These pages document and illustrate my road trips,
most recent first.
2012 Trips
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The Dixie Highway in southern Indiana (10/13/2012): Continuing my Dixie Highway adventure, I picked it up near Martinsville along some old alignments I had explored before. South of Bloomington I reached new-to-me territory, following old alignments all the way to Paoli. Time didn't permit me to follow it the rest of the way to Kentucky. Road traveled: State Road 37
The Dixie Highway in western Indiana (5/12/12): I decided that this year I would try to clinch Indiana's Dixie Highway. I've driven it from Indianapolis to South Bend, from Indianapolis to Bloomington, and from the Ohio line to Indianapolis on earlier trips. For my first 2012 road trip, I covered the western mainline, which is essentially US 136 from the Illinois state line to Indianapolis. Road traveled: US 136 |
2011 Trips
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The National Road in Ohio (5/28-30/11): I finally clinched the National Road by driving it across Ohio. It is at its best in the eastern part of the state, from teh Ohio River to Zanesville, as it winds through Ohio's most rugged terrain. Lots of old alignments remain, some of them of brick and concrete. Beetween Zanesville and Springfield, the road is interesting for the buildings that stand on it. West of Springfield, it is said that funds ran out for building the road. Today, there's not much to recommend this part of the road except for the two places where flood-control projects resulted in reroutings.
Road traveled: US 40 |
2010 Trips
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US
50 in Indiana (6/5/2010, 7/3/2010, and 8/28/10): I decided to tour
US 50 this summer thanks to a fellow named Elias Conwell, who built a
house in Napoleon on the Michigan Road in the 1820s. He was a
prominent businessman in Aurora, through which US 50 passes. This road
was originally cobbled together out of a patchwork of country roads,
but was straightened, widened, and moved many times in the years that
followed. That meant plenty of glorious old alignments. I followed as
many of them as I could find.
Road traveled: US 50 |
2009 Trips
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The
National Road in Western Indiana, Revisited (8/8/09): I've learned
a lot about old roads since my first road trip three years ago. I had
driven the National Road from Baltimore to the Ohio line earlier in
the year and still had the National Road itch. So I returned to the
path of that first trip
– US 40 and the National Road in western Indiana. I saw more
on the road this time simply because my eyes are that much more open
now.
Road traveled: US 40 |
US
50 in Illinois (5/25/09): Someone I follow on Flickr posted a
bunch of photos of several abandoned steel-truss bridges along old US
50 in Illinois. They led me to look up US 50's original routes through
Illinois, and before long my appetite was whetted for a long day trip
to see the old road. So I loaded up my dog, picked up a friend on the
way, and spent a good day on the highway.
Road traveled: US 50 |
2008 Trips
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State
Road 42 (10/18/08): I wanted an autumn drive on a lonely road where I
wouldn't be bothered. State Road 42, which runs from just southwest of
Indianapolis to Terre Haute, was just right. It features two steel truss
bridges, one drop-dead-gorgeous concrete arch bridge, a handful of really tiny
towns, and a ton of 90-degree curves that drive pesky traffic to nearby I-70.
Road traveled: SR42 |
The Michigan Road: The
state of Indiana built a handful of roads in the 1820s and 1830s, mostly to
allow access to the state's new capital at Indianapolis. The Michigan Road did
even more than that – it let people migrate northern Indiana
lands newly relinquished by the Indians who had lived there. Where other early
state roads can't be driven end to end today, anybody can get on the Michigan
Road in Madison a half-mile north of the Ohio River and after several hours
arrive at the end, within sight of Lake Michigan at Michigan City. And oh, the
Indiana history that unfolds along the route. Plenty of living and dying has
gone on around this road in its about 180 years, and plenty of evidence of this
long past remains.
During the sunny and warm months of
2008, bit by bit I'll drive the Michigan Road end to end. I'll update this site
as I go, so if you keep checking back you will occasionally find the next
segment of the road described and illustrated. I've share some historical
information about the road and the places along it, as well as some old
photographs of those places so you can see how this cross-section of Indiana has
grown up.
Roads traveled: SR 29, Old SR 107, US 421, Old SR 329, SR 25, Old US 31, US 20, US
35, plus several highways that multiplex in and out.
