Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Sheldon “Red” Chaney (1916-1997) opened what would become a highly popular restaurant along the portion of U.S. Highway 66 (Route 66) in Springfield, Missouri. He and his wife Julia Elizabeth Etter Chaney (1914-2006) moved to Springfield not long after he completed his military service during World War II. As a new resident of Springfield, Red... Continue Reading →
The formal efforts to develop what became the U.S. Numbered Highway System began at the annual 1924 meeting of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in San Francisco. It was at this venue that the association approved a resolution called on the U.S. secretary of Agriculture (USDA was the “umbrella” department for the... Continue Reading →
In the years since it became one of the original routes of the U.S. Numbered Highway System, U.S. Route 66 (US 66) has left an enduring and unrivaled cultural imprint. Journalist and historian Michael Wallis (born in 1945) summarized this legacy in his 1990 best-selling book Route 66: The Mother Road. “Route 66,” Wallis noted... Continue Reading →
On June 18, 1925, the sixth of the regional meetings of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was held in Boston for the New England states. The specific location for this gathering was the boardroom of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works in the Massachusetts State House. This building, which was constructed during the 1790s,... Continue Reading →
A major milestone for the portion of U.S. 10 (US 10) in North Dakota took place when the segment of that east-west route between the cities of Fargo and Mapleton in Cass County was fully paved. This paving project brought about the Flickertail State’s first hard-surfaced, all-weather section of US 10, which had been one... Continue Reading →
A week after the fourth regional meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways had taken place in Atlanta, the fifth of these meetings -- likewise focused on potential U.S. Highway Numbered System routes -- was held in New York City on June 15, 1925. The previous day’s edition of the New York Times reported,... Continue Reading →
Only about two years after being built and opened along U.S. Route 66 (US 66) in the settlement of Grants Station (now the city of Grants) in the west-central part of New Mexico, a Standard Oil Company gas station was moved approximately 29 miles (46.7 kilometers) southeast to the community of Thoreau in the state... Continue Reading →
“Highway Leaders Meet Here Today,” announced a headline in the June 8, 1925, edition of the Atlantic Constitution. That Monday gathering in Georgia’s capital city was the fourth regional meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways focusing on potential U.S. Highway Numbered System routes. “The meeting is being held as one of a series... Continue Reading →
In October 1930, ceremonies were held at the boundary between Iowa and Minnesota to commemorate the completion of the paved section of U.S. Route 65 (US 65) crossing both states. US 65 was one of the routes of the United States United States Numbered Highway System to be approved by the American Association of State... Continue Reading →
The third of the 1925 regional meetings of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was held in a place that had been famously characterized by poet Carl Sanburg (1878-1967) as the City of Big Shoulders. This regional meeting, as with those both past and future, would largely involve having attendees figure out and decide upon... Continue Reading →
