside the idea as being too risky. The West, with its reputation for hazardous desert and mountain highways, has suggested to the uninitiated the picture of a wild, treacherous expanse, hostile to everything but the cowpuncher on horseback.