THE NATIONAL OLD TRAILS ROAD 

Part 2: See America First in 1915 

by 

Richard F. Weingroff 

The Lincoln Highway Association, the National Old Trails Road Association, and other groups with an 

interest in California tourism based a portion of their early promotion on the assumption that long-distance 

highway traffic would increase significantly in 1915 as motorists headed to the Panama-Pacific 

International Exposition in San Francisco and the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. 

Carl Fisher had cited the Panama-Pacific Exposition in September 1912, when he told his automobile 

industry associates in Indianapolis about his plan for a coast-to-coast rock highway from New York City to 

San Francisco. With the $10 million he expected to raise from the industry, he planned to have the new 

road, soon to be named the Lincoln Highway, ready for travel so “a corps of 25,000 automobiles can be 

taken over this road to the opening of the Exposition in San Francisco either in May or June, 1915.” 

The proposal was an ambitious idea that, with the help of an impressive public relations initiative, captured 

the public’s imagination. As Fisher learned within a year, however, it was also an impossible task. He 

would not be able to raise $10 million from his auto industry associates or from any other source. 

Moreover, that amount would not have been enough. And if he had raised that amount, he did not have 

any means of using it to improve the roads that were connected to become the Lincoln Highway—much 

less to do so by May 1915. 

The National Old Trails Road Association and the Automobile Club of Southern California had begun an 

extensive campaign in 1914 to post signs on the National Old Trails Road to help motorists find they way 

to the expositions. They also posted signs on feeder roads from the Lincoln Highway to entice motorists to 

leave the northern route and take the Old Trails route to California. 

The California Expositions 

The expositions, which had been in the planning stages for several years, were intended to celebrate the 

opening of the Panama Canal. Water passage across North America had motivated North American 

explorations since colonial days, including Lewis and Clark’s U.S. Army Corps of Discovery beginning in 

1803. By mid-century, with no suitable transcontinental water route found, travelers could choose from 

three unsatisfactory alternatives. They could board ship for the long, dangerous voyage around the 

southern tip of South America. Alternatively, travelers could leave their ship at Nicaragua and cross the 

narrow Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean by a combination of land and river. This saved time, but 

travelers risked contracting Yellow Fever and other diseases. The third option, overland travel, became 

possible—just barely—in the late 1840’s. 

The Gold Rush of 1849, with thousands of Americans suddenly bound for the west by all their methods of 

travel, dramatized the need for an alternative. This need was not fully satisfied by the first transcontinental 

railroad (completed at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869) nor the Panama Railroad across the 

Isthmus (completed in January 1855, although the railroad had been carrying passengers and goods as 
early as 1851). Trans-ocean shipping needed a shorter way to move between the Atlantic and Pacific 

Oceans. 

A French company chose Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal (completed in 1869) to build a 

canal linking the oceans in the 1870’s. The effort failed, doomed by Yellow Fever, expense, inadequate 

equipment, and de Lesseps’ incorrect engineering judgments. 

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the difficulty of moving U.S. Navy ships around South 

America for battles in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines convinced American officials of the military 

necessity of a shorter sea route. The need for faster communication became even more critical when these 

three former Spanish territories became part of the United States as a result of the war. 

The United States took on the job in 1899 with creation of the Isthmian Canal Commission. While plans 

for the canal were under development, Dr. William Gorgas of the U.S. Army demonstrated the cure for 

Yellow Fever in Havana, Cuba, beginning in 1900 (eliminating breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which 

transmitted the disease). This solution cleared the way for successful construction of the canal. 

Construction began in 1904 under Chief Engineer John F. Wallace, a railroad builder who proved to be 

unsuited to the task. He was replaced by John F. Stevens, another railroad builder, who laid the 

groundwork for the job, including full support for Dr. Gorgas’ efforts to fight Yellow Fever. Finally, in 

1907, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Colonel George Washington Goethals of the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers as Chief Engineer. He would complete the job. The spectacular construction project, a 

symbol of the Nation’s emergence on the international landscape, was completed in August 1914. (For 

information on construction of the Panama Canal, see David McCullough’s Path Between the Seas: The 

Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914, Simon & Schuster, 1978.) 

Boosters in California’s three major coastal cities saw the Panama Canal as a potential bonanza. With a 

population under 40,000 as of the 1910 census, San Diego was the underdog. Los Angeles (319,000) and 

San Francisco (416,000) were far ahead of their southern rival. Nevertheless, San Diego expected to be a 

principal port of call for the Atlantic-Pacific trade. Los Angeles, which had the same idea, annexed the 

port towns of Wilmington and San Pedro to try to capture the trade that would expand after the opening of 

the canal. San Francisco, still recovering from the devastation of the Great Earthquake and fire of 1906, 

also wanted to take advantage of the expected boom in trade. 

As the first decade of the 20th century advanced, the idea of a Panama Canal exposition was a common 

idea in several cities. In San Francisco, the success of the Louisiana Purchase International Exposition in 

St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904, the same year construction began on the Panama Canal, spurred thought of an 

international exposition to celebrate its completion. In the wake of the Great Earthquake, officials saw the 

exposition as an opportunity to mark the rebirth of their city. Officials of New Orleans, Louisiana, another 

city that was likely to benefit from the opening of the canal, also sought approval for an exposition. 

In San Diego, on July 9, 1909, banker G. Aubrey Davidson addressed the San Diego Chamber of 

Commerce with a proposal for an exposition in the city park. According to San Diego historian Richard F. 

Pourade, “This would not only provide for a major attraction but for park development as well” (Gold in 

the Sun, The Union-Tribune Publishing Company, 1965, p. 113). After learning of San Francisco’s 

interest in a similar exposition, city boosters put their plans into effect as quickly as they could. On 

September 3, 1909, the same day that James McNab, President of the San Francisco Chamber of 
Commerce, announced that his city would hold an exposition to celebrate the opening of the Panama 

Canal, San Diego boosters incorporated the Panama-California Exposition Company. 

As Pourade noted, “San Diegans were aware that they could not compete with San Francisco in staging a 

world’s fair and narrowed their ambitions to an exposition that would be regional in character” (p. 127). 

Delegates from the two cities met in January 1910, with San Francisco urging San Diego to drop its 

planned exposition. San Diego initially declined. However, in April, when New Orleans sought approval 

from the United States Congress for an exposition, the two California cities agreed on a compromise. On 

May 7, stockholders in the San Diego exposition company agreed to support San Francisco’s bid for an 

international exposition in honor of the Panama Canal while holding a smaller exposition in San Diego 

based on the history and culture of Southern California. Assurances to San Francisco included dropping 

the word “international” from promotion of the San Diego exposition. 

In 1911, reportedly in return for support from San Francisco interests for his reelection bid in 1912, 

President William Howard Taft supported the city’s bid to host the international exposition by inviting 

other countries to participate. San Diego boosters, who had been trying to secure Federal invitations to 

Mexico and other Latin American countries, felt betrayed by San Francisco’s actions, but had little choice 

except to continue with their plans. 

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition, after three years of construction at a cost of $25 million, 

opened in San Francisco on February 20, 1915. After rejecting Golden Gate Park as the site, planners had 

chosen an undeveloped parcel of land on the bay next to the Presidio military base. The twin themes of the 

exposition were the opening of the Panama Canal and the 400th anniversary of the day that the explorer 

Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European in the New World to see the Pacific Ocean (in 

September 1513, Balboa had crossed the Isthmus of Panama and claimed what he called the South Sea for 

Spain). It featured exhibits from 20 States and 23 countries. 

Historians Robert W. Rydell, John E. Findling, and Kimberly D. Pelle described the exposition: 

The site was laid out in a series of plazas, or courtyards, rather than along wide avenues as in 

past expositions, and each of the principal plazas was developed by a different architect and 

surrounded by exhibition buildings, which also served to block chilly breezes from the bay. 

The style of the exhibition buildings was generally neoclassical, but each principal structure 

had a dome, giving rise to the nickname “City of Domes.” Of those domes the most 

spectacular was the huge glass dome of the Palace of Horticulture, which was larger than the 

dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Near the center of the fairgrounds stood the 432-

foot high Tower of Jewels, which was laden with allegorical figures and draped with more 

than one hundred thousand pieces of colored cut glass linked to tiny mirrors. An elaborate 

system of indirect lighting made the glass look like precious jewels. The fair buildings, 

which were constructed out of an artificial travertine substance developed by the architectural 

firm of McKim, Mead, and White, were tinted in a palette of pastel shades, and under the 

direction of John McLaren, a park designer, hundreds of trees and shrubs were transplanted 

on the site. [Fair America, Smithsonian Institute Press, 2000, p. 64-65] 

Although the exposition emphasized the fine arts, one of the most popular exhibits was an automotive 

display that included a Ford assembly line that produced 18 Model T’s every day. Fair America mentioned 

some of the other exhibits: 
The fair also displayed a transcontinental telephone line, marking the beginning of long distance 

telephone service, various aviation demonstrations, color photography, and a working Underwood 

typewriter that was fifteen feet high and weighed fourteen tons. [p. 65] 

In San Diego, construction of the exposition in Balboa Park (formerly City Park) began with a 

groundbreaking ceremony on July 19, 1911. The exposition opened on January 1, 1915, as described by 

Pourade: 

President Woodrow Wilson, 2600 miles away, touched an electric button that turned on a light 

suspended by a balloon and bathed an area of three square miles in a glow in which the “Magic City” 

was visible for miles at sea. The guns of Fort Rosecrans and those of Navy cruisers in the harbor 

sounded in unison with the explosions of 1000 mines planted around the grounds to herald the 

opening of the Panama-California Exposition. [p. 183] 

Fair America described the grounds: 

One of the main features of the San Diego fair was its clear attempt to reinvent history to help build 

an urban identity for the city. Much of southern California’s population had arrived within a 

generation of the fair, and the city still had a Midwestern air, especially in its dour Republican 

politics and imitative Victorian architecture . . . . To change the course of the city’s architecture, and 

therefore its identify, [exposition planners] hit upon this scheme: throughout the fair they would 

create a romanticized vision of the city’s Spanish heritage, transforming the fair into a 

Spanish/Mediterranean colonial city—a West Coast “city on a hill” that would rival what the 

Puritans had tried to accomplish in New England three centuries earlier. [p. 68-69] 

The main buildings, designed in an “elaborate baroque Spanish-Mexican colonial style,” lined a single 

street called the Prado. The site was landscaped to “create an abundant Mediterranean atmosphere.” 

The Panama-California Exposition featured technological and industrial exhibits, a midway of live shows, 

and exhibits contributed by railroad companies seeking tourist business. However, it emphasized the 

“science of man” by illustrating the evolutionary progress of humans. The anthropologists worked out 

plans for a three-part presentation that would include separate exhibits on the physical evolution of man, 

the evolution of culture, and the native races of America. 
Although San Diego’s population had increased to over 70,000 by the opening of the exposition, it had not 

attracted exhibits from other countries. Exhibits came from only six other western States. 

Motor Routes to the California Expositions 

With two expositions in California, highway boosters assumed that motorists wanted to know about the 

roads to the State. 

In May 1915, The Road-Maker magazine published “California by Automobile” by Morris N. Rathbun 

(“Reliable Information in Regard to Trans-Continental Routes”). Rathbun began by stating that “the 

question of the hour” was: “How are the roads to California?” The Automobile Club of Southern 

California, he stated, had experienced a 500-percent increase in inquiries about routing, points of interest, 

and road conditions. Rathbun had traveled several of the main transcontinental routes to gather answers for 

his readers: 

Briefly and generally answered, from Kansas City westward until the coast is reached the road beds 

for the most part are dirt, with improved stretches ranging from a dozen or two miles [sic] to nearly 

three hundred. The best months for traveling by auto over the Lincoln highway, the Trans-Colorado 

or the Northwest Trail are from late in May until October. The Southern route, the National Old 

Trails, may be taken any month in the year. During July and August the heat makes the Northern 

route more desirable. 

Rathbun had begun in Seattle and traveled to San Diego, so his description was based on travelers heading 

east: 

Two routes are possible in returning east from San Diego, but if the Grand Canyon of Arizona is to 

be visited, the better way is to return through Los Angeles and take the National Old Trails road east 

to Williams. Here a good road to the Canyon is found and the return to the Old Trails highways is 

made at Flagstaff. 

The alternative, the Ocean to Ocean Highway from San Diego, would require motorists to depart at Phoenix 

to reach the National Old Trails Road at Ashfork. Noting the signposting of the National Old Trails Road, 

he said that, “The Old Trails route is good traveling the year round so far as snow and cold are concerned.” 

Motorists, Rathbun stated, “will find the roads in better condition than ever before and more provision made 

for the comfort of touring parties than in the history of the good roads movement in the west.” He 

continued: 

It is certain that all of the communities through which the transcontinental highways or their 

secondary branches pass have made strenuous effort to have their highways in the best possible 

condition for the California expositions year. Competition has been keen to direct their way on the 

part of cities, counties and states with the result that the user of western roads is the gainer as well as 

the communities themselves. 

No writer was better qualified than A. L. Westgard to judge the condition of the country’s main highways to 

California. Westgard had been driving the western roads for years, long before the National Old Trails 

Road and Lincoln Highway had been formed by their backers. He had identified and mapped several 

routes, including the Trail to Sunset; no one had a more intimate knowledge of road conditions. He 
provided his views on “Motor Routes to the California Expositions” in the March 1915 issue of Motor. 

Westgard began by noting the rigors of the pioneer days of the motor car only a few years earlier: 

Yesterday we had the rough trails with unbridged streams and ravines, rocky and steep hills, deep 

sand or perchance mud and slush, poor or no accommodations for man or car, motor cars of crude 

design and unknown weakness, and, Presto! today, over night, we have well developed touring routes 

with fair and fast improving surface condition, bridges and culverts, easy grades, good, or, in most 

cases, at least, fair hotels, garages, plentiful supplies, and well designed all around dependable cars. 

Verily, life is decidedly worth while, after all. 

On the routes that he would describe, motorists could forget “all fear of danger, insurmountable obstacles or 

serious discomforts.” Still, in all fairness, he had to warn: 

[On] every one of the five routes described in this article there still remains just sufficient lack of a 

semblance to park boulevards to ensure one of a chance to rough it to some extent, but it is my belief 

that a month’s living out of doors, the ever changing scenery, besides acquiring a knowledge of our 

vast country, obtainable no other way, will add sufficient zest to the trip to forget and forgive any 

minor discomforts encountered. 

 

For transcontinental motorists, he covered the National Old Trails Road, the Lincoln Highway, and the 

Midland Trail. In his view, the National Old Trails Road “takes first place, looked at either from the 

standpoint of surface condition, scenery, historic interest or hotel accommodations.” Over $2 million had 

been expended to improve the route in 1914, Westgard said, and a like amount was reportedly to be spent in 

1915: 

It was the first transcontinental route to have an organization created for its improvement, and that 

this organization has been a live one is amply evidenced by its energetic campaign for yearly 

betterments. 

Much of the money had been used to build “long stretches of perfect macadam roads in Maryland, 

Pennsylvania, and Ohio, as well as graveled roads in Ohio and Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.” Motorists, 

he said, expected road improvement in “a settled country” such as the eastern States. In the Southwest, the 

motorist would be surprised by the improved conditions he experienced: 

[When] in traveling through arid desert regions, practically uninhabited, one finds graded roads, even 

though only built of the native soil, bridges over all streams and ravines, culverts over all ditches and 

washes, one cannot help but ponder over and admire the enterprising spirit shown by the states and 

counties through which one travels, hence the memory of the trip through New Mexico, Arizona and 

the Mojave Desert in California will linger long in your mind. 

After describing the historic segments that gave the route its name, Westgard commented that, “West of 

Kansas City the entire distance is well signposted by the Automobile Club of Southern California in 

conjunction with the Old Trails Association and the counties traversed.” 

Westgard then provided a detailed summary of road conditions. Motorists would find “good macadam 

through Philadelphia and Baltimore to Washington.” Through Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland, 

Maryland, and Uniontown to Washington, Pennsylvania, “the road is mostly new and the route offers 
surprisingly good going.” From Washington to Wheeling, West Virginia, the National Old Trails Road 

was mostly macadam; from Wheeling to Columbus, Ohio, the “surface is mostly pavement.” Good 

conditions continued with “fine and mostly level graveled roads” to Indianapolis, Indiana, and “more 

gravel road” to Terre Haute. 

Potential problems began in Illinois, where a motorist would “encounter some stretches of clay, which 

according to whether there has been recent rain or not, will be merely rough or quite bad.” With 

occasional relief from “hard surface pavement near the towns,” the stretches of clay would prevail until the 

motorist reached St. Louis, Missouri. 

Missouri, home State of the National Old Trails Road, was making progress: 

Across the state of Missouri will be found substantial concrete culverts and bridges, built preparatory 

to macadamizing the entire route. At present, however, there are still several counties where the 

clayey soil makes bad going when wet, though for the major distance will be found good macadam 

or well graded and dragged dirt roads, though somewhat hilly. 

In this eastern section of the National Old Trails Road, the route “is marked with red, white and blue bands 

on telephone poles along the road.” 

Motorists could choose from two routes between Kansas City, Missouri, and Lyons, Kansas: 

Both coincide to Edgerton, where they separate, one following a good graded, well-marked dirt road 

via Ottawa, Newton, Emporia and Hutchinson, while the other goes via Council Grove, Herrington, 

and McPherson. While the first follows mostly valley flats, its superior Harvey House system of 

hotels probably balances the claim of following gravel ridges made by the latter. 

