Finding the Jefferson Highway

What this episode covers

2016 will mark the official 100th anniversary of our number highway system. Up to 1926 the process of naming, building and publicizing a stretch of roadway was very much a local affair. The results were often confusing if pleasantly familiar to the folks who drove them. The named trails served a valuable purpose in their day, but they began to pass into history when the American Association of State Highway Officials adopted the U.S. numbered highway system on November 11, 1926. The Spring 2014 issue Friends in the Fast Lane highlighted the efforts of Solomon Valley US 24 Association to rediscover one of those named highways, the Midland Trail, We spoke with Joan Nothern in an earlier podcast about those efforts. In this podcast we are going to reach back into our archives for a conversation from the Spring 2011 issue with another leader in the movement, Mike Conlin, a mapmaker by trade and one of the movers behind the recreation of the Jefferson Highway. This remarkable ribbon of highway stretched from north of the US border in Canada all the way to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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