Whether your summer travels take you across the country or a short trip around the state, you will find yourself on historic roads. A couple of which date back to the earliest highways in the U.S. Traveling along Highway 36 and State Route MM, you'll be going along parts of the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway, an early east-west coast-to-coast highway established in 1912. When it was completed, it linked New York City to Los Angeles. Highway 36, which parallels the route of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, was established in 1914 and completed a decade later. Today that highway stretches from Colorado to Ohio.
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Heading north or south, you'll likely spend some time on pathways of the Jefferson Highway, known as the "Palm to Pine Highway," and recognized as the first trans-continental highway from Canada to the Gulf Coast. It was built in the 1910s as part of the National Auto Trail system. Named for President Thomas Jefferson, it transverses the Louisiana Purchase. Parts of I-29 and State Highways 169, 49, and 71 travel the old route.
(Map: American Automobile Association. (1918) General Map of Transcontinental Routes With Principal Connections. Washington, D.C. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/73692230/.)