The route through Emporia was the New Santa Fe Trail organized by boosters in 1910. The other, via 

Council Grove, was the Old Santa Fe Trail organized by boosters in 1911. Although the National Old 

Trails Road Association had adopted the Old Santa Fe Trail as the official route, backers of the New Santa 

Fe Trail continued to promote their route as superior. 

West of Lyons, where the rival Santa Fe Trails met, the roads were graded dirt parallel to the Santa Fe 

Railroad to La Junta, Colorado: 

It may be stated here that there is no paved road on the route west of Kansas City before reaching 

within a day’s ride of the Pacific Coast, except short stretches near the larger towns, the 

improvements being confined to grading the natural soil and building bridges and culverts. 

From La Junta to Trinidad, recent improvements made the road “at least comfortable.” From Trinidad, the 

National Old Trials Road ascended “the convict-built scenic road up over Raton Pass,” before crossing the 

New Mexico state line “over a very winding road into Raton.” 

New Mexico and its neighbor, Arizona, were the Nation’s newest States, having attained statehood in 

1912. Westgard reported that New Mexico’s “newly-acquired statehood has imbued it with a remarkable 

enterprise and energy in road betterments and other internal improvements.” The two States, in fact, were 

“showing the older members of the family how to be ‘up and doing’” despite such “natural obstacles in the 

way of adobe soil, lava rocks and sandy stretches.” 
The road followed the Santa Fe Railroad to East Las Vegas, where motorists would find a new road 

through Romero Pass. Passing through Tecolote, motorists could “ford the shallow-gravel-bottomed river 

of the same name and soon drop into Bernal.” The road again followed the railroad to a key decision 

point: 

Three and a half miles west of Bernal it crosses the railroad, and at a fork just beyond one must be 

sure to take the right fork, no doubt properly signed at this time. 

Crisscrossing the railroad at different points, the road continued through a series of small towns to Santa 

Fe, where the motorist drove “south over a good road.” 

Westgard warned motorists to be prepared for a point 19 miles south of Santa Fe where “one almost jerks 

his car to a stop, and, if I am a judge of human nature, spends a half-hour in admiring contemplation from 

the rim of La Bajada Hill.” After “taking several photographs” of this “marvelous view,” the motorist 

would leave “the rim of the precipitous lava hill and gingerly proceeds down a very winding road, where 

three or four turns are so sharp that with a long wheelbase he will be compelled to back up to make it.” He 

warned motorists about this critical spot on the National Old Trails Road: 

Though the road is good, one had better go slow and use extreme caution, with the hand on the brake, 

because a couple of the sharpest turns, where he may probably have to back up, simply lead into 

nothing more substantial than atmosphere, and mighty thin atmosphere at that, should the car refuse 

to stop at the exact spot on an inch ruler where it is necessary to manipulate for the turn. 

Safely on level ground again, the motorist crossed “the desert on a remarkably good road.” Beyond 

Domingo, “the road passes through a forty-foot-deep cut in a gravel hill which brings home to one with 

strong emphasis the amount of work accomplished on this [desert] road.” The motorist soon reaches 

Albuquerque. For conditions leaving Albuquerque, Westgard could offer only speculation: 

Though assured by the State Engineer that the new road from Albuquerque to Gallup will be open for 

traffic this spring, I think it might be well, in case of possible delay of the opening of that route, to 

state here that a fair road leads from Albuquerque to Socorro, crossing a new bridge over the Rio 

Grande near the latter town, and thence on good-to-fair road via Magdalena across the Augustine 

Plains and the Datil Mountains to Springerville, Arizona, thence via St. Johns to Holbrook, where it 

joins the regular Old Trails Route . . . . 

To avoid the “difficult Manuelito wash,” the route turned northwest along “a good road” to St. Michaels, 

Arizona. From St. Michaels to Holbrook, the motorist could “cross the river on the new bridge, if 

finished,” or ford the river, “which is usually safe in mid-summer.” Either way, the motorist would 

encounter “some pretty tough going” before encountering “a good road” to Winslow, “at one point 

crossing on an iron bridge a very deep gash in the earth." 

Between Holbrook and Flagstaff, the motorist would follow “a new graded road” and a “safe crossing of 

Canyon Diable and over a magnificent concrete bridge spanning Canyon Padre.” The National Old Trails 

Road followed “the railroad pretty closely on good-to-fair roads” to Topock, where the motorist paid $3.50 

to cross the planked ties of the railroad bridge across the Colorado River. 

Once in California, the motorist would find a “fine road sixteen miles to Needles.” 
A new road, following the railroad more or less closely, leads from Needles 166 miles along the 

length of the Mojave Desert to Barstow, where it turns south, and soon the motorist descends a 

splendid highway through Cajon Pass to San Bernardino . . . . From San Bernardino one may either 

follow the fine highways, 65 miles via Pomona and Pasadena direct, to Los Angeles and then drop 

down along the coast 131 miles to San Diego or go direct via Riverside to the San Diego Exposition 

first and then up the coast to Los Angeles. The roads are fine either way. 

Westgard concluded his tour of the National Old Trails Road with practical advice for motorists 

considering the trip. He warned that the best months to travel were June through October. He added, 

“Don’t leave the East later than October tenth, or one is liable to find snow on Raton Pass or around 

Flagstaff.” Hotel accommodations were good throughout the trip, with much of the route lined by Harvey 

System hotels “at convenient intervals.” In addition, he said, “Garages, gasoline and oil are available all 

along the route.” 

Motorists could also take the Lincoln Highway, which “was selected and named by an organization which 

has for its object the permanent improvement of the route by funds obtained from private subscription and 

membership fees.” They would find the route “well marked in most sections by red, white and blue bands 

on telegraph poles, fenceposts or bridge railings, the letter ‘L’ being painted in the middle of the white 

band.” He thought, however, that most motorists leaving New York would depart from the designated 

route and take a northern route via Albany and Buffalo, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; 

and South Bend, Indiana, to Chicago. Despite at least one section near Willoughby, Ohio, that was “still 

quite bad,” motorists would find this northern route to be “very good.” 

From Chicago to the Mississippi River, the Lincoln Highway was “mostly macadam.” Across Iowa 

between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the road was a “good graded road, graveled on stretches.” 

However, conditions began to deteriorate west of Omaha, Nebraska: 

Some macadam is encountered just west of Omaha to Fremont. From this point the tourist follows 

the valley of the Platte River, on level graded dirt road through Columbia, Kearney and Gottenburg 

to North Platte, located at the junction of North and South Platte Rivers. West of here is encountered 

rougher going, relieved by some graded stretches and following the valley of the South Platte River 

to Big Spring . . . . Proceeding west from Big Spring, the tourist leaves the river and passes through 

Chappell and Kimball on fair gravelly road, crossing the Wyoming state line just before reaching 

Pine Bluff. 

Between Laramie and Rawlins, motorists encountered river routes. The Lincoln Highway followed the 

shorter route via Elk Mountain. The alternative followed the railroad via Medicine Bow “using some 

abandoned railroad grades to good advantage.” It was 20 miles longer, but was “favored by the state 

authorities because, it is said, it serves a greater local population.” The road west of Rawlins was “good, 

bad or indifferent, following the railroad” to Wamsutter. After crossing the Continental Divide, the 

Lincoln Highway avoided “the worst of the very rough Bitter Creek country in the Red Desert, although 

from Point of Rocks to Rock Springs “one gets a taste of it.” The Lincoln Highway was a good “gravel 

dirt road from Rock Springs to Green River,” but was “rough going to Granger.” After crossing “some 

bad clay flats” on the way to Bridger, motorists would find a “good dirt and graded road” to Evanston. 

In Utah, the road was “fair” to Salt Lake City, where Westgard indicated that a routing controversy was 

brewing about the best way to Reno, Nevada: 
A serious discussion of the relative merits of routes between Salt Lake City and Reno, Nevada, has 

disturbed the horizon for some time. The route via Ogden and around the north end of the lake has 

been much improved in the state of Utah, and, while in view of these improvements and some in 

Nevada, coupled with the fact that this route follows the railroad all the way across Nevada, and 

never is over ten miles from a habitation, leads me to recommend that route to a man traveling with 

his wife and children, still I do not consider the regular Lincoln Highway route between these points 

dangerous, nor even hazardous, and especially not for tourists prepared for the eventuality of having 

to rough it in case of bad weather or a breakdown. 

Following, then, the Lincoln Highway on the 300 miles to Ely, Nevada, motorists would “encounter much 

desert and some rather hard going.” The virtue of a road with good accommodations would become clear 

on this stretch of road. The distance was “too great for one day, and, as there is no hotel accommodation 

between, the best the traveler can do is bunk at a ranch house displaying a sign carrying the legend ‘Hotel’ 

at Kearney’s Ranch.” Gasoline was another problem: 

At the Fish Springs Ranch motorists are charged fifty cents a gallon for gasoline, should they need 

any, and it is probable, for they have gone 147 miles since leaving Salt Lake City. 

At Antelope Valley, the motorist came to a fork in the road. In choosing between the routes via Kinsley 

Pass and Schellbourne Pass into Steptoe Valley, the motorist had “little choice in the two, both are very 

rough.” West of Steptoe Valley to Ely, however, the road was good all the way. 

Leaving Ely, the road was through desert country, “and it is up and down, over summits and across 

valleys, with water scarce between towns” to Eureka. The Lincoln Highway crossed Desert Valley, Alkali 

Flat and several summits to Austin in the Toiyaba Mountains, then along rugged terrain, including a 12-

mile borax flat, to Fallon. “This flat is very dusty and cut up into ruts when dry and practically impassable 

when wet.” The Lincoln Highway followed the railroad across a government irrigation project to 

Wadsworth. At this point, Westgard assured potential travelers: 

Now the tourist is past most of the bad going, as the road continuing along the Truckee River 

between the Virginia and Washoe Mountains is improving as you near Reno, 185 miles from Austin. 

From Reno to Carson City, the Lincoln Highway was good, but soon took motorists “up King’s Canyon 

grade on a good, but steep and winding road to Glenbrook.” 

Entering California west of Edgewood, the tourist started “to mount the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and it is 

certainly some stiff climb for the two miles to the summit, 7,500 feet above sea level.” Descending, the 

Lincoln Highway was a “fair gravel road all the way” to Placerville. Between Folsom and Sacramento, the 

Lincoln Highway changed from gravel to macadam. Motorists would encounter “fine macadam roads” 

through Stockton and Livermore to Oakland, where the ferry crossed the bay to San Francisco. 

On the Lincoln Highway, Westgard found good hotel accommodations in most places west of Chicago, but 

“fair-to-poor” in some areas “and quite bad in most of Western Nebraska and Wyoming towns.” However, 

he found that garages, gasoline and oil were available “everywhere.” Because of snow in the Sierra 

Nevada Mountains from November to May, the best months to travel the Lincoln Highway were June 

through September. 
Westgard provided similar coverage of the Midland Trail (New York City to Los Angeles) and the 

Oceanic Highway (Galveston, Texas, to San Diego) along with brief descriptions of the Pacific Highway 

and an unspecified route to the Northwest. 

In general, the transcontinental routes had been improved to the point that “it is no longer necessary to load 

one’s car down with all sorts of paraphernalia to combat the many difficulties which formerly were 

strewed along the path, nor is it, in this day of dependable motor cars, necessary to carry a multiplicity of 

parts.” Nevertheless, the motorist would be well advised “to outfit with a reasonably limited equipment to 

provide against mud, possible breakdowns and climatic changes.” Whether on the National Old Trails 

Road, the Lincoln Highway, or another route, the motorist would want to prepare carefully for the drive to 

the California expositions: 

To begin with, limit your personal outfit to a minimum, allowing only a suitcase to each person, and 

ship your trunk. Use khaki or old loose clothing. Some wraps and a tarpaulin to protect you against 

cool nights and provide cover in the case of being compelled to sleep outdoors are essential. Amber 

glasses, not too dark, will protect your eyes against the glare of the desert. You will, of course, want 

a camera, but remember that the high lights of the far west will require a smaller shutter opening and 

shorter exposure than the eastern atmosphere. 

Carry sixty feet of 5/8-inch Manila rope, a pointed spade, small axe with the blade protected by a 

leather sheet, a camp lantern, a collapsible canvas bucket with spout and a duffle bag for the extra 

clothing and wraps. Start out with new tires all around, of the same size if possible, and two extra 

tires also, with four extra inner tubes. Select a tire with tough fabric; this is economical and will save 

annoyance. Use only the best grade of lubricating oil and carry a couple of one-gallon cans on 

running-board as extra supply, because you may not always be able to get the good oil you ought to 

use. 

And, mark this well, carry two three-gallon canvas desert waterbags, then see that they are filled each 

morning. Give your car a careful inspection each day for loose bolts or nuts and watch grease cups 

and oilcups. Carry two sets of chains and two jacks, and add to your usual tool equipment a coil of 

soft iron wire, a spool of copper wire and some extra spark plugs. 

West of the Missouri carry a small commissary of provisions, consisting of canned meat, sardines, 

crackers, fresh fruit or canned pineapples and some milk chocolate for lunches. The lack of humidity 

in the desert sections, combined with the prevalence of hard water west of the Missouri River is 

liable to cause the hair to become dry and to cause chaps and blisters on the face and hands as well as 

cause the fingernails to become brittle and easily broken. To prevent this, carry a jar or outing [sic] 

cream and a good hair cleanser. Use them every night. 

Westgard’s complete article can be found at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/westgard.htm

The Bourne Committee Report 

The Joint Committee on Federal Aid in the Construction of Post Roads had been appointed in August 

1912, with Senator Jonathan Bourne, Jr., of Oregon as Chairman. The committee issued several reports 

describing road conditions, administration of road improvements, and funding in the States and other 

countries. In addition to drawing on information from the U.S. Office of Public Roads (OPR), the 

committee received testimony on the effect of bad roads on education, quality of rural life, and the 
migration of young people to cities. Testimony also covered the impact of roads on farm life and how 

motor vehicles had changed farm transportation. 

The committee summarized its conclusions in a report released on January 21, 1915. The committee, with 

its membership spanning the spectrum of views on Federal involvement in road building, concluded that 

Federal involvement was desirable, but expressed concern about the possibly that any program would 

result in a dictatorial Federal bureaucracy. The Federal role would, inevitably, lead to higher standards: 

The more direct participation of the National Government . . . should bring the attention of road 

builders throughout the country to the highest standards of road construction. We believe that this 

can be accomplished without building up an autocratic bureau vested with dictatorial power to which 

the road authorities of the United States would be subservient. 

The committee was aware of the criticism by opponents of a Federal-aid approach: 

To undertake Federal aid to good roads in a small way means a continuation of the policy of 

patchwork and consequent waste of funds, with slight permanent results to show for the expenditure. 

The adoption of such a policy would also within a very few years subject Congress to the criticism of 

having established what is commonly called a “pork barrel,” from which the several States would 

receive annually a small contribution of funds distributed over a large mileage of roads and without 

producing the high class of public roads which are so much needed and desired. 

While wanting to avoid legislation of a “pork-barrel” character, the committee did not want to give too 

much power to Federal officials: 

That Congress should avoid criticism of the character above mentioned is no more important than 

that it should make careful provision for such administration of the Federal highway participation as 

will protect the several States in their right to control their local highway affairs and guard against 

dictatorship from a Federal bureau in Washington. 

Thus, the members rejected centralization of control over the road program in Washington, as advocated 

by Judge Lowe, the National Highways Association, and others during their testimony before the 

committee. “The bestowal of such power upon a Federal bureau would make the head of the bureau the 

practical dictator of road matters throughout the United States.” To avoid this prospect, the committee 

recommended that if a Federal Highway Commission were established, it should consist entirely of 

Members of Congress who, as representatives of the people, would avoid “arbitrary rulings.” 

Although the report strongly endorsed the need for a Federal-aid program, the committee was unable to 

agree on how the program should operate—other than that it should not result in a pork-barrel program or 

Federal domination. Representative William P. Borland of Missouri, who was not on the committee, 

explained the contrast in a letter to the Lincoln Highway Association: 

The question is whether federal aid shall be used as a means to secure a better system of roads; or 

shall the federal money be frittered away in small payments scattered into every congressional 

district and every road district of the United States. The people are in favor of the former and the 

politicians of the latter plan. The latter plan is known as the pork barrel plan of federal appropriation, 

by which everybody gets something and nobody gets anything worth having. 
The Third Session of the 63rd Congress, which had begun December 7, 1914, adjourned on March 3, 1915, 

without completing action on a Federal road bill and without resolving the long-running debate between 

advocates of Federal-aid and advocates of national roads. Resolution of the debate would be delayed at 

least until the first session of the 64th Congress, which would not begin until December 6, 1915. 

Good Roads Work on the National Old Trails Road in the Southwest 

On March 1, 1915, Judge Lowe wrote to Jesse Taylor, editor-in-chief of Better Roads and Streets. The 

letter reported that the States and counties had spent $2,134,447.17 for construction, repair, and 

maintenance of the National Old Trials Road from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles in 1914. He reported 

that in 1915, a total of $2,021,470.67 was to be expended on the road. “The people,” Judge Lowe said, 

“are spending more money on it than any other road in the world.” 

