The Jefferson Highway Blazing the way from Winnipeg to New Orleans

Henry (emer., political sciences, Mount Mercy Univ.) offers an overview of the multistate, grassroots movement that in 1915 created the Jefferson Highway Association (JHA). Its objective: an "automobile trail" between Winnipeg, MB, and New Orleans, LA, a distance of 2,300 miles. Inspired by the burgeoning east-west, transcontinental Lincoln Highway, backers located, marked, and promoted what they hoped would become an all-weather road. By the mid-1920s, the organization had declined, largely because the federal government took control of what became a network of numbered interstate highways. In 1929, JHA supporters took pride that their core artery, which also included several alternative roads, was at last fully hard surfaced. In the book's second part, Henry extensively examines the JHA in Iowa, providing coverage of its gestation, maturity, and demise. Then, in tour-guide fashion, the author reveals how travelers today might trace the remnants of this pioneering north-south highway through the Hawkeye State. The book is well researched, features both historical and contemporary photographs, and generally fits into the larger context of the "good-roads" movement of the early 20th century. Summing Up: Recommended. Public and undergraduate libraries. --H. Roger Grant, Clemson University