1916: The Launch of a Pivotal Highway Association in the Gem State

July 25, 1916

The North and South State Highway Association of Idaho was founded to help promote a 500-mile (804.7-kilometer) route more directly linking the northern and southern regions of the state. The launch of that association took place during a decade heavily characterized by an ever-increasing interest and involvement in building and maintaining roads nationwide, and just two weeks after President Woodrow Wilson had signed into law the Federal Aid Roads Act initiating the federal-state partnership for that effort. 

The Idaho-based North and South State Highway Association was formed by more than 80 representatives at an Elks meeting place in the Gem State’s city of Lewiston. Dr. Louis J. Perkins was selected as the association’s first president. (The above postcard of a road in Lewiston was created sometime around 1920.) The goal of the North and South State Highway Association of Idaho would come to fruition about a decade later with the establishment of U.S. Highway 95 in the state.

Image Credit: Public Domain

Additional information on the North and South State Highway Association of Idaho is available at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/us95.cfm