Taylor reprinted the brief letter in the March 1915 issue along with an article by O. K. Parker on “Good 

Road Work along the Santa Fe-Grand Canyon-Needles Branch of the National Old Trails.” Parker began: 

If those who motored over the Grand Canyon route two years ago—yes, even one year ago—could 

go over the same road to-day, they would hardly believe they were journeying through the same land. 

They would recognize the topography, to be sure, but they would never know the road. As a matter 

of fact, the route they would travel now, hardly touches the old, rambling road except in a few 

localities, so radical has been the change. 

To illustrate the changes, Parker cited New Mexico, where motorists who had traveled the National Old 

Trails Road would be interested to know that: 

[South] of Albuquerque the present-day transcontinental motorist does not have to go to 

Carthage and then across the Rio Grande on the combination railway and wagon bridge to San 

Antonio and then double back north to Socorro, a total distance of 118 miles. Nor does he 

have to fight that dreaded ten miles of sand just out of Albuquerque, where so many of those who were 

westward bound two years ago, had to get the assistance of teams [of horses or mules] to pull them 

through. 

Instead, motorists could use a "firm, well-graded and direct road" from Albuquerque to Socorro, cross the Rio 

Grande 20 miles north of the old bridge, and save nearly 40 miles. 

The “steep and rough road over the mountains” between Socorro and Magdalena, had been replaced with a 

route up the Blue Canyon. The new route, which the State had built with convict labor, could be 

traveled “at any desired speed without the thought of shifting a gear.” The road to Springerville, 

Arizona, had been “straightened and improved” to eliminate “hundreds of unnecessary kinks.” When 

kinks did occur, the improvements “throw the road up on firm ground and away from the danger of 

washouts.” Parker added that although the Continental Divide was 52 miles west of Magdalena, the 

area rarely had “sufficient snow to materially interfere with transcontinental motoring.” He 

explained: 

That is, by the way, one of the decided advantages of the National Old Trails Route as an allthe-year-round road to the Pacific Coast, using the Socorro-Springerville-St. Johns detour as a 

branch of the Old Trails at present until the Albuquerque-Gallup main line is put in as good 

shape, and which by this time next year will probably be done. 
The 65 miles from north of Springerville to Holbrook, was the longest stretch of road west of 

Albuquerque that had not been “decidedly improved throughout its entire length.” Even so, except 

in heavy rain, the road was “in such fair condition that an average of twenty miles an hour can 

easily be made.” West of Holbrook, the State had built a new road to Flagstaff. Parker explained 

that the old road had been north of the railroad tracks; the new route south of the tracks shortened 

the distance by 20 miles. The road had just been completed, he said, and he had been among the 

first to travel it, so “I can speak from personal knowledge.” 

Parker also noted construction on segments west of Williams: 

As an example, from Williams to Ashfork the road has been entirely reconstructed for twentythree miles and is now a graded and gravelled pike as fine as one wants to drive over. From 

Ashfork to Seligman, another twenty-three miles, an entirely new road has been built, and though 

that stretch is not gravelled as yet, it is a twenty-mile [an hour] road right now. 

The next thirty miles west of Seligman, through Yavapai County, has not been improved, except in 

the way of removing boulders from the road that might menace a low-clearance car . . . . 

Mojave County, Arizona, the next one to the west, has . . . voted $100,000 in bonds for the 

reconstruction of the National Old Trails Road across their county . . . . There the motorist will 

find a sixty mile-an-hour boulevard if he wants to travel that fast . . . . 

Parker, like Westgard, was impressed by the new road from Needles to Barstow. He said the new road, 

“does not touch the old one except where it occasionally happens to cross it,” adding: 

I well remember driving over the old road in October, 1912, from Barstow to Needles, 

California, and it took me four days of constant struggle, fighting every mile of the way 

through deep sands, alkali marshes, and talus slopes where the cross washes cut the road into 

thousands of transverse ditches. I made the same drive last month over the new road, 164 miles, in 

perfect comfort, taking it easy and without shifting gears once, in eight hours. 

Parker felt safe in recommending the route--with the Socorro and Springerville detour--for the “many 

thousands” of motorists planning to travel to the expositions in San Diego and San Francisco. He 

added that because of the Harvey House hotels every 100 miles or so all the way west of Kansas 

City, “every night the motorist can be assured of better accommodations than can be had on any 

other route across America.” 

National Highway Transcontinental Tour 

In April 1915, the National Highways Association announced that it planned to sponsor a 

transcontinental tour to the California expositions under the direction of A. L. Westgard. The goal 

was to “demonstrate in a striking and interesting way the improvement which the last few years has 

brought about in American highways and American motor cars.” Westgard proposed to guide seven 

passenger cars along the National Old Trails Road to the Panama-California Exposition and the 

Panama-Pacific Expositions. He planned to return via the Lincoln Highway. 
An article about the plan in The Automobile Journal (April 25, 1915) said of the National Highways 

Association that there was “no more important organization engaged in propaganda for good roads in 

America.” It added: 

To a large extent the impressive demonstration of the improvement in American roads which the 

tour will constitute, will be also a demonstration of the success attained by the National 

Highways Association and its allied organizations in the work for which they were organized. 

The California expositions were an opportunity for good roads advocates: 

This is an exceptionally opportune time for a transcontinental tour on a grand scale. It will give 

the participants an opportunity to see the two great expositions under way on the Pacific coast 

and will aid materially in the “See America” movement which is very active just now and with 

which every good roads worker is in sympathy. 

The tour would begin at National Highways Association headquarters at 18 Old Slip in New York City 

on June 15 at 12:30 pm., and reach Philadelphia later that day. Motorists were to arrive in San Diego 

on July 16, with 2 days scheduled for attending the Panama-California Exposition. The cars would 

then drive to Los Angeles on July 18 and reach San Francisco for the Panama-Pacific Exposition on 

July 22. 

Notices advertising the tour stated that, "Only new, six-cylinder, seven passenger cars will be used, and as 

only four passengers will be taken in each car the capacity of the trip is necessarily limited." Only 

“especially efficient and careful drivers,” each experienced in cross-country touring, would be used. Hotel 

accommodations had been arranged by Thomas Cook and Company, one of the country’s best known travel 

agencies, thus eliminating the hardships facing motorists “even as late as five years ago,” according to the 

Journal. The tour cost $780 per passenger. Hot meals were not included in the fee. Since the tour was 

not limited to members of the National Highways Association, the Journal added: 

Everyone who goes on the trip will be made a member of the National Highways Association and 

will be supplied with a badge of the organization and copies of articles published by it. It is hoped in 

this way to add many recruits to the association who will thereafter actively support its work 

everywhere. 

Each passenger was limited to one suitcase; trunks, if desired, could be shipped by railroad. Tour 

planners suggested that participants consider what to wear and bring on the trip: 

Khaki or other thin and loose fitting material for suits and light shoes with canvas leggins are 

suggested for clothing. Shirts should be loose flannel or linen, with attached collars for the 

men, and dark shirtwaists should be worn by the ladies. 

A linen duster is advised as an aid to comfort, thin gauntlets, caps with large visors for the 

men and veils with the ladies' hats. Amber glasses, not too dark, are advised to protect the 

eyes from the glare of the high lights in the southwest. A jar of cold cream and a good hair 

cleanser is desirable in the equipment for both sexes. Other items are thermos bottles, thin, 

water proof, light weight overcoats and a camera. 

A notice in the June 1915 issue of Southern Good Roads explained that: 
The daily exercise and fresh air of such a trip puts new life into the jaded, creates new 

enthusiasm for this great country of ours which they are seeing, makes patriots of the coldest 

blooded. Best of all you travel only while you are awake so that you see it all [in contrast to a 

train trip]. 

Charles Henry Davis, President of the National Highways Association, issued a statement regarding the 

trip. After a paragraph explaining the value of national highways everywhere, Davis said: 

“See America” is almost a duty of all patriotic citizens. At least, see all one can is a duty. The motor 

car offers the most exhilarating, the most interesting, the most enjoyable, the most instructive means 

of “seeing.” Having thus covered over 250,000 miles, I speak from experience. 

To give an opportunity of seeing a goodly part of America, the National Highways Association, the 

National Old Trails Road Association, and the Automobile Club of Southern California, and the 

Lincoln Highway Association have indorsed a proposed trip over the National Old Trails road to the 

Pacific coast, returning via the Lincoln highway . . . . This route will give the tourist the best road 

conditions and hotel accommodations. An infinite variety of scenic and historic attractions will 

abound from start to finish. And not the least, the cause of good roads everywhere will be advanced 

by the participants, as well as their “Seeing America.” 

The Lincoln Highway Association also arranged a tour to the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The primary 

purpose was to make a motion picture of the road as part of the association’s campaign to keep the public 

interested in the highway. The tour began in New York on May 15, 1915, and reached San Francisco at 

the end of August. According to the association’s official history: 

Everywhere elaborate preparations were made to show each city at its best . . . . Automobile parades, 

scenes of road improvement, dedications of bridges and of newly constructed sections of highway, 

processions of school-children, every sort of function, celebration and activity connected and 

unconnected with highway building was arranged for them to photograph. 

 

The association, in fact, had to ask communities to replace the fire and police displays with “scenes having 

a real interest, scenes tending to make it safe, easy, and pleasant to come your way and call on you.” 

Between cities, the party busied itself taking photographs of scenery, historic sites, road construction, 

maintenance, improvement, and anything else tending to interest the traveler and stimulate touring. 

When the touring automobiles reached San Francisco, they were placed on display between the 

Transportation Palace and the Palace of Manufacturers. After the exposition, the Lincoln Highway 

Association used the film in an eastbound publicity tour of one-night stands. “It met with high enthusiasm 

everywhere,” according to the official history. [The Lincoln Highway: The Story of a Crusade That Made 

Transportation History, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935, p. 122-124] 

Tribute to Judge Lowe 

On April 1, 1915, the Kansas City Star published a tribute to Judge Lowe: 

There is a citizen of Kansas City who has retired from the active practice of his profession, but who 

still feels the obligation of public service. He might have devoted himself to travel, or to finding 
enjoyment in various ways, without assuming any responsibilities. He could readily have made the 

excuse that he had done his share while he was younger and that he had earned the right to 

recreation. 

But he chose instead to give himself to the cause of good roads. There was no possible personal 

advantage for him to gain. He was not a candidate for any office. He was not personally interested. 

But he saw the opportunity to do something that needed to be done and he accepted the 

responsibility. 

He studied the subject of good roads and became one of the authorities on their history and 

construction. He attended good roads conventions. He became the moving spirit of the organization 

to promote the building of trans-continental highways. He gave effective support to every welldirected governmental effort in road building, and just as effective opposition to every wrong 

measure. He was one of the most effective opponents, for instance, of the Shackleford “pork barrel” 

road bill in Congress. 

In the midst of these activities which made him president of the National Old Trails Road 

Association, he found time to support every municipal movement for better government and for city 

building. Party allegiance never kept him from co-operating with any group of citizens that was 

working for the public good. 

This high regard for the obligations of citizenship has made Judge J. M. Lowe one of the most useful, 

influential, and honored men of Kansas City. His life is an inspiration to young men, and an example 

to men of the older generations who are under a heavier obligation to society than they often realize 

and who ought to give to some form of public service the benefit of the experience and resources 

which they have accumulated through the opportunities offered them by American life. 

Continental Congress of the D.A.R.

On April 19, 1915, Elizabeth Butler Gentry, National Chairman of the National Old Trails Road 

Committee of the D.A.R., presented a report on the committee’s activities to the 24th Annual D.A.R. 

Congress. She began enthusiastically: 

Excelsior is the triumphant cry of the National Old Trails Road Committee for 1915; our road is open 

across the Continent; our dream has come and our vision has crystallized into a fact! 

In our little brochure of 1911 we set our goal for an open road to San Francisco by 1915, and 

suggested a D.A.R. motor pilgrimage to the San Francisco Exposition. 

Today the road is not only open, it is sign posted almost the entire distance from Washington to San 

Francisco; a motorist can start at New York and with safe and comfortable travel, stopping each night 

in a hotel recommended by Thos. Cook & Son, reach San Francisco in five weeks. West of Kansas 

City many of the famous Harvey Hotels may be reached for the night stops. 

Miss Gentry explained that the committee’s slogan was “See America First, because textbooks taught, but 

to inculcate the love of our country, “send children down the open road.” She quoted her testimony 

before the House Committee on Agriculture in April 1912: 
A scenic and historic highway across our country will advertise America to foreigners. Instead of the 

annual egress of Americans to Europe, we may look for a speedy influx of Europeans to see the 

wonders of the New World—possible if this project be carried out. 

With a war underway in Europe, few European tourists were able to visit America and, more important, 

“the American people are this year forced to seek new pastures.” She was confident that “the wanderlust 

of American tourists may be quenched at home.” 

Miss Gentry summarized the history of the committee, which continued to advocate not only the 

designated National Old Trails Road but the California and Oregon Trails that had been part of the original 

vision. She emphasized the “mutuality of purpose and work” between the Committee and the National 

Old Trails Road Association. She recalled her comments after being elected Honorary Vice-President of 

the Association at the May 1913 convention in Kansas City: 

I wish to thank you, Mr. President, and your organization in behalf of the D.A.R. . . . We have 

recognized you as the “better half” in a very happy partnership for a mutual and patriotic purpose. 

We have looked to you as the head of the house, and have enjoyed seeing you crystallize our ideas 

into facts. 

This road work is a new departure for the D.A.R., but I maintain that making history is as important 

as preserving history; that to be a factor in the building of a national highway is the noblest effort we 

may ever put forth; for the highway that we advocate will not only preserve history and conserve 

national ideals, but it will add to the sum total of human welfare. 

She emphasized, however, the primacy of the Committee’s work: 

While our Committee gave the first organized impetus to this plan of a pioneer highway across 

the continent and issued the first map, named the road, originated the road sign and painted it 

on the telephone poles, and introduced a bill in Congress calling upon the Government to build 

the road, we gratefully acknowledge the impetus and the far-reaching power given to this 

movement by the National Old Trails Road Association, which states in its by-laws that it is 

organized to "assist the D.A.R. in carrying forward their plan.” 

This coöperation, this translating of a vision into a fact, this following of a gleam together, by men 

and women who live along the road, has crystallized a neighborliness of feeling and an [sic] unity of 

thought which has served a better national purpose, perhaps, than the mere building of any physical 

road. 

Referring to the original map showing the committee’s historic trail, she added that the trail west of 

Flagstaff had been changed to conform with the National Old Trail Road Association’s decision in 1913 to 

route the trail over the Santa Fe-Grand Canyon-Needles route. This route and the original route through 

Phoenix to San Diego were shown on the current map as dotted lines “pending further investigation, and 

road improvements now in progress.” She added that the Oregon Trail branch “had not had the 

concentrated effort of our members.” 

Miss Gentry described one of the joint promotional activities of the Committee and the Association: 
Motion pictures of the road were taken by direction of the National Old Trails Road Association. 

Many of our members posed in these pictures at historical places near their homes. These pictures 

were later shown in cities along the route in an effort to raise funds for the Association. 

She cautioned that, “Should we again pose for motion pictures, we will reserve the use of them for the 

benefit of our own Committee.” 

She reported on several other matters, including the road bill, H.R. 17919, introduced by Representative 

Borland in 1912. It had, she acknowledged, failed of passage. Because she expected the Congressman to 

reintroduce the bill “if conditions are favorable,” she encouraged each member of the D.A.R. to “do all in 

her power to secure influence for the bill, after it is introduced.” Although the bill might not pass, “interest 

may be aroused in the project by discussion of it.” 

Miss Gentry also discussed road signs. She endorsed the Kansas law for registering the name, emblem, 

colors, and routes of the named trails through the State. In this way, the State prohibited other trail 

associations from “using the same insignia or color combination” as one of the registered routes; the State 

law would paint out the markers or destroy the signs of other associations that may use the same roadway. 

Miss Gentry added that the Committee was seeking a copyright for its road sign and pennant to protect 

them from road boosters who would “borrow” the name and colors and carry them down by-roads in order 

to divert travel to inferior towns.” 

The Committee had carried on its work for less than $500 a year, so Miss Gentry suggested that not less 

than that amount be budgeted for the coming year. “For efficiency, the regular services of a stenographer, 

at least twice a week, are a necessity. The rent or purchase of a typewriter should be provided for.” She 

thanked the members of the Committee, but added: 

I would also recommend that only such members be appointed on the respective State Committees as 

have a natural aptitude for this work, and whose efficiency will be an aid to the Chairman. 

Miss Gentry’s report concluded with brief reports by each State Chairman. 

The Maryland State Chairman, Mrs. William H. Talbott, reported that most of the route in Maryland “is 

already macadamized, and this season’s work will complete all but a few short stretches of it.” The 

chapter was focused on signing, having asked the telephone companies for permission to place signs on 

poles along the road. The chapter also had focused on placing markers along Braddock Road from 

Georgetown in the District of Columbia to Rockville, “the first link in the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway.” 

British General Edward Braddock, a young aide named George Washington, and their troops had followed 

this route into an unsuccessful fight, one that cost Braddock his life, near the future site of Pittsburgh 

during the French and Indian War in 1755. 

