It was in Mendota Il that a committee was formed to promote a Meridian Highway for Illinois in December 1915. Men in Bloomington latched on to this idea and discussed it much through January 1916.
It was a simple and seemingly egalitarian idea, if you were a city in the midsection of the state. It followed the path of Highway 39, starting at Bloomington and only going north, never south.
Meetings in Bloomington on the 15th included men from Decatur, Rochelle, Rockford, LaSalle-Peru and Mendota. these men did not mean to build a highway, but merely to mark the existing roadways travelling generally along the superimposed route, with signs declaring it the "Meridian Highway." The signs would serve as a guide and would let people know that the road did "go somewhere." Directional signs would keep people on the trail and $2 memberships would support the signage.
As enthusiasm grew for the road, comunities were motivated to improve their stretch of the road. By 1917 the enthusiasm for the road had travelled as far as Corinth, Mississippi, where it was seen as a spur to tourism. The trail was said to stretch from Houghton, Michigan to Gulfport, Mississippi.
A placard was erected in Bloomington in 1916 that showed motorists the several "trails" leading to and from Bloomington -- The Diagonal Trail from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida; the Burlington Trail from Chicago to St. Louis, the P P B Way from Peoria, Pekin to Bloomington, the Indian Head Trail between Peoria, Mackinaw and Bloomington and the Bloomington Way from Quincy to Hoopeston.
The AAA site states that in the early 1900's motorist mostly used photo guides to find their way on the highway, because highways were not marked. http://www.aaa.com/aaa/074/centennial/webpages/maphistory.html So this idea to mark the Meridian of Illinois was truly ann innovation and a service to travellers as well as those moving goods by truck.
Comments