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Residents in Southwest Missouri are generally aware of one famous road that traverses this region, but another historic road has faded into obscurity.
Mike Conlin, a Canadian citizen from Metairie, La., says Route 66 may be historic, but the Jefferson Highway, which runs from Winnipeg in Canada to New Orleans, carried travelers and trade for years before anyone got their kicks on any numbered route in the U.S.
“I said in my blog that Route 66 is a historical highway impersonator,” Conlin said. “I’m going to raise some poo in this area I know. I say that because the Jefferson Highway, the Lincoln Highway, all the named highways existed before the numbered highways. The Jefferson Highway existed in 1916. In 1926, the U.S. government changed all the highways to numbers so Route 66 was born in 1926, which was the end of the Jefferson Highway, so it sits right on top of where the Jefferson Highway was from Carthage to Joplin.
“To me, historical highways are the named ones that were there first, Route 66 is sitting on top of the Jefferson Highway here.”
Conlin and his high school buddy, Gary Augustine, the owner of a nine-hole golf course in Prince George, British Columbia, are traveling the historic Jefferson Highway.
At one time in its history, the Jefferson Highway covered the same ground as U.S. Highway 71 to Carthage, then ran on Route 66 to Joplin before proceeding south.
Conlin first became interested in the Jefferson Highway after moving to New Orleans.
“I married a lady from New Orleans when we were living in Canada and we decided to move there in 2000, which was culture shock for me, and I was thoroughly depressed,” Conlin said. “After living there for a couple of years, I saw an article in the Times-Picayune entitled ‘The Jefferson Highway used to be the Nation’s Highway.’ It was significant to us because there is a piece of the Jefferson Highway that runs through our town, Metairie, La.
“We thought it was just a street but it had more significance than that. It said that it ran from New Orleans to Winnipeg, Canada, and I immediately had a connection because I’m from Canada.”
The Jefferson Highway (“Palm to Pine Highway”) was built in late 1915 as an important part of the National Auto Trail System. It was organized for the dual purpose of providing a great north and south highway and to honor the name of Thomas Jefferson for the part he took in the Louisiana Purchase.
Residents in Southwest Missouri are generally aware of one famous road that traverses this region, but another historic road has faded into obscurity.
Mike Conlin, a Canadian citizen from Metairie, La., says Route 66 may be historic, but the Jefferson Highway, which runs from Winnipeg in Canada to New Orleans, carried travelers and trade for years before anyone got their kicks on any numbered route in the U.S.
“I said in my blog that Route 66 is a historical highway impersonator,” Conlin said. “I’m going to raise some poo in this area I know. I say that because the Jefferson Highway, the Lincoln Highway, all the named highways existed before the numbered highways. The Jefferson Highway existed in 1916. In 1926, the U.S. government changed all the highways to numbers so Route 66 was born in 1926, which was the end of the Jefferson Highway, so it sits right on top of where the Jefferson Highway was from Carthage to Joplin.
“To me, historical highways are the named ones that were there first, Route 66 is sitting on top of the Jefferson Highway here.”
Conlin and his high school buddy, Gary Augustine, the owner of a nine-hole golf course in Prince George, British Columbia, are traveling the historic Jefferson Highway.
At one time in its history, the Jefferson Highway covered the same ground as U.S. Highway 71 to Carthage, then ran on Route 66 to Joplin before proceeding south.
Conlin first became interested in the Jefferson Highway after moving to New Orleans.
“I married a lady from New Orleans when we were living in Canada and we decided to move there in 2000, which was culture shock for me, and I was thoroughly depressed,” Conlin said. “After living there for a couple of years, I saw an article in the Times-Picayune entitled ‘The Jefferson Highway used to be the Nation’s Highway.’ It was significant to us because there is a piece of the Jefferson Highway that runs through our town, Metairie, La.
“We thought it was just a street but it had more significance than that. It said that it ran from New Orleans to Winnipeg, Canada, and I immediately had a connection because I’m from Canada.”
The Jefferson Highway (“Palm to Pine Highway”) was built in late 1915 as an important part of the National Auto Trail System. It was organized for the dual purpose of providing a great north and south highway and to honor the name of Thomas Jefferson for the part he took in the Louisiana Purchase.
Today, the old highway’s route is shadowed by U.S. Highway 71 that comes into Carthage. In fact, portions of this road are still known today as “Jefferson” in the United States, primarily around Baton Rouge in La. and Wadena in Minn.
The cities the highway passed on its route included Alexandria and Shreveport, La.; Marshall, Texas; Muskogee, Okla.; Baxter Springs and Paola, Kan.; Carthage and Lee’s Summit, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis, Minn., just to name a few.
Conlin, a mapmaker by trade, started researching the highway and mapping the different routes it took on Google Maps.
He finally retired and took up researching, mapping and raising awareness about the highway as a full time endeavor.
He hopes to use his passion and his Web site, www.jeffersonhighway.com, to make a little money as well.
“I’m retired, collecting a pension,” Conlin said. “This is going to provide me with a little extra income, selling merchandise related to the Jefferson Highway. I’m going to sell merchandise; I’m going to sell advertising on my Web site, all that kind of stuff. I don’t expect to get rich, it’s more of a hobby, but I will make some money and it’s fun. I’ve had a blast riding this highway, people are so friendly.”
One of his expenses . . . well that would be a car to replace the one that was a casualty on this trip.
“We blew the car up the first day,” Conlin said. “We hooked the car up to the motor home and I forgot to take it out of gear. (It’s a stick shift.) The transmission’s burned up, the motor, the radiator, the alternator; everything inside the car is all burned out. It was smoking, there was steam everywhere, it was awful.”
“We pulled it at about 50 miles per hour in low gear,” Augustine added. “That motor was really revving up.”
Conlin said he’s garnered a bunch of publicity from this trip and that’s good for his hobby and Web site and, hopefully, for the highway.
“People are going to know about it now because every newspaper along the way has covered our trip, so people will know,” Conlin said. “It will be frustrating if nothing happens from it, but I don’t think that’s the case because there are a lot of different little museums and historical societies on the route that have kept their little piece of interest alive and now they’re all hooked together because of the map.”