Mrs. Edwin C. Horn, the Pennsylvania Chairman, reported that: 

Pennsylvania had 81.8 miles of the National Road within its borders, all but 301⁄2 miles of which are 

improved, and the remainder will be completed or rendered passable by the close of 1915. 

The most important work of the past year had been completion of the toll-free Monongahela River bridge 

at Brownsville, completed at a cost of $250,000 and dedicated on October 8, 1914. “This bridge,” Mrs. 

Horn said, “fills a long felt want, it having been necessary to descend a very steep and rather dangerous 
bank in order to ferry across the river.” The State highway department had placed signs along the route, 

but the D.A.R. was seeking permission to place its signs on the telegraph and telephone poles over the 

entire distance. 

In Ohio, Mrs. John T. Mack noted that the route across the State was identical with the National Road. 

“Many of the old stone bridges, built by the Government, and the old stone mile posts are today serving 

the traveling public as well as they did when Henry Clay rode down the old pike.” The county chairmen 

had prepared a history of the road, county-by-county, and sent it to Miss. Gentry, who had arranged for a 

series of illustrated lectures on the National Old Trails Road. The chapter had also worked, through the 

State’s congressional delegation, to secure passage of H.R. 17919. 

Indiana’s chapter, according to Mrs. Caleb S. Denny, had focused on signing the nearly 200 miles of the 

National Old Trails Road, in some cases doing the work on their own: 

That part of it which the Chairman assisted in painting attracted no little attention, and comment by 

the farmers and travelers who happened to pass as the work progressed. All those to whom 

opportunity permitted us to explain the purpose of the marking gave their most hearty approval. 

The Indiana Good Roads Association accompanied the chapter during some of this work to advocate for 

the marking of the National Road and to work up support for good roads. (“Miss Emily Goldthwaite 

agitated.”) Work had gone well in the cities, but Mrs. Denny was particularly proud of the work in the 

country, where farmers “walked miles through the dust and the extreme heat” to attend good roads 

meetings. “These farmer women have since had more to think about,” Mrs. Denny said, adding that “we 

have distributed a little sunshine, and in return we have received a most ample reward.” The result was 

that most of the marking was done, and would soon be completed. 

Mrs. L. H. Bissell, the Illinois State Chairman, provided a two-sentence summary of the work in that State: 

We are making a strenuous endeavor to carry out the plans of the Committee. We will soon pull 

Illinois out of the mud, which keeps Indiana and Missouri from being closer neighbors. 

The focus in Missouri had been on the marking of the State’s 200-mile stretch of the National Old Trails 

Road. Mrs. John S. Kochtitzky reported that signs along the route across Missouri are “being repainted for 

the trans-continental motor travel to the San Francisco Exposition.” Arrangements had been made to 

repaint the signs on the trolley and telephone poles in the Kansas City area. She added: 

Our members report that the road has been dragged, culverts widened, fences, houses, and farm 

buildings painted, flowers planted, and vistas cut through the trees, dangerous crossings have been 

marked, sharp curves eliminated, historical places marked, camping grounds established, and 

everything made ready for the tourist travel to California this summer. 

The Kansas chapter, under Miss Clara Francis, had worked during the year to procure an appropriation 

from the State Legislature “for the marking of the Oregon Trail through our State, thus filling in the last 

link in our historic highways.” Although the Daughters had been “earnest and indefatigable” in their 

lobbying, the bill had not passed. Nevertheless, they had obtained several stencils for the road-sign and 

would soon begin repainting the telephone poles across the 500-mile stretch of the road in Kansas. 
Colorado’s chapters were “small and far apart,” but Mrs. John A. Ewing stated that they had done much to 

mark the historic Rainbow Route (La Junta to Grand Junction and on to the Utah State line) and the Santa 

Fe Trail on the National Old Trails Road. The Santa Fe Trail “has been marked for sixty-five miles with 

red, white and blue bands,” she said, adding that she expected the chapter to complete the work by adding 

the insignia during the spring. 

Miss Gentry’s report did not include information from the State Chapter in New Mexico, but Arizona’s 

Mrs. George W. Vickers was planning to put a bronze tablet on a granite or tufa rock on the National Old 

Trails Road in Flagstaff in honor of the Pioneer Women of Arizona. It would be placed “at the point 

where the new motor road to the canon [Grand Canyon] leaves the old road.” The plan was to dedicate the 

tablet when the National Old Trails Road Association held its annual convention at the Grand Canyon in 

July 1915. 

Mrs. E. S. C. Forbes of South Pasadena, California, summarized road conditions in the State: 

Beginning at the Needles and extending to Barstow, a distance of 164 miles, a new road has been 

constructed of malapai gravel mixed and bound with clay with the result that there is a firm, durable 

road to that point. From Barstow to Cajon Pass the road has not been greatly improved, but the Pass 

is in excellent condition, as is the balance of the Old Trails Road clear into Los Angeles. 

The signing work of the Automobile Club of Southern California was just getting underway at the time of 

Mrs. Forbes’ report. She had, however, another important activity to report: 

I have also to report that I have prepared a large wall map of the National Old Trails Road for display 

in the D.A.R. rest room in the San Francisco Exposition grounds. We believe that this map will be of 

general interest and will assist the traveler in identifying the different routes. I have prepared also a 

large album of beautiful photos of scenes along El Camino Real and the National Trail Road through 

California to exhibit in the D.A.R. room at the San Francisco Exposition. 

In response to the addresses to the D.A.R.’s California chapters, Mrs. Forbes had found “great interest and 

enthusiasm” about the National Old Trails Road. 

Fourth of July Celebration 

As Mrs. Vickers had noted in her Arizona report, the National Old Trails Road Association had announced 

plans to hold its annual convention at Grand Canyon on July 15. However, Judge Lowe issued an Official 

Call for an earlier event. His call summarized the history of the National Road, noting that President 

Thomas Jefferson had said the purpose of the road was “to cement the States and thus preserve the Union.” 

Judge Lowe continued: 

Whereas . . . For full forty years this policy was adhered to, and Congress, in turning the road back to 

some of the States through which it ran, expressly retained the right to resume control and 

management whenever it saw fit; and it did more perhaps, than any other one thing to permanently 

establish and preserve the Union; and 

Whereas, the people have now highly resolved to rebuild and rededicate the Old National Road to the 

end that the original purpose of its conception may be preserved and fulfilled. 
Now, therefore, we call upon the people of every county through which the National Old Trails Road 

extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to hold a National Old Trails Memorial Fourth of July 

Celebration in 1915, and thus ratify the establishment and preservation of the American Union, to 

which patriotic purpose the Old Road contributed so materially. As a part of such Memorial 

Celebration we respectfully request that all schools and colleges, civic, commercial, and patriotic 

organizations of every character shall unite and make this the grandest and most enthusiastic Red 

Letter Day in the Nation’s history. 

See America First 

The May 1915 issue of Travel contained an article by Charles Henry Davis, President of the National 

Highways Association, on “The National Old Trails Road.” After summarizing the historic links along the 

road and the pioneers who traveled them, Davis turned to his favorite subject with a reference to 19th

century statesman John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), who had served as a Congressman, Secretary of War, 

Vice President, United States Senator, and Secretary of State. As a Congressman, he had unsuccessfully 

advocated what was known as the "American System" of protective tariffs, internal transportation 

improvements, and a national bank. Davis said: 

A century in our national life has slipped away since these hardy pioneers first conceived of a transcontinental highway; a conception “to bind the States together in a common brotherhood, and thus 

perpetuate and preserve the Union.” Had Calhoun’s prophetic words been heeded, and in the full 

knowledge thereof had we, as a nation, built roads, might not the great struggle between North and 

South been avoided? There are some who believe a perpetuation of this indifference to the building 

of national roads may result in another such attempt at separation, but with a far different alignment . 

. . . May our beloved land be gridironed by National Highways, among them the National Old Trails 

Road, in time to prevent a recurrence of such scenes of strife! 

Now, Davis said, more than 100 years after the birth of that first National Highway, and many years in 

which the Federal Government “has been idle in that regard,” people were demanding construction of 

National Highways across “the length and breadth of these United States of America.” He referred to the 

social, moral, commercial, industrial, material, educational, and personal benefits that would result from 

construction of National Highways, as illustrated by the good roads found in Europe. 

Of the seven modes of intercommunication—water, roads, postal, railroad, telegraph, telephone and 

wireless—only one, roads, is free to all the people of the earth. Roads are the most universally used 

and are therefore the most beneficial to the greatest number of people. 

As if realizing he had strayed from his subject, Davis continued, “But to go back more specifically to the 

National Old Trails Road”: 

During 1915 our people will, more than ever before, determine upon seeing America. This, because 

of our two expositions at San Diego and San Francisco coming during the height of the European 

struggle. See America First? Yes, most decidedly yes. But what part of America shall do the 

seeing—the East or the West, the North or the South. The East proposes to see the West! And this is 

as it should be, for “See America First” usually is intended to mean go West instead of to Europe. 

He did not object to the reverse, in view of the many attractions in the East. In fact, he encouraged the 

East to “copy Europe and get busy for the business the West is more than ready to give us.” Easterners 
should make the westerners “feel at home and that they were wanted.” After all, he said, “They do all this 

for us. So does Europe. Why do we not reciprocate?” 

The National Old Trails Road Association, the Lincoln Highway Association, and other named trail 

associations had adopted “See America First” as a slogan in the promotion of auto travel. However, the 

phrase dated to an earlier period, as documented by Marguerite Sands Shaffer in her 1994 Ph.D thesis for 

Harvard University, See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1905-1930. (Also see Shaffer’s 

See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880-1940, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.) 

Shaffer explained that the phrase had been coined in 1905 by Fisher Harris, General Manager and 

Secretary of the Salt Lake City Commercial Club. Harris, a native of Fauquier County, Virginia, began 

moving west seeking work during the economic downturn of the early 1880’s. Working in railroad 

construction, he gradually moved further west as commercial development followed the railroads to Salt 

Lake City, where he became manager of a new luxury hotel, the Knutsford. As a hotel man with an 

interest in tourism, he joined the Salt Lake City Commercial Club in 1902, working “not only to bring 

business to Salt Lake, but to make the people of Salt Lake and Utah proud of their city and state.” Shaffer 

described his activities: 

Through his speeches, through his attendance at meetings, through his participation in social 

gatherings, and through his work at the Commercial Club, Harris, like other boosters, tried to unite 

the business community and civic leaders in celebration of Salt Lake and Utah for the sake of 

commercial progress. In this context, Harris concocted the See America First idea, which came to 

embody his notion of the ideal America. 

In promoting his idea, he wanted to go beyond even his home State and personal interest; he wanted, as 

Shaffer quoted him, to begin “boosting the country on a big business basis.” 

Shaffer summarized the initial promotional efforts by Harris and the Commercial Club, initiated in early 

October 1905 in the form of a circular letter addressed to organizations and newspapers: 

Press releases distributed by the club described the plan as a method of advertising “the beauties and 

resources of the Western states through a campaign of education extending over a period of five or 

six years.” They argued that many of the western railroads had already laid the foundations for this 

type of promotional work by advertising the scenery along their routes and amenities of final 

destination points. The popularity of the Southern Pacific’s Sunset magazine presented a perfect 

example of the benefits that this kind of publicity could produce. Harris and his fellows at the 

Commercial Club wanted to unite all of these divergent interests. They wanted the western roads to 

boost the West as a region, not simply one particular location or sight. They wanted chambers of 

commerce, commercial clubs and tourist organizations to work together, to combine their interests 

and pool their resources. They argued that through these efforts the West could present itself as a 

unified region, and attract the attention of the East. 

Even Harris was surprised by the response, which Shaffer called “phenomenal.” Letters and editorials 

from around the country endorsed the idea: 

Newspapers across the country from New York to California ran editorials promoting the idea of 

advertising the West and keeping American tourists at home. The deluge of responses surprised 
Harris and the men at the Salt Lake Commercial Club; they began to work on giving shape to this 

cooperative boosting idea. 

A motto for the initiative emerged by the end of October: “See Europe If You Will, But See America 

First.” This motto “captured the imaginations of businessmen and boosters throughout the West.” 

Shortened to “See America First,” the slogan soon became, in Shaffer’s view, “much more than the desire 

to encourage tourism in the West; it became an expression of national identity.” 

The Salt Lake City Commercial Club’s second circular letter, dated October 24, 1905, displayed a See 

America First logo and detailed the promotional plan: 

The letter explained that during the 1904-1905 tourist season, United States citizens had spent 

$150,000,000 on foreign travel; that being at best a conservative estimate. In response, the circular 

noted, “this club has undertaken the work of awakening interest in this subject among business men 

of the western part of the United States and the Republic of Mexico.” 

On January 25-27, 1906, 125 delegates met in Salt Lake City to develop a formal See America First plan. 

The delegates, described as “western businessmen, boosters, railroad men and politicians,” adopted a plan 

to promote a “propaganda of patriotism” by establishing a permanent committee that would be at the heart 

of a new organization, the See America First League. The delegates pledged to raise $50,000 in 6 months 

to finance the propaganda and to hold public gatherings to present the campaign to a wider audience. 

Harris, appointed Executive Secretary of the new League, embarked on a 6-week promotional tour around 

the country, including a speech at the Gridiron Club in Washington. He also met with President Theodore 

Roosevelt, who pronounced himself heartily in favor of the work. However, another economic downturn 

hurt the fund raising and promotional thrust of the initiative. 

Shaffer states: 

Although the See America First slogan did capture the imaginations of a few railroad companies and 

tourist organizations between 1905 and 1910, the See America First League failed to become an 

established publicity organization for the west. A unified See America First movement never 

emerged. 

Further, its originator, Fisher Harris, died on November 7, 1909, at the age of 44. Shaffer explained: 

As an obituary explained, Harris died of “laryngitis complicated with tuberculosis of the throat” 

apparently contracted while boosting for the cause of See America First and Salt Lake City. “It was 

while touring America in the interest of the plan [to promote See America First] that his voice failed 

him at Denver . . . He returned to Salt Lake and the tragic years that followed are well known to Salt 

Lakers.” From 1908 to 1909, during the years of his sickness, Harris had tried to promote the See 

America First League through the pages of The Western Monthly. After his death the League and his 

cause were all but forgotten. The Western Monthly dropped the See America First slogan from their 

byline and returned to their earlier mission as an urban and regional boosting magazine shortly after 

Harris’ death. The historical record of the See America First League does not extend beyond the 

1906 conference and The Western Monthly magazine. It appears that lack of financial support 

combined with the loss of Fisher Harris doomed the League to failure. 

 
Shaffer added that despite the death of Fisher Harris and the demise of the League, “the See America First 

slogan was caught up by the nascent tourist industry and the traveling public.” Harris, the League, and the 

boosters at the Salt Lake Commercial Club “would be forgotten,” she said, but See America First “would 

continue to be used to evoke the ideal of united nation.” 

Initially, the railroads pursued the concept. The Great Northern Railway adopted the slogan, and, in 1912, 

considered securing a copyright on the phrase so it would primarily signify tourism to Glacier National 

Park on the Great Northern Railway; under copyright law, the company found, it could use the slogan, but 

could not secure its exclusive use. As a result, the company’s extensive promotional use of the slogan 

transformed it into a “generic tourist slogan,” according to Shaffer. 

(Shaffer dismissed the claim in 1912 by Charles Lummis, the writer and ardent Southwest booster, to have 

originated the phrase “See America First” 20 years earlier in his book Some Strange Corners of our 

Country. “Although Lummis did encourage Americans to see the Southwest, the fact of the matter is that 

he appropriated ‘See America First’ and linked it to his earlier work and his continued promotion of 

Southern California and the Southwest in order to capitalize on the revived See America First idea.”) 

When the introduction of Henry Ford’s low-priced, durable Model T in 1908 increased the popularity of 

the automobile, the good roads and named trail promoters adopted See America First as one of their 

themes. To illustrate, Shaffer quoted Miss Gentry’s testimony before the Committee on Agriculture of the 

House of Representatives on April 19, 1912. Miss Gentry had explained that the D.A.R.’s interest in the 

National Old Trails Road was to perpetuate pioneer history “and to conserve the ideals of the Nation by 

building a National highway over the trails of the pioneer.” She added: 

There is a phrase, “See America First,” . . . [that] has sprouted in light of to-day’s Nationalism. The 

Department of Commerce and Labor statistics show that $290,000,000 was left in Europe last year 

by American tourists. Switzerland is not an agricultural country, but is supported by its crop of 

tourists; that nation practically exists because Americans prefer the Alps to the Rockies.” 

After listing some of the American West’s scenic attractions, Miss Gentry stated that a historic 

transcontinental road would keep American dollars in America and attract foreign money. 

Shaffer summarized: 

In linking the National Old Trails Road to the sentiments of nationhood, the DAR in cooperation 

with Good Roads advocates, state highway departments and boosters throughout the states traversed 

by the route appropriated the See America First idea to bring together the growing enthusiasm for 

good roads, transcontinental automobile touring, and American history. They argued that 

transcontinental highways—especially the National Old Trails Road—transcended commercial 

interests and concerns, and reinforced national unity by commemorating a shared national history. 

