PITTSBURG, Kan. — Journey lovers who’re working to protect the historical past of one among America’s earliest highways will meet this week in Pittsburg  for his or her annual conference.

The Jefferson Freeway Affiliation will base its 2022 annual convention from Wednesday, June 1, to Saturday, June 4, on the La Quinta Inn, 2410 S. Broadway in Pittsburg, however don’t plan on seeing the attendees on the resort usually throughout that point.

Attendees will likely be touring all through the week to see websites associated to the previous “Pine to Palm Highway” at the least within the half that stretches alongside what now could be U.S. Freeway 69 in Southeast Kansas.

Chris Wilson, with Discover Crawford County, mentioned the conference is a singular probability for native residents to study extra about their historical past and the historical past of journey in the USA.

“I believe what’s fascinating, particularly in regards to the Jefferson Freeway Affiliation coming in, is from a neighborhood perspective how few of our native residents know in regards to the Jefferson Freeway and that historical past,” Wilson mentioned. “Most of us are very acquainted with Route 66 and the way that route has been traveled for actually generations now, however this sort of predates that, and I’m very excited to see the Jefferson Freeway Affiliation attempting to deliver that pleasure again and displaying off all the things that there’s between Canada and the Gulf Coast. As a result of there’s a lot, all the things from the historical past to various kinds of surroundings to how everybody all through these areas entertained themselves.”

The spring 2022 version of The Jefferson Freeway Affiliation’s publication, “Jefferson Freeway Declaration,” notes an array of sights that convention-goers can see, together with the well-known fried hen eating places round Pittsburg, the classic neon indicators on Broadway and different streets in Pittsburg, and the Jefferson Freeway Archive, a group of paperwork from the unique Jefferson Freeway Affiliation that promoted the freeway from 1916 into the Nineteen Twenties housed at Pittsburg State College.

Occasions of the convention embrace an all-day bus tour of the freeway round Southeast Kansas on Thursday, seminars and discussions, and an open home on the Jefferson Freeway archive at PSU and annual banquet on Friday, then a parade of vehicles on the Meadowbrook Mall and thru Pittsburg, and historic signal unveiling for the Jefferson Freeway Cafe.

Concerning the Jefferson Freeway

Earlier than there was a U.S. Freeway 69 in Kansas or U.S. Freeway 71 and I-49 in Missouri, there was the Jefferson Freeway.

Impressed partly by the creation of the east-west, cross-country Lincoln Freeway that was created within the early 1900s, organizers between Canada and the Gulf Coast began engaged on a north-south, transcontinental highway.

At the moment, roads had been fully the domaine of native communities and states, there have been no numbered federal highways till 1926, and personal associations had been fashioned by communities to advertise roads and the tourism made doable by the introduction of the auto.

The Jefferson Freeway was generally known as the “Pine to Palm Highway” as a result of it ran from Winnipeg in Canada to New Orleans, La, and its main proponent was E.T. Merefith, an Iowa businessman, writer and highway booster.

The freeway is known as the “Jefferson Freeway” as a result of all of the states concerned had been a part of President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Buy.

Over its historical past, many communities and corridors vied to construct one of the best all-weather roads for the time and to achieve the eye and recognition of being a part of the Jefferson Freeway, ensuing within the Jefferson Freeway map displaying parallel corridors between Kansas Metropolis and Southeast Kansas alongside what’s now U.S. 69 and between Kansas Metropolis and Joplin alongside what’s now I-49 and U.S. 71.

The affiliation had posted its personal indicators marking the freeway, however in 1927, the federal authorities’s numbering system for highways sidelined the Jefferson and Lincoln highways. It truly banned posting distinctive indicators on highways. The affiliation’s final map was printed in 1929. With the Nice Melancholy, funds dried up for such associations.

For extra particulars in regards to the conference or the Jefferson Freeway Affiliation, folks can see the web site at https://jeffersonhighway.org or see their Fb web page at https://www.fb.com/Jeffersonhighwayassociation.