The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-01-31
A NATIONAL HIGHWAY
FROM COAST TO COAST.
How the Cumberland Road and the
Santa Fe Trail Are 70 Sc Restored.

roads in America will be a nation
al issue is apparent from the dis
cussion of the subject, which is
growing louder each day in all
parts of the United States, says the
Kansas City Star. Cities are look
ing carefully to their street paving,
counties and states are talking
more about their roads, and now
the subject of a national highway
has reached congress.
The creation of the American
Appian way, beginning at Wash
ington on Atlantic tidewater, fol-
lowing the trail of the historic ma
tional pike through the passes of
the Appalachians and across the
Ohio through the great middle
west to St. Louis, and then in two
great boulevards on to the Pacific,
one of which will cross Montana
to Puget sound and the other over
the Santa Fe trail to San Fran
cisco, will be the magnificent frui-
ton of plans the first tentative
steps of which have been taken in
the introduction of a bill in con-
gress by Representative George
Pearre Of Maryland for an appro
priation for the restoration of the
monuments and landmarks and the
reconstruction of the ancient Cum
berland road that by its building
made an empire possible.
Pledged TO the support of this
bill are the rapidly growing auto.
mobile associations of the United
States, and the strong good roads
organizations, fast increasing in
membership, are giving hearty CO.
operation to the project.
Save to the historian and those
who live along the dusty thread
of macadam that binds together
Washington and ST. Louis, the
story of the old national pike is an
unknown chapter to the present
generation, vet the flavor Of TO-
nance the memory OF almost for
gotten glories, of a noble, ambi-
tious mission successfully accom-
plished ,clings to every hoary mon
ument of that ancient highway.
And the word ancient" is used
advisedly, for the route is prehis-
toric. Centuries before the daring
ships OF Raleigh or Smith touched
the coast Of the new world, long
before the Indians had Invaded
America over the vanished land
bridge at Boring strait; ages be-
fore the mound builders had left
their yet undeciphered messages,
countless herds of bison roamed
the continent. In their migrations
they were Americas first road
makers, and they did their work
so well that map of their trails
and trace" would be duplicate
of the great highway and railway
systems of the present day.
The national pike, or the Cum
berland road, as it was popularity
called, was first a buffalo track
worn deep across the Appalach-
ians by the pounding hoofs of mil
lions of bison. When the Indians
came they followed this same trail
i'll their hunting excursions and
war expeditions, retreating over it
to the west before the ever advanc-
ing, relentless frontier of the white
man. Over this path came the
Anglo-Saxon hunter and trapper,
followed timidly and falteringly
by the homemaker, until at last
the tide of emigration poured in a
deluge through the mountain
passes to the land ofpromise.
To supply the trade demands of
this growing western population in
the early days long trains of pack
ponies picked their way to and fro
over the old Cumberland trail from
the Potomac to the headwaters of
the Ohio, to be displaced as in
creasing commerce and traffic wild
ened the track into road by the
great Conestoga freight wagons
and speeding mail coaches of the
early days of the century, in turn
to vanish when the steam railroad