By 1913, AAA had begun to link its promotion of auto tourism with See America First. The link had been 

crystallized by the 1913 AAA Annual Reliability Tour from St. Paul-Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Glacier 

National Park. The Great Northern Railway, which had been promoting travel to the park, cosponsored 

the event by arranging two special hotel trains to accompany the motorists. Even with the luxury of the 

hotel trains for stops, the motorist confronted what A. G. Batchelder, Chairman of AAA’s Executive 

Committee, referred to as “average country roads, gumbo roads that were dragged, and gumbo roads that 
were rain-soaked and treacherous, prairie roads that were ‘unimproved’ and enjoyable, and prairie roads 

that were ‘improved’ and joyless.” The reliability tours had begun in 1904, but of this one, he said: 

Never . . . has it served more thoroughly the reason for its existence in demonstrating the 

dependability of automobiles, the crying need for travelable roads, in calling attention to the scenic 

wonders of our country, and finally in augmenting a healthy nationalism which carries with it 

realization of the fact that the State units are as interdependent on one another as are the counties of a 

commonwealth. 

American Motorist, AAA’s monthly magazine, began promoting transcontinental tourism, as in a May 

1914 article by W. D. Rishel, who predicted that transcontinental tourism “will soon push baseball for first 

honors as the great National Pastime.” He said: 

The year 1912 saw the movement start, 1913 will see the big advance guard, and by 1915, when the 

Panama Exposition opens, transcontinental touring will be a mania. 

He estimated that 5,000 people had crossed the country by automobile in 1912: 

Those 5,000 people are following the advice of the late Fisher Harris of Salt Lake, who coined the 

phrase which means more to the prosperity of this country than any set of laws that can be placed 

upon statute books by Congress. 

Rishel amended the phrase, “See Europe if you will, but see America first,” by adding, “and the 

automobile is the proper means of doing it.” 

The Lincoln Highway Association had also adopted the phrase as one of the rallying cries for travel on its 

route. Shaffer quoted from The Official Guide to the Lincoln Highway, 1915, which argued that See 

America First had “become more than an appeal”—it was “a necessity” in view of the funding Americans 

spent touring Europe. She said: 

[The] guide suggested that Seeing America First on the Lincoln Highway was about escaping the 

routines and restrictions associated with the overly civilized qualities of the Pullman Palace Car and 

European travel. It was about directly experiencing the people, the places, and the history that made 

America unique. 

Shaffer also cited a series of articles about the Lincoln Highway by Newton A. Fuessle in Travel 

magazine. The articles referred to the war that had broken out in Europe in August 1914: 

Using the chaos of the European war as a backdrop, Fuessle noted that Americans were finally 

beginning to discover the wonders of their own country. “The tremendous significance which the 

whirl of sinister developments in Europe’s theater of war has given to the ‘See America First’ 

movement, has clothed the project of the Lincoln Highway Association with singular importance.” 

Fuessle, Shaffer said, “most clearly defined the significance of the See America First idea as it was used by 

the Lincoln Highway Association and other proponents of Good Roads.” She explained: 

He revealed that the phrase underscored the intimacy and the authenticity experienced through 

transcontinental automobile touring. As a mode of tourist transportation, the automobile and the road 
network that emerged to accommodate it objectified the See America First idea. Not only did the 

automobile allow the individual to exercise complete control over the touring experience, thus 

gaining a more intimate interaction with the people and places across America, but also the emerging 

road network vastly increased the number of potential tourist attractions. In effect the automobile 

completely transformed the tourist experience and in the process served to actualize the See America 

First idea. 

Shaffer referred to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 as the climactic event in the 

“solidification of the See America First idea.” After Congress recognized San Francisco as the official fair 

site, Charles C. Moore, President of the exposition, said in February 1912: 

I know men who have never been west of Buffalo, New York, yet who go frequently to Europe, 

perhaps once a year. Such men would become better citizens of this country were they to see the 

West. 

Publicity by the exposition organizers, the railroads, and others emphasized the possibility of visiting the 

two expositions and then touring the other attractions of the West. Shaffer pointed out that some 

exposition exhibits emphasized the same theme, with the transcontinental railroads contributing elaborate 

displays on the scenic wonders along their lines. Road builders did not miss their opportunity, either, At 

the San Francisco exposition, the OPR staged its largest road exhibit to date in the Machinery Palace. The 

exhibit used models, scaled to one-twelfth actual size, to illustrate location, drainage, construction, 

aesthetics, and maintenance of roads. A miniature crushing plant and power roller were part of the exhibit, 

as were enlarged photographs and lantern slides showing the economic effects of good roads. M. O. 

Eldridge, who had joined the U.S. Office of Road Inquiry in 1894, lectured on road building each day in 

the Liberal Arts Palace. 

Summarizing the impact of the two California expositions, Shaffer said: 

The publicity of the fair itself combined with the exhibits sponsored by a variety of tourist industries 

and tourist organizations, worked to popularize and legitimize the idea of touring in America . . . . 

The closing of Europe to tourists combined with the barrage of publicity associated with both the San 

Francisco fair and the San Diego fair succeeded in popularizing the See America First idea. After the 

summer of 1915, See America First had become fully established in the public domain as a patriotic 

tourist slogan. 

The National Old Trails Road in Missouri 

The February 1915 issue of Better Roads and Streets contained a brief item about traffic on the National 

Old Trails Road in Missouri on the Cross-State Highway: 

Since the agitation for a cross-State highway in Missouri, three years ago, exactly 7,351 automobiles 

have crossed the State along that road, not counting local travel. In other words, 2,500 tourists have 

passed through Missouri each year, viewing the best farming section and some of the best cities and 

towns in the State, and giving publicity to the State which cannot be valued in dollars. 

A brief separate item pointed out the “good bit of information for tourists” that the Lincoln Highway is 

“being marked” and the National Old Trails Road Association had combined with the Automobile Club of 

Southern California to mark its route: 
The friendly rivalry which now exists between the friends of the several trans-continental routes 

means the largest improvement and careful maintenance of all of them, all of which is a fine thing for 

all the roads, for the tourists, for the people who live along the routes, and for the general public. 

In April, Missouri’s State Highway Commissioner, Colonel Frank W. Buffum, made a commitment to get 

the “jolts” out of his State’s segment of the National Old Trails Road. He said: 

We must make the Old Trails Road through Missouri so good that travelers to the fair this year can 

run their cars over it without an engine—run them on the car’s reputation. 

Southern Good Roads magazine (May 1915) explained that the road was “either hard surfaced or being kept 

dragged,” but Colonel Buffum was in favor of “making better roads of good roads. The magazine 

explained how he proposed to do so: 

Colonel Buffum is undertaking the heaviest mail campaign for better roads that the state ever has 

witnessed. Two weeks ago he wrote a letter to every man living alongside the Old Trails Road from 

St. Louis to Kansas City, urging the importance of getting the road in shape for the fifty thousand 

motorists who are expected to pass over it this summer on their way to the Pacific Coast. Now he is 

writing more letters to residents along the road that require the most dragging and repairing, and 

urging that only the most thorough work be accepted. 

The Colonel’s letter explained how the State would help: 

We are working out a system of gravel hauling by means of motor trucks, which will make it 

possible to haul gravel ten miles as cheaply as it can now be hauled three miles with horses. 

Better Roads and Streets, in its June 1915, contained a brief item encouraging Colonel Buffum in his 

work: 

In speaking of the Old Trails Road in Missouri, Colonel Buffum, State Highway Commissioner, says, 

“We will keep after this highway until we get it in shape.” Go to it, Colonel, and make it ready for 

trans-continental travel or Missouri will not be on the map. Your State is known as the “SHOW ME” 

State, but this time Missouri must SHOW travelers that they will not get stuck in the mud. 

By August, Southern Good Roads was reporting good progress: 

The campaign to macadamize the cross-state highway from Kansas City to St. Louis is going steadily 

ahead and construction work on certain sections of the eastern end will begin soon. That information 

came to the office of Judge J. M. Lowe, president of the National Old Trails Road association, 

recently in a letter from Frank W. Buffum, state highway commissioner. 

Mr. Buffum has taken personal control of completing the improvement from the eastern boundary 

line of Boone county to the western end of the already improved section of road leading from St. 

Charles county into St. Louis. He now is bending his efforts to bring about the completion of the 6-

mile stretch yet unimproved in St. Charles county. 
His letter to Judge Lowe indicates about half of the stretch will be contracted immediately for 

completion this fall. Further contracts are to be let then to finish up the work early next spring. That 

will complete the road from St. Louis to the eastern line of Warren county. 

The 1915 Convention 

In preparation for the 1915 convention, Judge Lowe released a bulletin on July 6 regarding 

conditions on the National Old Trails Road. Most of the entries related to surface (for example, 

of Maryland, the bulletin stated "Fine macadam full length of State. Rain does not affect.") and 

detours ("Auto clubs at Columbus and Wheeling will furnish detours around construction work 

in progress.), a few entries are worth noting: 

• MISSOURI Kansas City, July 6. Just returned from trip over west half of Mo. 

section of the National Old Trails Road and found the road in good condition . . . . 

Frank A. Davis, Sec. Kansas City, July 6. A tourist recently in the office stated that 

on his trip between Los Angeles and K.C. he was enabled to take a bath every night 

except two in a Harvey Eating House. Mr. Ford Harvey has issued instructions to 

all his houses to make it a particular point to see that motor parties traveling the 

National Old Trails Road are taken care of to the very best of their ability. 

• KANSAS Delavan, July 1st. We are getting about from 12 to 25 cars daily. We 

have our free camp at Delevan completed, have had in all an average of one car a 

day since its completion. We have it pretty nicely arranged, have a daily paper 

delivered daily, free telephone service, nice amount of furniture for convenience of 

the tourists, quite a number of road maps and other little convenience. W. W. Ray. 

• NEW MEXICO Albuquerque, June 23. Getting along fine, roads dry, but little 

rough. Making 150 to 200 miles per day without trouble. R. L. Winter, Tourist 

enroute to Pacific. Albuquerque, June 26. Roads from Trinidad, OK. Went over 

Glorietta and Raton passes without a struggle, thanks to my auxillary intake for air. 

A. U. Morse (Tourist enroute to the Pacific) 

• ARIZONA Springerville, July 2. That part of the Santa Fe, Grand Canyon, Needles 

route lying between Magdalena, Springerville and Holbrook is still in fine condition 

for automobile travel, from 8 to 10 cars going over this road every day. The 

construction of a permanent rain proof highway through this county is not under 

full swing and will continue until completed. Gustav Becker. 

The National Old Trails Road Association held its 1915 convention on July 15 at the Grand Canyon. A brief 

account of the convention, published in the September 1915 issue of Better Roads and Streets, pointed 

out that the convention “was well attended by representatives from a majority of the States through which 

the road runs.” 

An important feature of the convention was a series of reports on the condition of the road, which the 

magazine summarized: 

The entire road from ocean to ocean is graded, more than one-third of it is permanently built, and 

fully two-thirds of the remainder is under contract. It is permanently sign-posted from Los Angeles 

to Kansas City, and work has been commenced from Kansas City east, averaging one sign every 

mile across the continent . . . . 
The slogan of the National Old Trails Road Association, universally adopted, is: "Lift the 

National Old Trails Road out of the mud and DO IT NOW." 

It is just as easy to do this in twelve months as it is in twelve years. All such words as building 

it "eventually" or "sometime," or any other word of like indefiniteness, has been cut out of the 

National Old Trails vocabulary. Such expressions are too meaningless to be employed by the 

association. If they said “ten years,” they would doubtless consider the proposition for at least 

nine years, and then jump in and finish it. Why not DO IT NOW? 

Friends of the highway east of the Mississippi River, the article stated, “would have been well repaid if 

they could have seen what is transpiring on the western section of the road.” 

California: “the west seventy-mile stretch of the road ending at Los Angeles, is built of concrete twentyfour feet wide, and is one of the finest pieces of road building in the United States. It is also finished to 

Barstow, and a bond issue, to be passed upon in September, which will undoubtedly carry, provides for 

building the balance of the road—315 miles—of the same high-class construction to the eastern line of 

California, at Needles.” 

Arizona: “The road has been entirely graded across Arizona (421 miles) and from Flagstaff to the Grand 

Canyon and back to Williams (142 miles), making a grand total in Arizona of 563 miles, all graded and 

partially constructed, chiefly of lava cinders.” The State “intended to do all in their power to complete 

their section of the road within the time limit, to wit, twelve months.” 

New Mexico: “Across New Mexico, the road has been graded 452 miles and much of it in splendid 

condition.” Governor W. C. McDonald had provided assurances that “if the bond issue now pending 

before the Supreme Court is sustained, of which he had little doubt, he would guarantee that New Mexico 

would finish her section.” The result might not be “the ideal class” the association hoped for, but “at least 

with gravel.” 

Colorado: The State promised “to finish her section.” 

Kansas: The State had “500 miles already graded and ready for permanent construction, and they are 

agitating finishing her stretch also within the time limit.” 

Missouri: As in Kansas, the road was graded across the State “and there is not a doubt that it will be 

permanently built.” 

The article summarized the remaining States: “Reports from Illinois are encouraging, as they are from 

every State east of the Mississippi.” 

The Annual Race 

The Los Angeles to Phoenix race had been held since 1908. A White steam car had won the first 418-mile 

race with a running time of just over 24 hours for an average speed of 171⁄2 miles per hour. The route had 

varied over the years. In 1911, the contestants followed the Coast Road to San Diego before turning east 

to Phoenix. The Los Angeles contestants followed the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway in 1912, while San 
Diego boosters sponsored a similar race to Phoenix on the same day. In 1913, the Coast Road to San 

Diego had again been followed. 

The 7th annual race in November 1915 would follow the National Old Trails Road from Los Angeles to 

Ash Fork, Arizona, before turning toward Phoenix, a total distance of 710 miles. Instead of starting the 

race in Los Angeles at midnight, the contestants left at daylight at 5 am. The starting point was El Monte 

Road at the Los Angeles city limits about 1 mile beyond Eastlake Park. The first day’s run would end at 

Needles. The second day’s run was to Prescott. According to an article in the October 1914 issue of 

Touring Topics, “the cars that remain in the race at this point” would leave Prescott on the morning of the 

third day: 

The final dash into Phoenix, which is one hundred and thirty-two miles from Prescott, should furnish 

some racing thrills that have been lacking from the other Phoenix races, for in practically every one 

of these contests the leading car has finished the long grind far ahead of its nearest competitor as to 

rob the finish of any excitement. 

The change in routing prompted the Automobile Club to deny an “unfortunate rumor” that it had diverted 

the race from the more southerly routes of past years. The change had been made by the organizations that 

sponsored the races, the Western Automobile Association and the Maricopa Automobile Club. 

As a matter of absolute fact, neither the Automobile Club nor any of its representatives were 

consulted concerning the race course and would not have stated a preference for any one of the 

routes, had they been consulted . . . . The reasons for choosing the new route this year are not known 

to the officers of the Automobile Club and the fact that the course followed is part of a highway 

which the Automobile Club is signposting is only a coincidence. The Club did not know that this 

route was selected or even considered except as it derived its knowledge from the daily press and it 

had absolutely no more voice in the selection of the course than it had in the declaration of war 

between France and Germany. 

Seeing America on Foot 

The spirit of See America First struck Edward J. Smith while he was visiting his friend Chris Fallon in 

Connecticut. When Fallon suggested, “how about hiking to the Exposition,” Smith said he “would be 

there at the start with bells on.” Smith explained: 

My enthusiasm was awakened, for was I not to see America and all her haunts? Was I not to see all 

those historic places and the wonderful scenic beauty that I had read so much of at school and many 

times longed to see? 

As explained in his account of the first half of the trip (Better Roads and Streets, October 1915), he 

explored maps and road guides before deciding to put the Lincoln Highway “to the test.” 

Fallon, as it turned out, could not made the trip “for some reason or other.” Smith, therefore, advertised in 

the New York American for a traveling partner and chose C. N. Miller from close to 100 applicants. “I 

made it clear that once the get-together, work-together idea was understood by both of us, the venture was 

success certain.” 
The walk began at City Hall on July 15, the day of the Grand Canyon Convention of the National Old 

Trails Road Association. The Mayor and Miller’s and Smith’s families bid the two travelers farewell and 

they walked off amid the crowds of people who paid little attention to them. They carried their belongings 

and supplies in a rectangular box on a two-wheel handcart. Lettering on the front of the box informed 

passersby: 

WALKING 

N.Y. TO CAL. 

E. J. SMITH 

AND 

C. A. MILLER 

Below WALKING, Smith and Miller placed the name of the State they were passing through. On the side 

of the box, they had painted: 

SEE AMERICA 

N.Y. to CAL. 

On July 16, they reached the Lincoln Highway at Elizabeth, New Jersey. In greeting the highway, “We 

took our hats off to it.” However, the Lincoln Highway proved a disappointment: 

We found people living on the highway that didn’t know it was the Lincoln Highway, because of the 

fact that it is not signposted in many places. Many motorists asked us whether they were on the 

Lincoln Highway. This did not appeal to us as being a credit to the management of the Lincoln 

Highway Association. The advertising done implies better things. 

Traveling across New Jersey, they stopped in the State Capitol, where the Governor’s secretary greeted 

them and urged them to be careful because of the very hot weather. 

Entering Pennsylvania, they had to take a detour because the Lincoln Highway was being repaired. 

