Establishing the Jefferson Highway Route in Iowa

Alexa McDowell

AKAY Consulting - Boone, IA

Introduction

Timeline

Setting the Stage

Mason City - “Metropolis of Northern Iowa”

Booster Extraordinaire

The Final Mile

Timeline

1905An estimated 1,650 autos in Iowa

Setting the Stage

The Good Roads Movement

Gardner Cowles, publisher of the Des Moines Register

Setting the Stage - the Interstate Trail in Iowa

1911 Interstate Trail organized 1913 By-laws adopted 1915 Route extended north from Des Moines

to St. Paul, MN

500 miles of marked highway from Lamoni through Osceola, Indianola, Des Moines, Nevada, Iowa Falls, Mason City, and Northwood

“The officers and trustees were without exception men of integrity and high standing in their local communities, who recognized the development of good roads as a proper community service and gladly devoted their time without pay in working for the good roads movement, and co-operated on the ground with state and county authorities in the work of actually completing the building of a dependable road.”

W.A. Hopkins - Lamoni

W.A. Hopkins, mortician- turned-banker, organized the State Savings Bank of Lamoni. At the first hint of an organized effort to get Iowa out of the mud, Hopkins became a Good Roads booster, leading to the organization of the Interstate Trail.

Timeline - 1915

An estimated 145,000 automobiles in Iowa

Timeline - 1915

Jefferson Highway Association organized in New Orleans

E.T. Meredith was elected the first president and quickly established the publication, the Jefferson Highway Declaration.

E.T. Meredith - Des Moines

“When the Jefferson Highway

was conceived, it seemed to be

the fancy of dreamers.”

The Case for the Jefferson Highway

Destined to be popular vacation route due to the diversity of climate and topography

Nearly 1/3 of proposed JH already organized, including the Interstate Trail in Iowa

The Route in Iowa

Interstate Trail became the backbone for the JH route in Iowa

500 miles of “well-organized, well-marked highway”

Mason City - “Metropolis of Northern Iowa”

Mason City population in 1919 of 26,000

Two cement plants

Mason City Brick & Tile Company

10 miles to resort area of Clear Lake

Mason City and the Auto

1903Joshua Melson owned the city’s first car

1907Two car dealerships in business

1910Colby Motor Co. established

191515 car dealerships in business

192019 car dealerships in business

Mason City Chamber of Commerce

Streets and Highways committee

Marketing support

Tourist Information Bureau

Business development

“… it is estimated that an average tourist party spends $50.00 in a city like Mason City. It is an established fact that tourists travel over marked highways that come through Mason City.”

Booster Extraordinaire

Hugh H. Shepard

Mason City born & raised

Attorney, abstractor, businessman, land owner, developer

Community activist

Hobby was “Good Roads”

“Service is the rent you pay for the position you occupy in the community.”

Timeline - 1920

An estimated 411,000 cars and 30,000 trucks in Iowa

Timeline - 1920

25 miles of paving on Iowa’s primary roads

Only Oklahoma and South Dakota had a smaller percentage of total road mileage surfaced than did Iowa

Timeline - 1921

69 miles of paving on Iowa’s primary roads

Timeline - 1921

Jefferson Highway named the cross-continent military road “from the gulf to the lakes” making it the primary north to south roadway in the nation

Timeline - 1922

330 miles of paving on Iowa’s primary roads

Timeline - 1925

502 miles of paving on Iowa’s primary roads

Timeline - 1925

Start of Iowa’s first gas tax of 2 cents per gallon to help support local and state road projects

All of the JH in Iowa had been built to finished grade or was under contract for construction except less than 1 mile in Warren County

Timeline - 1928

61 Iowa counties had issued bonds for primary road projects

1,500 miles of paved roads

$100 million state bond issued

Timeline - 1930

State line celebration