The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-09-21
VICTORY HIGHWAY news

mucca, Nevada, recently mace run
which goes to show that roads are
good in that section of the country.
From Winnemucca to Lovelock,
Nevada, is a distance Of seventy
three miles. Minor made the run be-
tween the two cities in two hours and
forty-ive minutes, in a Chevrolet car,
making an average of more than
thirty miles an hour. A large part of
the run was made after dark.
Minor was accompanied by his wife
and two guests on the run, which was
made largely to demonstrate the ad-
vantages of the Victory Highway be-
tween the two points.
The Victory Highway, transcOn-
tinental memorial road from New
York to San Francisco, California,
was originally laid out as motor
road.
But two cross country mixers who
have reached Steamboat Springs,
Colorado, on their way from Boston,
Mass, to the Pacific Coast, declare
that it is the best possible route for
the pedestrian tourist, as well as for
the motorist. They have followed
the Victory Highway throughout the
course of their trip.
One of them, F. Herrick Rockhow,
has been in the hiking game for a
long time, and is on the last lap of the
walking trip around the world. The
other, Larry Moran, has been offered
the prize of a scholarship in the law
school of Harvard University, if he
completes the trip across the con-
tinent within a certain period.
10000
Abilene, Kansas, has a history as
frontier town. In the days when
Kansas was part of the great Amer
lean desert, and the west beyond it
was a no-man's-land of adventure and
mystery, Abilene became a jumping
off place." the place where civiliza-
ton ended and the great unknown
commenced.
Abilene was the point at which the
Virile man who laid the foundations
of a new nation in the west, collect
ed for their rough play, and prepared
themselves for their ventures into the
desert. Abilene was the point on
ward which vast trail herds of cattle
from the plains beyond-as far as
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona,
were driven to be enrtained for their
final markets.
In the old rough days, Abilene was
one of the most widely known from
tier towns of the world.
There are no gun men, drunken
cowpunchers, quick-on-the-trigg
marshals in Abilene now. Their
places have been taken by keen bust
ness men and leaders in the prOfes-
sions. No more trail herds are driven
from the far western plains, to Abb
lene to meet the trains. The ''great
American desert on which Abilene
was frontier town, is now the
''breadbasket of a nation" and Abb
lene is one of the centers of a pros
porous and up-to-date empire
The cow ponies which used to
streets of Abilene while their riders
took such elemental pleasures as they
might find in the saloons and
gambling houses of the town, have
been replaced by the parked automo-
biles of the citizens of Abilene in
their offices, and the farmers from
the surrounding rich territory, who
have diven into town on business.
But Abilene is still a frontier town.
1t stands still at the western "jump-
ing off place" of one phase of pro-
gress and advancement-an import
ant phase in the social and industrial
life of the entire nation, highway con-
struction.
By the end of the construction sea
son of 1928, Abilene viii be the west
ern terminus of a paved highway
which will extend with but two, pos
sibly but one break, from the At
lantic seaboard westward.
The motor tourist, westbound from
New York City will be able at the enc
of that season, to drive from Gotham
to Abilene, without fear or favor Of
the weather gods, on a road hard sur
faced all the distance, with the ex
ception of the one gap noted.
Much of this possibility depend.
upon the speed with which the stat,
highway officials of Missouri move
There has been designated across tina
state, and the money is on hand fol
its hard surfacing, a primary, inter
state highway which viii connect st
Louis and Kansas City, with belt O.