Walking across the State from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, they enjoyed the many historic sites, including 

the battlefield at Gettysburg. West of Pittsburgh, Smith and Miller made an important decision: 

We were noticing that the Lincoln Highway signs on the posts were diminishing and we thought that 

if this was happening to the signs, what would happen to the roads? This, together with some good 

pointers on the Ocean-to-Ocean transcontinental over the Old National Trails, we decided to forsake 

the Lincoln Highway for the Old Trails. 

At Washington, Pennsylvania, they came upon the National Old Trails Road and followed it into Ohio. In 

Columbus, they attended the State Fair and met the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. They also met 

Jesse Taylor, editor of Better Roads and Streets and State Vice President of the National Old Trails Road 

Association. 

Throughout the trip, Smith and Miller took advantage of the opportunity to speak about good roads: 

In the different cities we have spoken to the people on the public square about our trip and told them 

the benefits of better roads. We spoke to farmers who couldn’t sell their crop of potatoes for any 
price on account of the bad roads and the difficulty of getting their things over the roads. I think I 

have a case against some road in Ohio along by Morristown. The ruts and mud was a foot deep. 

You could not take a step without lifting an abnormal portion of the county with you. The suction of 

the wet and soggy mud snapped off a sole of my shoe and it was lost in the deep mire. 

Smith also observed one effect of good—and bad—roads: 

It was very easy for us to see the difference in the dispositions of the people along the different roads. 

On the good roads the people would be very pleasant and well satisfied, while along a bad road the 

people had a haphazard way about them and were not well disposed. The bad road keeps travelers 

away and keeps education at a distance. We found that the children along the good roads were more 

healthy than the bad-roads children because they could not get out and romp around the way the 

others did. 

He was convinced of the value of good roads. With them, “America would be the greatest place in the 

world.” 

Smith’s article was written part way through their transcontinental journey. Better Roads and Streets did 

not report on the remainder of the trip, but the December 1915 issue contained this notice: 

The boys who are walking from New York to San Francisco, a full account of which was published 

in a recent issue of Better Roads and Streets, are still happy on the way, and mail addressed to 

“Smith and Miller” will reach them, “General Delivery, Dodge City, Kansas.” They started from 

New York City with but five dollars, and have made their way by selling post-cards. They are 

“seeing America on foot,” and report many interesting experiences. 

The Road to the Expositions 

Emily Post would become well known to later generations as an arbiter of etiquette. That would come in 

1922 after she published Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and At Home (later renamed 

Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage). It went through numerous editions and resulted in a 

syndicated newspaper column and radio show. Her name became synonymous with “etiquette.” 

In 1915, Emily Post was a socialite and the daughter of a wealthy architect. She had married wealthy 

banker Edwin Main Post, but they had divorced after he lost his fortune in the Panic of 1901, leaving 

Emily to earn a living. Writing became one of her lifelong activities, including novels and magazine 

articles. Drake Hokanson, in his book on the Lincoln Highway, described Post and why she decided to 

drive across country to see the California Expositions: 

Emily Post was a woman of New York society, a woman accustomed to society teas, debutante balls, 

and nearby servants. Her life so far had been conducted in the homes and watering places of the 

well-known well-to-do of New York and Europe. Although her most famous contribution to the 

literary work, Emily Post’s Etiquette, was still seven years in the future, she had proven herself a 

worthy writer with the publishing of two novels. An editor and friend, Frank Crowninshield of 

Collier’s, asked her to take this motor trip across the country and report on what she found. 

[Hokanson, Drake, The Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America, University of Iowa Press, 

1988, p. 23] 

 
It seemed, she said, “the simplest sort of thing to undertake.” Travel across country, write about her 

experiences, and go on to some other project. She had, after all, motored all over Europe. Her friends 

tried to discourage her, many expressing amazement that she would even consider such a trip. “Why,” her 

New York friends asked, “do anything so dreary?” As described in her book, By Motor to the Golden 

Gate (D. Appleton and Company, 1916), Post was asked, “Whatever put it into your head to undertake 

such a trip?” She replied: 

“The advertisements!” I answered promptly. They were all so optimistic, that they went to my head. 

“New York to San Francisco in an X—car for thirty-eight dollars!” We were not going in an X—car, 

but the thought of any machine’s running such a distance at such a price immediately lowered the 

expenditure allowance for our own. “Cheapest way to go to the coast!” agreed another folder. 

“Travel luxuriously in your own car from your own front door over the world’s greatest highway to 

the Pacific Shore.” Could any motor enthusiasts resist such suggestions? We couldn’t. 

Finally, she agreed to go as far as the trip was pleasurable. She ruled out motor camping, the common 

travel experience in an era for before the roadside infrastructure of restaurants, hotels, motels, and gas 

stations had been built. And like so many wealthy motorists of the day, Emily Post had never driven a car, 

so she enlisted her son Ned as driver and mechanic. 

The Lincoln Highway seemed to be the best choice, so a friend contacted the Lincoln Highway 

Association on her behalf to inquire about road conditions and hotel accommodations. The association 

responded by assuring her that a woman in Brooklyn had traveled the Lincoln Highway and written a 

glowing letter about it. Post was skeptical since even the association’s travel guide made clear that in 1914 

“the road was as yet not a road, and hotels along the sparsely settled districts had not been built.” She 

concluded that perhaps the woman from Brooklyn had the “idea of a perfect motor trip [that] was 

independent of roads or stopping-places.” 

At Brentano’s bookstore, she examined a map showing four routes crossing the United States. When a 

friend who had crossed the continent 160 times happened by, Post asked, “Can you tell me which is the 

best road to California?” 

Without hesitation, the friend answers, “The Union Pacific.” 

When Post explained that she meant a motor road, her friend responded “pityingly”: “Motor road to 

California? There isn’t any.” 

Post pointed at the map showing “four beautiful ones” and explained that based on the literature, she found 

it “impossible to make a choice of the beauties and comforts of each.” 

Before responding, her friend “looked steadily into my face as though to force calmness to my poor 

deluded mind. “You! A woman like you to undertake such a trip! Why, you couldn’t live through it!” 

Literature still in mind, Post replied, “It can’t be difficult; the Lincoln Highway goes straight across.” 

Her friend pointed at the map showing the Lincoln Highway, describing it as “an imaginary line like the 

equator!” She went on: 
Once you get beyond the Mississippi the roads are trails of mud and sand. This district along here by 

the Platte River is wild and dangerous; full of the most terrible people, outlaws and “bad men” who 

would think nothing of killing you if they were drunk and felt like it. There isn’t any hotel. Tell me, 

where do you think you are going to stop? These are not towns; they are only names on a map, or at 

best two shacks and a saloon! This place North Platte why, you couldn’t stay in a place like that! 

When Post protested that, “Hundreds of people have motored across,” her friend cut her short, saying, 

“Hundreds and thousands of people have done things that it would kill you to do.” 

Finally, she consulted “a celebrated touring authority.” (Post did not identify the authority.) He assured 

her that if she could put up with less than Ritz Hotels every few miles and an absence of Central Park 

roads all the way, “you can go—easy.!” He recommended the Lincoln Highway, but advised her to take a 

northern route and reach the highway in Chicago. Because of the construction that Smith and Miller had 

observed in Pennsylvania, if she insisted on following the Lincoln Highway, she would find only “bad 

grades and mud over your hubs!” 

With the expert’s help, she completed the mapping for the trip, which began in April. She, her son Ned, 

and cousin Alice Beadleston began their adventure. “Heaped in the Posts’ car,” Hokanson explained, “was 

an endless array of the wrong items for a long-distance motor tour.” Eventually, they would ship many of 

the items home, including the wicker picnic basket, the tea service, and impractical clothing. 

The trip went smoothly until the party left the elegant Blackstone Hotel in Chicago and found the Lincoln 

Highway 30 miles to the west. As they would discover, Spring 1915 in the Midwest was unusually rainy, 

making for a difficult trip. She summed up her disappointment: 

If it were called the cross continent trail you would expect little, and be philosophical about less, but 

the very word “highway” suggests macadam at the least. And with such titles as “Transcontinental” 

and “Lincoln” put before it, you dream of a wide straight road like the Route National of France, or 

state roads in the East, and you wake rather unhappily to the actuality of a meandering dirt road that 

become mud half a foot deep after a day or two of rain! 

Post almost abandoned the trip after 2 days stuck in Rochelle, Illinois, but finally the three loaded the car 

and turned west again on May 8. Driving west, she concluded that, although rain turned “good roads 

turned into mud slides in a few minutes, a few hours of sun and wind transformed them into good ones 

again.” Still, the delays and detours disillusioned her about the Lincoln Highway. By the time they 

Cheyenne, Wyoming, she had had enough. They turned south and drove through Denver to Colorado 

Springs (“the road was uneventfully excellent all the way”). 

They met the National Old Trails Road (the Trailing Highway, according to Post) in Trinidad, Colorado, 

and followed it across Raton Pass into New Mexico. In Colorado Springs, they had met a native of Raton 

who warned them about what to expect after they crossed Raton pass and reached the town, “Well, I’ll tell 

you, they have no streets, and they have no drainage, and when it rains the mud is so soft you can go out in 

a boat and sail from house to house.” He added, “Well, they say they have fixed the road up some since I 

was down there but I guess the best thing you can do is to let your chauffeur take the automobile down, 

and you walk behind it with the wreath!” To which Post told her readers, “somehow these alarms no 

longer terrify!” 
While in Colorado, they did not encounter another motorist until Trinidad and then they encountered two 

vehicles. One of the two cars carried a “Kansas City to Los Angeles” pennant. The other was bound from 

Lincoln, Nebraska, to San Francisco. Like many passing motorists in that era, they exchanged information 

about road conditions. Post’s new friends were skeptical about her expensive, hand-made touring car. 

One asked, “Are you going to try to take that machine down the Bajada?” He added, “I’m glad I haven’t 

the job of driving her even over the Raton!” Post and her two companions were encouraged when the 

other motorist said, “Don’t you have no fear, mister! The stage coaches they used to go over this road to 

Santa Fé; if they could get over, I guess you can!” In any event, Post could not see how the “ugly, snubnosed tin kettles” driven by these motorists could be better hill climbers than “our beautiful, big, long 

engine.” 

Her theory held true in Colorado, but as soon as they crossed into New Mexico, “our beautiful great, long, 

powerful machine lay down perfectly flat on its stomach and could not budge until one of these despised 

snub-nosed” cars pulled it out. The Post vehicle had too little clearance; the “New Mexico ruts held us 

fast.” 

The rest of the trip to Santa Fé on the National Old Trails Road was “one long wail.” To be fair to the 

roads of New Mexico, she admitted that she had reached the State “in the very early spring after the worst 

of the thaw” before any repairs had been made. She also admitted that the equipment they had brought 

with them “could not by any possibility have been worse.” The touring car was too low to the ground; 

great ingenuity was needed to stay out of trouble: 

For instance, over deep-rutted roads we have to stay balanced on the ridges on either side, like 

walking a sort of double tight rope; if we slide down into the rut, we have to be jacked up and a 

bridge of stones put under to lift us out again. On many of the sharp corners of the mountain passes 

we have to back and fill two and often four times . . . . 

Their “particular horror” was the two-plank ditch crossings where the planks were too narrow for the 

touring car. They had to build a riding surface for the alternate wheels. “Another joy to us is sliding down 

into and clambering out of arroyos, on the edge of which the car loves to make believe it is a seesaw.” She 

summarized: 

After three days of this sort of experience, you can’t help wincing at the very sight of ruts or rocks or 

river beds, in exactly the same way that you wince at the close approach of the dentist’s instruments. 

During a sudden blizzard of rain, hail, and snow, they became lost miles from the main road. They finally 

reached Las Vegas, New Mexico, where the likelihood of rain made for a grim prospect. They 

encountered several other motorists who were pessimistic: 

“What did you start so early in the season for?” we heard one driver ask another. 

“Well,” said the second, “I don’t mind a little speculation as to what you’re going to run into. If you 

know the road ahead of you is all fine and dandy, what’s to keep your interest up?” 

Sudden rain storms plagued Post, Ned, and Alice after they left Las Vegas. At one point, they came to a 

ford where “some Mexicans standing beside it motioned us to make a wide sweep,” which landed them in 

deep soft sand. The bystanders hitched their horses to the car and pulled it through. The road to Santa Fé 

“was the worst yet,” as she explained: 
Washed-out roads, arroyos, rocky stretches, and nubbly hills. We just about smashed everything, 

cracked and broke the exhaust, lost bolts and screws, and scraped along on the pan all of the way. 

All this, Post noted, and they still faced “the dread Bajada Hill, in which we are to drop nine hundred feet 

in one mile and long cars are warned in every guidebook of the sharp and precipitous turns.” If ever they 

came this way again, it would be in a “very different type of car—or best of all, on the backs of little surefooted burros!” 

She was in for a surprise: 

The Bajada Hill, which for days Celia [Alice] and I dreaded so much that we did not dare speak of it 

for fear of making E. M. [Ned] nervous, was magnificently built. There is no difficulty in going 

down it, even in a very long car that has to back and fill at corners; there are low stone curbs at bad 

elbows, and the turns are all well banked so that you feel no tendency to plunge off. 

As a result, the 66 miles from Santa Fé to Albuquerque took less than 3 hours to drive, compared with the 

6 hours needed to drive the 73 miles from Las Vegas to Santa Fé. The ride across Sandoval County was 

“an easy drive over a smooth road.” Further, having had varying accommodations along the way, some 

dreadful, Post was happy to encounter the well-run and comfortable Harvey hotels that were one of the 

enticements of the National Old Trails Road. 

After enjoying tourist activities in Albuquerque, the Post party intended to ship their car to California. 

However, the good road they had just encountered gave them incentive to continue by car so they could 

enjoy additional western sites, including some off the main road: 

Our idea is to go, if we can, as far as Winslow. It seems rather funny that we, who nearly failed to 

stay intact over the well-worn Santa Fé trail, are branching into the unbeaten byway of the desert! 

They visited the Enchanted Mesa and Acoma before driving to Gallup “long and tediously but without 

serious hindrance.” They traveled through the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Painted Desert. On the 

way to Holbrook, Arizona, the road was “difficult in places.” She added, “I’m sure we lost our way 

several times, a perfectly dispiriting thing to do, as it was much like being lost in a rowboat out in the 

middle of the ocean.” The drive to Winslow was “without any adventures over a traveled road.” 

She was grateful for the experiences, but after the difficulties they had encountered, “no hotel ever seemed 

so enchanting as the Harvey” at Winslow. She realized that if the car had broken down on the way, they 

would have been “marooned out in a wilderness” and, without a living soul anywhere, “we might quite 

easily have been dust before anyone would have passed our way.” 

They wanted to continue by car, but had little choice in the matter: 

The car was in a seriously crippled condition; any more arroyos and there really would be no more 

motoring for us this trip. So, all things considered, we hailed our freight car resignedly, put the 

motor on it and sent it ahead of us to Los Angeles, while we ourselves took the train to the Grand 

Canyon. 
When they finally reached Los Angeles by train, Post found the excellent hotels and roads she had been 

accustomed to before this trip. Driving down the coast to San Diego in their repaired car, she found “one 

long succession of big ocean resort hotels on a boulevard that seemed too smooth and perfect to be true.” 

She added, “We had forgotten that such road smoothness existed for our poor long-tortured engine to glide 

over.” 

San Diego did not disappoint: 

The San Diego Exposition was a pure delight. Its simplicity and faultless harmony of color brought 

out all its values startlingly. 

Returning north, Post was delighted by the “beautiful drive” to Santa Barbara north of Los Angeles. She 

had been on many good roads in Europe, she said, but the road to Santa Barbara was in a class by itself. “I 

thought I should like to live where I could drive up and down that road forever!” 

The roads north to San Francisco were good, as were, of course, the accommodations in the city—an 

important consideration for Emily Post. The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was the primary 

reason for the trip, and it was all she had expected: 

With merely a phrase, you can make a picture of the little fair at San Diego; cloister-like gray 

buildings with clumps of dense green, and a vivid stroke of blue and orange. But to visualize the 

Pan-American Exposition in a few sentences is impossible. You could begin its description from a 

hundred different points and miss the best one; you can say one thing about it and the next moment 

find you were quite wrong. 

The entire trip, from New York City to San Francisco, had taken 26 days. At the start, her attitude had 

been contrary to the See America First spirit: 

I had an idea that, keen though we were to undertake the journey, we would find it probably difficult, 

possibly tiring, and surely monotonous—to travel on and on and on over the same American road, 

through towns that must be more or less replicas, and hearing always the same language and seeing 

the same types of people doing much the same things. 

Friends who had never made such a trip warned her of the “unending sameness” she would encounter, but 

her experience had been quite different. She exclaimed, “Sameness! Was there ever such variety?” 

Still, she did not recommend such a trip for everyone: 

It goes without saying that only those who love motoring should ever undertaken such a journey, nor 

is the crossing of our continent as smoothly easy as crossing Europe. But given good weather, and 

the right kind of a machine, there are no difficulties, in any sense, anywhere. 

