Then & Now: Dixie Highway – Crete

Until the late 1890s, roads were considered by many to be a local responsibility. The supervision of the roads often fell to elected officials, but the basic maintenance was left up to local residents.

The United States government also took a more active role in road development and in 1893, created the Office of Public Road Inquires to help advise state and local officials on the best methods of improving roads.

Although the push for improved roads became popular in the late 19th century, the real impetus for improved roads came with the development of the automobile. After 1908, when Henry Ford’s new assembly line made his Model-T more affordable to a large number of Americans, the demand would fade if there were no reliable roads to use.

To address the need for improved roads for automobiles, an alliance of highway supports, auto trade associations, and others supported a network of national roads. The most famous of these roads was the Lincoln Highway, which would connect the east and west coasts of the United States.

Established in 1913, the Lincoln Highway stretches from Times Square, New York City, to the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Envisioned by Carl Graham Fisher, the Lincoln Highway is the world’s largest memorial to President Abraham Lincoln.

Fisher was an entrepreneur involved with manufacturing headlights for automobiles; he developed the idea of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and owned it with partners; he drove the first pace car for the Indianapolis 500 in 1911; and he was an early promoter of Miami Beach in Florida.

Fisher also became a champion of America’s first north-to-south interstate paved road, known as the Dixie Highway. He desired a reliable route for his friends and others to drive south from Michigan to Florida. At the south end of the Dixie Highway in Miami, Florida, Fisher got involved in the successful real estate development of the new resort city of Miami Beach.

In April 1915, Georgia governor John M. Slaton and representatives from five other states met in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the inaugural meeting of the Dixie Highway Association (DHA).

Selecting its north-south route was on the top of their agenda, but it did become a politicized task. Chicago, Illinois, was originally the northern terminus, but after Michigan joined the DHA, alternative routes were considered.

During the debate, Georgia’s representatives, and others, proposed the idea that western and eastern divisions of the Dixie Highway were warranted. Soon, the idea of a single route highway was abandoned, and instead, the Dixie Highway soon developed as a network system of major divisions and connecting routes from Sault Ste. Marie on the Canadian border to Florida.

From the beginning, the largest problem facing the DHA was a lack of funding. This would mean that every county on the proposed route had to fund, pave and maintain its section of the roadway.

In 1916, Congress passed the Federal Aid Road Act, which offered federal grants for state rural roads. This act would help those states, which would match the federal funding and also create a state highway department to oversee the spending of funds.

Once the Dixie Highway was completed, anyone with a car could head south for a summer or winter vacation. So popular was the highway that many local entrepreneurs opened gas stations, garages, restaurants, souvenir shops and roadside produce stands for the traveling public.

The Dixie Highway ceased to exist by name in 1926, when state and federal highway officials replaced named roadways with numbered highways.