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2007 Trips
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The National
Road in Indiana and Illinois, Revisited (11/11/07): I returned to the
National Road to explore an Indiana alignment I missed before, see what happened
to bridges and culverts along the abandoned brick National Road in Illinois, see
Illinois's one remaining stone arch bridge along the Road, and get a closer look
at the Road in Effingham. Roads traveled: US 40 |
Old
US 31 in Northern Indiana (9/15/07): I grew up four blocks from US 31 in
South Bend and have made hundreds of trips to and from Indianapolis on this
four-lane divided monstrosity. I just don't enjoy this road. But much of the
original two-lane, non-monstrosity alignment of US 31 still exists. When an old
friend from South Bend told me that he remembers following some of the original
alignment as a child before the current highway was built, he and I decided to
explore the original road. I brought along two old road guides from the 1910s
and 1920s, and they had us sniffing out alignments of US 31's predecessor
routes, too, from the Michigan state line to the fine homes along Meridian St.
in Indianapolis. Roads traveled: US 31
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The National Road
in Illinois (7/7/07): An old friend told me that when he used to drive to work from Terre
Haute to Marshall, IL, every day, he drove by a lot of brick road. Figuring it must be
an old alignment of US 40 and possibly of the National Road, I made plans to explore.
It turns out that about 30 miles of brick and cement
road parallels current US 40, often no more than 20 feet away. It was laid in
the early 1920s over the National Road and became US 40's first route through
Illinois. Many small
towns founded along the road are still there today, their old downtowns mostly
intact and maintained. After the brick and cement road disappeared, we continued
to Vandalia, where the National Road ended, to see Illinois's only Madonna
of the Trail. Roads traveled: US 40 |
US
36 from Indianapolis to Rockville (5/28/07): I was dissatisfied with my last
road trip down US 36 in western Indiana because I didn't find everything I was
looking for. So when I found myself surprised with nothing to do on Memorial
Day, I did some quick research, grabbed my camera, and hopped into my car for
another trip along this original 1926 US highway that has ties to an old Auto
Trail. I took every road that I thought might have been part of an old
alignment, and along the way found two covered bridges, a couple miles of dirt
and gravel, and a lake that stands where US 36 used to go. Roads traveled: US
36
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State
Road 37 from Indianapolis to Bloomington (5/13/07): After visiting a friend
in Bloomington in April and seeing possibilities of old alignments everywhere
along this road, I began itching to make my first 2007 road trip. Much of SR
37's original route still exists and is drivable. I was excited to find a long
abandoned segment of old SR 37, plus a pleasant long stretch of the old road the
last 15 miles before Bloomington. Roads traveled: SR 37 |
2006 Trips
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West Central Indiana
Day Trip (10/28/06): A free weekend just after the peak of fall colors drew
me to two twisty old favorites, State Road 47 and US 41, and gave me an
opportunity to explore some old alignments of US 36. I also detoured to
Bridgeton to see an old friend reborn. Roads traveled: SR 47, US 41, US 36 |
Southern Indiana
Excursion (9/3-4/06): Glaciers flattened Indiana south to about Brown
County. So northern Indiana's roads are straight and flat because there were no
obstacles to build roads around.
Bring coffee when you drive I-65, US 31, and I-69 north of Indianapolis lest the
vast straightness and flatness lull you to sleep. But southern Indiana's terrain rolls in
many areas, and many of its forests are preserved with state and federal funds.
So not only did highway crews build rolling and twisty roads around existing
terrain, sometimes cutting into rock to create a level road bed, they paved
roads through some lovely places. Navigating these roads' curves and hills is a
lot of fun, and the views in Brown, Crawford, and Harrison counties can be
breathtaking. Roads traveled: SR 135, SR 45, US 231, US 150, SR 37, SR 62,
I-164, SR 66, SR 64, SR 145, SR 56, SR 39, SR 250 |
US 40 from Indianapolis to Illinois
(7/15/06): Over most of its route in Indiana, US 40 is the old National
Road, the nation's first federally funded highway. The road has been realigned
in several places over the years, usually to replace an old bridge. Many
segments of old
alignments still exist. I grabbed a friend and we explored all of them that we
could find between downtown Indianapolis and the Illinois state line. One was
abandoned, and one is now a service road for a state prison, but the rest are
still maintained. We drove them and took pictures. Roads traveled: US 40
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