She explained one aspect of the trip that had most surprised her: 

There couldn’t be a worse tenderfoot than I am, there really couldn’t. I’m very dependent upon 

comfort, have little strength, less endurance, and hate “roughing it” in every sense of the word. Yet 

not for a moment was I exhausted or in any way distressed, except about the unfitness of our car and 

its consequent injuries, a situation which others, differently equipped, would not experience. 
Post concluded her book with a short chapter titled “How Far Can You Go in Comfort?” After suggesting 

that motorists ship their automobile by freight train to avoid the two long stretches where high-class hotels 

did not exist (Omaha to Cheyenne, and Albuquerque to Winslow), she explained that “some day,” she 

would make the drive again. She would learn from experience: 

When we go again, we are going in two cars—one to help the other in case of need, and, if possible, 

a third car to carry a camping outfit—and camp! Celia and I both hate camping, so this proves the 

change that can come over you as you go out into the West. I say “out into,” because I don’t in the 

least mean being tunneled through on a limited train! The steel-walled Pullman carefully preserves 

for you the attitude you started with. Plunging into an uninhabited land is not unlike plunging into 

the surf. A first shock! To which you quickly become accustomed, and find invigoratingly 

delicious. Why difficulties seem to disappear; and why that magic land leaves you afterwards with a 

persistent longing to go back, I can’t explain; I only know that it is true. 

In the preface, Post warned that while “insurmountable difficulties” had been eliminated from 

transcontinental travel by automobile, she did not want readers to misunderstand: 

[If] I, who after all am a New Yorker, were to pronounce the Jackson House perfect, the City of 

Minesburg beautiful, the Trailing Highway splendid, everyone would naturally suppose the Jackson 

House a Ritz, Minesburg and upper Fifth Avenue, and the Trailing Highway a duplicate of our own 

state roads, to say the least! 

Another Lincoln Highway Traveler

In addition to summarizing the Lincoln Highway portion of Emily Post’s trip, Hokanson described a trip at 

about the same time by Henry Joy, A. F. Bement, and Ernie Eisenhut of the Lincoln Highway Association. 

Joy, President of Packard Motor Car Company, had secured a new Packard 1-35 touring car for the trip. 

They left Detroit on May 27, 1915, and soon encountered the rainy conditions that had delayed Post. What 

was normally a 3-day trip from Chicago to Cheyenne took the experienced, well-equipped Lincoln 

Highway veterans 11 days. “They had been,” Hokanson said, “on the road, either at the end of a shovel or 

in the car, for twelve to eighteen hours each day.” The remainder of their trip was completed “with ease.” 

Hokanson described journey’s end: 

Henry Joy and his companions made a more triumphant entrance to San Francisco and the 

exposition. Their unkempt car was the center of attention as it crossed San Francisco Bay on the 

ferry, rumbled through the city, and entered the exposition grounds. Covered with mud and road 

grime, filled with dirty camping equipment, it was promptly placed on display in the Palace of 

Transportation, where it soon drew a crowd. 

Those who gathered at the ropes to view the Packard couldn’t help but see several states’ worth of 

the Lincoln Highway caked and plastered to its wheels, running boards, and sides . . . . This muddy 

display was certainly a great testimonial for the Packard, but it was no promotion for the Lincoln 

Highway . . . . Some twenty-five thousand people passed through the Palace of Transportation 

during the two days that Joy’s Packard stood there in muddy glory. Among them no doubt were 

many who pondered an automobile trip of their own, a trip longer than the usual Sunday drive. They 

stood and looked at this earth-colored car, resting as it did among flawless and polished new 
automobiles of every manufacturer. Certainly this exhibit convinced the faint of heart that the train 

was the better way to get from place to place. 

The Liberty Bell 

Charles Henry Davis was always in search of opportunities to promote his cause of National Highways 

and Good Roads Everywhere. The California expositions offered an opportunity. 

The June 1915 issue of Southern Good Roads contained an editorial commenting on Davis’ proposal to 

transport the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to San Francisco by motor truck. Because the Liberty Bell, 

at that time, was owned by the city, he had asked the Mayor of Philadelphia for permission to transport 

the bell, offering “to safeguard the famous bell in every way possible and carry it through without 

expense to the city of Philadelphia.” The article explained the rationale for transporting the Liberty Bell 

by truck: 

Mr. David [sic] points out that if the Bell is carried through the nation by motor truck, it may be seen 

by 22,162,528 people, counting only those who live in the counties that will be traversed. Counting 

the people who live in adjacent counties, more than 33,000,000 will be enabled to see the bell. 

The editor considered the request to transport the Liberty Bell by truck “a reasonable one” because of the 

comparatively small number of people who would be able to make it to Philadelphia or San Francisco: 

It would be a fine thing to carry the Bell to San Francisco over the Lincoln Highway and return by 

way of the Southern National Highway, so that all sections of the nation might have the opportunity 

of seeing it. 

The Liberty Bell and all that it stands for, is very dear to the hearts of all of the people. 

The July 1915 issue of Dependable Highways (the magazine of the brick paving industry) reported that 

the Liberty Bell had arrived in San Francisco without damage “after a 3,000 mile joy ride. The brief 

article continued: 

The National Highway Association transported the bell from Philadelphia to the fair, after the 

petition of a half million school children had won Mayor Blankenburg’s consent to the trip. It went 

by truck over the route of the Lincoln Highway and will return by the Old Trails route. 

Philadelphia had loaned it to several earlier expositions, including the World’s Columbian Exposition in 

Chicago in 1893 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. Each time, the trip had 

been by train. (On a rail excursion to the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition in 1902, 

the Liberty Bell Special had crashed in Virginia during a collision with a freight train, but the bell was 

not damaged.) Philadelphia officials were reluctant to send the Liberty Bell to the West Coast, which 

was farther than it had ever been from the city, but agreed after seeing editorial support from newspapers 

and receiving a petition signed by several hundred thousand school children. 

Contrary to Davis’ hope, however, and the report in Dependable Highways, the Liberty Bell traveled to 

the Panama-Pacific Exposition by train. The western trip took the Liberty Bell to the Northwest before 

traveling to San Francisco. On the southern return trip, the Liberty Bell reached the Panama-California 
Exposition in San Diego on November 12 and was displayed in the Plaza de Panama until November 14. 

According to Richard F. Pourade, in Gold in The Sun: The History of San Diego: 

It was William Randolph Hearst, the publisher, who was instrumental in seeing that the Liberty Bell 

was sent to the San Diego exposition in November, as he had helped to defray the expense of 

bringing it to the Pacific Coast and the San Francisco fair. [The Union-Tribune Publishing 

Company, 1965, p. 199] 

The Liberty Bell completed its 10,000-mile journey after being seen by patriotic crowds at every stop. 

Photographs of the trip can be found at http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/essay/1915.htm

Log Rolling vs Pork Barrel 

The October 1915 issue of Better Roads and Streets reprinted a speech that Judge Lowe had delivered in 

St. Paul, Minnesota, on November 16, 1914. The topic was “‘Log Rolling’ and ‘Pork Barrel’ Measures.” 

With Congress likely to consider the long-awaited Federal road legislation in 1916, reproduction of the 

speech at this time was timely. In it, Judge Lowe continued his examination of 19th century history to 

support Federal road construction and demonstrate the debt the Federal Government owed to the 

National Road/National Old Trails Road. He also reiterated his opposition to the Federal-aid concept. 

He began: 

The danger we, who favor Federal activity in road building, have to meet is the same now as it 

always has been. But for the threat of what [President James] Monroe characterized as “local” and 

neighborhood roads, and therefore outside the jurisdiction and power of Congress to legislate in their 

favor, concurred in by [President] Andrew Jackson and [U.S. Senator] Thomas H. Benton [of 

Missouri]—termed “over-expansion” by Abraham Lincoln, and now popularly called “log rolling,” 

“Pork barrel” measures—we would now have a great system of National Highways ramifying every 

nook and corner and reaching every part of the United States. 

Backers of the National Road had to contend with this “selfish and narrow principle,” which Judge Lowe 

said had defeated “the National campaign of 1824, when a general system of National highways to be 

built and maintained out of the National revenues swept the country.” 

In 1824, Congress considered a bill that would authorize $30,000 for the President’s use in selecting and 

defining a system of roads that were national in character from a military, postal, or commercial point of 

view. As had been the case with the legislation authorizing the National Road, the bill called for the 

Federal Government to secure State consent to Federal construction, thereby getting around the fact that 

the land on which the roads would be built was owned by the States. (This same technique had been 

used to advance the National Road.) 

Road and canals, Senator Benton had said, “belong to that class of benefits which it is the noblest 

ambition of the statesman to bestow upon his country.” Judge Lowe explained that the Senator offered a 

substitute bill that followed the outline of the original bill, but differed in specifying the national roads to 

be included in the system. Benton thought it was unfair and wrong to give additional duties, such as 

identifying roads that were national in character, to the President, who “has enough under the 

Constitution.” Moreover, local interest would lead to disappointment for all those parts of the country 

not included in the national system, leading to defeat of any congressional legislation to build the roads. 
Inevitably, some would want to divide funds on the basis of tax payments from each State, population, 

land area, or whichever method was best suited to increase their State’s share. Senator Benton said he 

had a different idea: 

The amendment which I have submitted adopts a rule of division different from all these; it proposes 

to apply the fund nationally, to make roads and canals where the national interest requires them, 

without regard to population, direct taxes, or the size of the States. 

Benton’s amendment proposed five roads, including four with a terminus in Washington, D.C. The four 

would be built to Florida, Maine, through Virginia to Tennessee, and to Missouri (completion of the 

National Road). The fifth road was from New Orleans to Columbus, Ohio. Judge Lowe explained that 

these roads “followed the direction of traveling, whether for business or pleasure, the direction of the 

great mails, and the lines upon which troops would be marched for the defense of the country.” 

Senator Benton estimated the cost at $25 to $30 million, but to avoid shocking the other Senators, he 

pointed out that the amount was not needed in a single year. It could be expended at the more reasonable 

rate of $2 to $3 million a year. With the States adding State and local roads to connect with the national 

roads, “the whole would redound to the benefit of all parts of the country, and of every individual of 

community.” 

Benton’s amendment was defeated. Congress passed the original version, which President Monroe 

approved on April 30, 1824. He also sent a message to Congress on the subject, a message that Judge 

Lowe considered “one of the greatest messages ever delivered to Congress.” Seeing no Constitutional 

objection to Federal road construction, President Monroe summarized the advantages of good roads to 

“very important National purposes,’ such as the conduct of war and the transportation of mail. Of “still 

more importance” was their effect “on the bond of union itself.” Although divided by many factors, a 

country linked by a connecting network of roads and canals “would soon become so compacted and 

bound together that nothing could break it.” 

In the presidential election of 1824, Judge Lowe said, John Quincy Adams campaigned, in part, on the 

issue of internal improvements of national interest. Judge Lowe indicated he did not have time in his 

speech to cite the new President’s Inaugural Address. However, in President Adams’ Inaugural Address 

on March 4, 1825, he summarized the accomplishments of his predecessor’s 8 years in office, during 

which Adams had been Secretary of State. The accomplishments included progress on “the great system 

of internal improvements within the limits of the constitutional power of the Union” and “preparing by 

scientific researches and surveys for further application of our national resources to the internal 

improvement of our country.” President Adams explained the approach of the new Administration: 

To pursue to their consummation those purposes of improvement in our common condition instituted 

or recommended by him [referring to former President Monroe] will embrace the whole sphere of my 

obligations. To the topic of internal improvements, emphatically urged by him at his inauguration, I 

recur with peculiar satisfaction. It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn millions of our 

posterity who are in future ages to people this continent will derive their most fervent gratitude to the 

founders of the Union; that in which the beneficent action of its Government will be most deeply felt 

and acknowledged . . . . Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of 

Congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference is due to doubts 

originating in pure patriotism and sustained by venerated authority. But nearly twenty years have 

passed since the construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority for its 
construction was then questioned. To how many thousands of our countrymen has it proved a 

benefit? Repeated, liberal, and candid discussions in the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments 

and approximated the opinions of enlightened minds upon the question of constitutional power. I can 

not but hope that by the same process of friendly, patient, and persevering deliberation all 

constitutional objections will ultimately be removed. The extent and limitation of the powers of the 

General Government in relation to this transcendently important interest will be settled and 

acknowledged to the common satisfaction of all, and every speculative scruple will be solved by a 

practical public blessing. 

Under President Adams, the commission established by the 1824 law submitted its report. Judge Lowe 

summarized the “disastrous report” by saying it supported “ninety roads—odds and ends of roads, 

having no semblance of nationality.” He added: 

Suffice it to say that the purposes of that selfish, sordid, narrow-minded Board of Pot-house 

Politicians prevailed, and thus the great, far-seeing and patriotic purposes of Gallatin, Jefferson, 

Calhoun, Monroe, Jackson, Clay, and Adams were destroyed. 

Judge Lowe brought the story to the present: 

We have proposed a bill modeled after Senator Benton’s bill, providing for a system of fifty thousand 

miles of National highways, to be built and maintained by the general Government without levying 

one dollar of additional taxes. This may seem large, but it is less than two per cent of our roads and 

will serve sixty-six per cent of our population, and if those living in adjoining counties are included, 

this system will serve ninety-two per cent of our people. 

Noting that 6 percent of the roads in France, generally regarded as having the best roads in the world, are 

national roads, he asked, “Can’t we build two per cent?” As for the cost, he asked: “To what better 

purpose can it be applied?” 

The following month, November 1915, Better Roads and Streets reported that the good roads boosters of 

Lexington, Missouri, proposed to erect a bronze monument to Judge Lowe “as a tribute to him for the 

splendid work done and being done by him in the re-building of the National Old Trails Road.” Upon 

being informed of the proposed honor, Judge Lowe sent a letter informing the leader of the movement, 

“Build the road, and that will be the best monument and one in which everybody can share alike.” 

The magazine agreed with Judge Lowe’s idea: 

Better Roads and Streets believes the road boosters along the National Old Trails Road in every State 

should follow the example set by the Lexington, Missouri, association and erect a monument to the 

Judge—do it while he is yet alive and laboring for the re-building of the road, and show to the Judge 

himself, while he is yet alive, our appreciation of his splendid work. 

The Pan-American Road Congress 

Good roads advocates expected 1916 to be the year a good roads bill—whether Federal-aid or National 

Highways—would be enacted. They did not foresee the role the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San 

Francisco would play in the debate. 
Each year, highway officials, contractors, and good roads boosters had to decide which good roads 

conventions to attend. The annual meetings of the American Highway Association (AHA) and the 

American Road Builders Association (ARBA), the two largest conventions, overlapped in subject matter 

to some extent. When topics considered during the AHA’s first American Road Congress in 1911 

included construction and maintenance, ARBA protested that these subjects had been its territory since 

its founding in 1902. The two associations tried to combine for one convention in 1912, but had been 

unable to reach agreement. The 1915 expositions offered an opportunity to try again to combine the two 

major national meetings into one, to be held in California. The key to agreement on a single convention 

was that both organizations agreed not to hold a separate national meeting in 1915. 

On March 18, 1915, the Joint Committee of ARBA and the AHA met in Montpelier, Vermont, to plan 

the convention, to be called the Pan-American Road Congress in connection with the Panama-Pacific 

Exposition in San Francisco. The Joint Committee had been working on the plan since late 1914, with 

its membership consisting of two representatives from each association. During the March meeting, a 

fifth member, Vermont Governor Charles W. Gates, was added. Because Governor Gates, a former 

State Highway Commissioner, was not affiliated with either association, he was considered the tie 

breaker who could help the Joint Committee complete its work. 

The Pan-American Road Congress was tentatively set for the week of September 6, but during a meeting 

of the Joint Committee on April 16 in New York City, the opening date was moved to Monday, 

September 13, in the Municipal Auditorium of Oakland, California. A notice in Good Roads (April 24, 

1915) explained the decision: 

The date has been selected because of the advantageous arrangements that can be made for halls and 

meeting places, and also because it was felt that this date would enable engineers planning to attend 

the International Engineering Congress to attend the Pan-American Road Congress as well. 

The congress would run through Friday, September 17. Exposition officials agreed to designate 

September 15 as “Pan-American Road Congress Day.” On that day, the congress would meet in Festival 

Hall on the exposition grounds, with tours of the road machinery and material exhibits planned for that 

evening. Expectations were high for this meeting of what Good Roads referred to as “the two road 

organizations ranking first in importance on this continent, in their respective fields.” 

The August 7, 1915, issue of Good Roads explained the elaborate arrangements made for transportation 

to the Pan-American Road Congress: 

A special train will be run from Chicago to Oakland, leaving Chicago on September 2 over the 

Chicago and Northwest Railway and arriving at Oakland on the morning of September 12. Stops 

will be made at St. Paul, Minn., Banff and Lake Louise, Canada, Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore . . 

. . 

A return tour through Los Angeles, San Diego, the Grand Canyon of Arizona, Denver and Kansas City 

was under consideration. 

The good roads press usually described conventions in glowing terms, citing large attendance, great 

enthusiasm, and major importance. Each convention was the best ever. This one would be an exception. 

The Pan-American Road Congress holds the distinction of being one of the least successful road 
conventions held during the years of the Good Roads Movement. The account in Better Roads and 

Streets, stated: 

It cannot be said that it was a huge success, particularly from the standpoint of attendance, for the 

attendance was smaller than that of any national congress that has been held within the limits of the 

memory of the writer; another thing that tended materially to detract from the success of the meeting, 

which should have been the greatest that has ever been held in this country, was the noticeably large 

number of absentees who were listed on the official program. 

Chairman James H. MacDonald [Connecticut's State highway commissioner] admitted that it was 

one of the most trying periods of his life when, at the first session, out of the total of eight speakers 

who were scheduled on the official program, but one was present. 

The problem, the magazine speculated, was that the construction season was underway in many parts of 

the country, preventing officials and contractors from leaving their duties. 

One of those absent for the first session was Logan Page, Director of the U.S. Office of Public Roads and 

Rural Engineering (OPRRE, as OPR had been renamed on July 1, 1915) and President of the AHA. He 

was scheduled to read the first paper during the first business session of the Congress. (The chairman of 

the session, Fairfax Harrison of the AHA and president of the Southern Railway, was also absent, so the 

session was chaired by Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt of North Carolina.) With only about 150 people in 

attendance, Major W. W. Crosby of Maryland read Page's paper, "The History and Future of Highway 

Improvement." The speech reflected Page’s longstanding view that “the same sort of business 

management and business expediency that make for success in private enterprise” should be applied to 

road building at the State and especially the county level. However, his text read by Major Crosby 

provided no comment on the prospect for Federal participation in road improvement. 

In addition to being widely considered unsuccessful, the Pan-American Road Congress led to a rupture 

between Page and ARBA later that year. In November 1915, he learned that ARBA had announced 

plans for its annual meeting, to be held in early 1916 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Page objected in a 

letter to ARBA on November 10, 1915: 

The whole point and effort in bringing about the Pan-American Road Congress was that neither 

association should hold an independent convention this season. This was the argument used by the 

officials of the congress in soliciting funds to finance the convention. 

It seems to me that in view of the above facts, for the Road Builders to hold their annual meeting a 

month or two later than is the usual custom, so as to have the date fall just within another calendar 

year, constitutes a breach of faith. The present plan for holding this convention will simply mean 

that the Road Builders will have given up no annual convention, but merely deferred the usual 

convention a month of two. 

In view of this breach of faith, Page submitted his resignation as a member of ARBA’s Board of 

Directors. (When the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) held its annual 

meeting at the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago on December 7 and 8, 1915, the members adopted a resolution 

urging ARBA and the AHA to “amalgamate into one organization, or . . . at least arrange to hold jointly 

one annual road congress.” The resolution urged member State highway agencies not to send 

representatives to any National Road Congress held before December 1, 1916.) 
 

Despite the poor attendance at the Pan-American Road Congress and the breach it caused between Page 

and ARBA, the congress served an important purpose prior to the 1916 congressional debate on a good 

roads bill. This result occurred because key members of AASHO attended the Congress. 

When AASHO had formed in December 1914 as a voice for State highway officials, its members 

directed the Executive Committee to prepare and present a bill to Congress representing AASHO's plan 

for Federal cooperation. The committee, dominated by members from heavily populated States with 

well-developed highway networks, collaborated with AAA's president, A. G. Batchelder, on the draft of 

a Federal-aid bill that called for a national system of highways. The draft was sent to Congress. 

Midwestern members of AASHO, many from States with less developed networks, objected to the plan 

and the fact that they had not been consulted before the AASHO proposal was submitted to Congress. 

To settle the dispute, AASHO's Executive Committee met in Oakland on September 11, 1915, just 

before the Pan-American Road Congress. The committee consisted of: 

 George P. Coleman, Chairman, Virginia. 

 W. D. Sohier, Massachusetts. 

 Thomas H. MacDonald, Iowa. 

 E. A. Stevens, New Jersey. 

 Lamar Cobb, Arizona. 

 Joseph Hyde Pratt, North Carolina 

 Henry G. Shirley, Maryland (President of AASHO). 

MacDonald took the lead in drafting a proposal that would be consistent with Page’s ideas of a Federalaid program based on a Federal-State partnership rather than Federal construction of national roads. 

(Whether Page attended this meeting is unclear.) During AASHO's annual meeting, the States adopted 

the new version in place of the earlier bill. The only change was elimination of the amount to be 

appropriated ($25 million a year); the figure was best left to the House and Senate appropriations 

committees. In 1916, AASHO’s bill would become the foundation for the Federal-aid highway program. 

Condition of the National Old Trails Road 

The October 1915 issue of Touring Topics reported on the condition of transcontinental highways in 

California. For the National Old Trails Road, the summary stated: 

Reports received daily from our construction crew enroute from Kansas City to Los Angeles, indicate 

that conditions are rapidly improving throughout the entire length of this road. During the early part 

of September, heavy rains were experienced throughout western Kansas and Colorado, but the 

weather has cleared and roads are again in normal condition. All cars are coming through without 

difficulty. 

As for the Lincoln Highway, the summary reported: 

The Lincoln Highway from San Francisco east . . . is in fair condition, although some very bad 

sections will be encountered in Nevada, Utah and south Wyoming and Nebraska. This highway has 

had much transcontinental travel during the present season, and although cars have been coming 

through without any extraordinary difficulties, very few cars pronounce it an entirely feasible 
transcontinental route at present. The worst spots of this road are reported as follows: The crossing 

of the Fallon Sink between Fallon and Eureka, the crossing of the old Salt Lake between the Nevada 

State Line and Salt Lake City, and the road along the North Platte River between North Platte and 

Omaha. During the summer’s rainy season, these sections were very badly washed and practically 

no reconstruction work has been done. 

In January 1916, Touring Topics had a more detailed report on the western end of the National Old Trails 

Road. The road was in “good shape as far east as Seligman in Arizona,” but the magazine added that, 

“rains and stormy weather may change route conditions at any time.” Conditions from Seligman to Los 

Angeles were good with exceptions. From Seligman to the Colorado River, the road was “in good shape 

with the exception of some rough work near Seligman.” After crossing the river on the Santa Fe 

Railroad bridge, motorists would find the road from Needles to Cadiz “in good condition,” but from 

Cadiz to Ludlow, motorists would find a “fair dirt road with the exception of the last six or seven miles 

into Cadiz which has numerous chuck holes and is very sandy.” 

Continuing west, the motorist would discover that the road to Barstow, particularly the last 10 miles, 

“has been badly rutted by heavy auto trucks.” In addition to being “quite sandy,” this section of the 

National Old Trails Road had “numerous chuck holes which necessitates slow driving.” The road 

through Cajon Pass between Barstow and San Bernardino over Mount Vernon Avenue was “a first class 

road with the exception of the four miles in the Cajon Pass which is almost impassable on account of 

snow and mud.” From San Bernardino to Los Angeles, the motorist would travel over “continuous 

pavement with the exception of one mile of dirt road west of Upland, which is excellently maintained.” 

National Old Trails Road in Ohio

In the second half of 1915, several good roads magazines covered Ohio’s aggressive plan to improve the 

National Old Trails Road. 

The August 1915 issue of Better Roads and Streets reprinted a speech by Arch W. Smith of the State 

Highway Department on “Ohio’s Road Program.” Smith had delivered the speech on June 9, 1915, 

before the Ohio and Michigan Association of Undertakers. It began: 

Ohio’s road program is a definite one, and is proving to be a very practical one. In a nutshell, it 

contemplates the improvement and continuous maintenance of the system of inter-county highways 

embracing a network of the main thoroughfares of the State totaling 9,874 miles. This system 

connects every county-seat with the seats of adjoining counties, and also serves directly all other 

important cities and villages. 

After a general discussion of the State’s initiative, Smith discussed the status of Ohio’s three 

transcontinental highways, the National Old Trails Road, the Lincoln Highway, and the Dixie Highway. 

In doing so, he emphasized that the State had no connection to the organizations backing these highways 

and had not given official recognition to any of them. He added: 

The department has tendered every assistance and encouragement within its proper sphere, and shall 

continue to do so on behalf of any movement for better roads, whether it is national in scope, or 

merely a township improvement. 
Smith described the route of the National Old Trails Road, noting that in Ohio, it passed through 

Bridgeport, Cambridge, Zanesville, Columbus, London, Springfield, Dayton, and Eaton. He continued: 

Its promoters claim that in 1914, $2,124,000 was expended for improvements along this route, and 

that Ohio furnished 22.2% of this amount, Maryland ranking second with 21.8%, and California, 

third, with 17.8%. It is claimed also that for 1915 moneys have been appropriated for further 

improvements to the amount of $2,021,000. Of this amount Ohio is credited with supplying 52%, 

California 22.2%, and Maryland 10.3%. 

It is asserted that over one-third of the entire 3,600 miles has already been constructed. In Ohio the 

entire mileage has been improved with brick, concrete, water-bound macadam, bituminous-bound 

macadam and gravel. At the present time, out of a total of 191 miles outside of municipal limits, 

there are about thirty-eight miles of old improvements, made by local authorities, which are in need 

of reconstruction, not counting improvements which are now under way. 

In Licking and Muskingum counties, the United States government is co-operating with the State and 

county on the improvement of a continuous stretch of twenty-four miles of this highway, of the 

concrete type, which leads west from Zanesville, and is to be the model concrete road of the world. 

The concrete paving project west of Zanesville was a result of the experimental post road program added 

to the Post Office Department Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 1913. It had appropriated $500,000, to 

be used by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Postmaster General to improve selected post roads. State 

or local governments were to provide two-thirds of the total cost of projects, with the two Federal 

departments asked to report to Congress in 1 year with the results of the experimental program. As part 

of the drive to determine the appropriate Federal role in highway improvement, the post road program 

was seen as way of exploring how a Federal-aid program might work. (The same legislation also 

authorized creation of the Joint Committee on Federal Aid in the Construction of Post Roads, otherwise 

known as the Bourne Committee.) The experimental program was not successful if measured by 

mileage improved, but did provide valuable experience that helped Logan Page shape his views on 

Federal-aid. For example, it convinced him that the program should be a partnership between the 

OPRRE and State highway agencies because cooperating with the more than 3,000 counties would be 

too burdensome. 

By comparison with the National Old Trails Road, Smith said of the Lincoln Highway: 

The total distance across Ohio on this route is 262.4 miles, of which 224 miles are outside of 

municipal limits, and of this, 147 miles of road are improved with brick, macadam, and gravel. 

There are nineteen miles under contract uncompleted, and forty-six of new improvements are under 

contemplation. 

Carl Fisher, who had launched the Lincoln Highway, was also the inspiration for the Dixie Highway. 

The idea had been to identify a road from the Lincoln Highway in Chicago, to Miami, Florida, where 

Fisher now lived as a developer and promoter of Miami Beach. The Dixie Highway Association was 

organized during a meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 3, 1915. By the time of a meeting in 

Chattanooga on May 22, the routing commissioners had settled on a northern extension to Mackinaw, 

Michigan, and a Dixie Highway System rather than a single highway alignment. The association had 

solved routing disputes by incorporating rival alignments on the theory that motorists could take one 
route south and the other route north for variety. In Ohio, the routing was via Toledo, Lima, Dayton, and 

Cincinnati. 

Smith informed the undertakers of the brief history of the Dixie Highway, pointing out that Ohio might 

benefit from a resolution adopted by the Dixie Highway Association stating that the association reserved 

the right to relocate any portion of the highway where a county or municipality failed to complete its link 

within a year. Smith stated, “This may mean that Ohio is to pull the Dixie Highway eastward.” Dayton 

and Montgomery Counties were already near contract letting for their sections. “No doubt you will hear 

more of this project when the movement reaches Toledo and Detroit.” 

The December 1915 issue of Better Roads and Streets contained George D. Steele’s description of 

Ohio’s work on the National Old Trails Road in an article on “How Construction is Progressing on 

National Pike.” Steele summarized the history of the National Road, pointing out that after 1838, the 

road had been turned over to the States “and since that time, so far as can be learned, it has never 

received even honorable mention in a Federal Appropriation Act.” However, under the post road 

program, he said, $120,000 had been allotted to improve a 24-mile section of the National Road/National 

Old Trails Road west of Zanesville: 

The improvement consists in regrading the old road to a width of thirty-four feet and reducing grades 

to a maximum of seven per cent, and laying a concrete pavement sixteen feet in width along the 

central portion of the grade. 

The concrete was 8 inches thick at the center of the pavement, 6 inches at the sides, the difference 

providing for drainage. The project had another unique feature: 

One of the novel features of the construction of this section consisted in giving the pavement a superelevation on the curves. These elevations are computed for a velocity of thirty miles per hour, but do 

not exceed eight inches in any case. This feature, it was found, added very little to the cost of the 

work, but adds greatly to the feeling of security of automobilists going around the curves. 

The State Highway Department of Ohio and the OPRRE had designed the project “with extreme care” 

and carried out the construction contract under joint supervision “with the same extreme care.” 

Construction by the H. E. Culbertson Company began in May 1914, with concrete placed on a 15-mile 

section between June 17 and November 14, when work was halted because of unfavorable weather. 

By the time of Steele’s article, Culbertson had completed the work, which included five new bridges and 

59 new culverts. The cost in Muskingum County had been $181,920, and in Licking County, $258,080. 

Steele reported on construction in the other National Old Trails Road counties in Ohio: 

• Belmont County: Under a contract awarded in May 1914, the State reconstructed a 4-mile 

segment with a 16-foot wide brick pavement on a concrete foundation. The State had also built 

four stone arch bridges. Another section, a little over 4 miles long, had been similarly repaved, 

with the maximum grade reduced from 13 percent to 7.88 percent. A 16-mile section had also 

been repaved and the grade reduced from 11 percent to 7.86 percent. 

• Guernsey County: Segments totaling 14 miles had been repaved with brick, 15 feet wide, on a 

rolled stone foundation. Maximum grade had been reduced to 7.9 percent. 
• Licking County: Beyond the post road project, three other sections of the National Old Trails 

Road, totaling 16 miles, had been improved. Concrete paving, 16 feet wide, was extended 

through the town of Hebron (.89 miles). On the succeeding two sections, the pavement was 16 

feet wide, but bids were taken on concrete, tar-bound macadam and asphalt-bound macadam 

surfaces. The award for the second section was for a tar-bound macadam, while asphalt-bound 

macadam was selected for the third section. 

The construction in Belmont County, which is Ohio’s easternmost county, was featured in an article 

about “The National Road” in the December 1915 issue of Dependable Highways. The article 

acknowledged the Nation’s diversified interests and the difficulty of rallying support for a “matter, 

therefore, of great single national importance.” It added: 

In spite of all this there are in the list but few undertakings which would more greatly benefit the vast 

majority, in an economic, social and material way, than the improvement to a high standard of a few 

great thoroughfares throughout the country. The time may come when, as a matter of military 

preparedness, the expenditure therefore will be worth more than any other object for which an equal 

amount of money might be expended. 

Given the National Road’s continued “relative place as the most logical and important route to be 

improved,” the article focused on the plan to pave the entire Belmont County segment of the highway 

with brick pavement, 16 feet wide. Henry E. Rice, county surveyor of Belmont County, was directly 

involved in the work: 

Watchful care, direction, instruction from the grading to the finished surface, will make possible the 

hope of splendid construction. The engineer was caught in the act [in the accompanying 

photograph]. It may seem a little thing to have the subgrade prepared with exact care but the effort is 

worth while. 

When the article was written, the work was not complete: 

Several short sections are yet uncompleted in this county—the larger pieces awaiting the heavy roller 

to crush and smooth the broken stone base will be noticed with peculiar interest by most engineers. 

The article also discussed repair of a bridge built 90 years earlier as part of the National Road: 

Whether the crooks, and the turns, the bumps, the irregular lines were made to harmonize with all 

surrounding nature, or whether it was shaped to suit the mere whim of the builder, cannot be proved. 

It is a curiosity to say the least. It would scarcely be expected, however, that the fruit of some 

antique whim would be in keeping with the influences of the last hundred years. It required but little 

repair to restore this bridge to its original worth. 

If the same care expended on the bridge were expended on the road, “wear and tear upon this brick road 

will impart no serious injury for another hundred years.” 

The article recommended that other counties in Ohio, as well as Indiana and Illinois, adopt brick paving 

for their portions of the National Old Trails Road. “It would be a great regret—waste of money—in fact 

a calamity if any less durable type of road improvement should be undertaken.” If officials did not have 

“the courage to deal with at least this road as a purely business proposition,” they would be “brought to 
stand before the bar of public opinion and receive a condemnation that will smirch them forever and 

justly so.” 

Closing the Expositions

San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific Exposition, which had opened on February 20, 1915, closed on 

December 4. Nearly 19 million people had visited the exposition. Although the more centrally located 

expositions in Chicago (1893) and St. Louis (1904) had enjoyed higher attendance, the Panama-Pacific 

Exposition was financially successful, making a profit of $2.4 million. 

The smaller Panama-California Exposition in San Diego had also been a success, counting over 2 million 

admissions by tickets and passes as well as a net profit of $56,570. The exposition ended on December 

31, 1915, but resumed on January 1, 1916 as the Panama-California International Exposition. With 

additional exhibits borrowed from the San Francisco exposition, the Panama-California International 

Exposition continued until January 1, 1917, having attracted 1.7 million attendees. Finally, the 

exposition ended in the black, with profits under $50,000. 

How many eastern motorists traveled to the expositions by automobile is not known. In the 1916 edition 

of The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, the Lincoln Highway Association 

estimated that 1915 had seen an increase in transcontinental touring of 300 to 600 percent. The guide 

quoted D. E. Watkins, Secretary of the California State Automobile Association (northern California’s 

equivalent of the Automobile Association of Southern California): “Conservatively estimated, I would 

say, fully 25,000 automobile parties have toured to California.”