• Deluxe 55 Passenger Motor Coach
• 10 Page Handout of the Tour
• 1 hour Guided Walking Tour of Historic Buildings on the Route 66 corridor in Chicago’s Loop.
• Lunch at Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket, Willowbrook, Illinois.
• Walking Tour of downtown Joliet, where we will see the Rialto Theater and historic buildings constructed of “Joliet limestone.”
• Visit to the Route 66 Welcome Center and Gift Shop at the Joliet Historical Museum
• Free Time shopping at the Ben Franklin Store in Wilmington, Illinois.
• Free Time shopping and exploring historic Water Street in Wilmington, Illinois.

The tours will depart from Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, with some exceptions. They will normally start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. For cost, dates, and other details, please go to the Windy City Road Warrior Tour Page!

I was happy to see the fine layout of the article I wrote, “Filling the Skies with Commerce.” This is part one of a two-part series about connections between Route 66, Chicago, and pioneering events and places in aviation history.

The magazine is high quality from cover to cover. Kudos to Bob Moore and Paul & Sandi Taylor for another great job!
You can find out more about the issue and subscribing to this fine periodical at their website, route66magazine.com.

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As of today, I have two presentations in April and five in May. Most libraries ask that people wishing to attend events register in advance by phone or on their websites. All the necessary contact information is just a single mouse click away, by clicking on the link on the upper right, or by clicking here!

If anyone would like more general information about my Historic Route 66 presentations–especially if you have a venue that might want to host an event–take a look at this website’s Presentation Page.

While Mr. Sheets is not a household name, it is my view that his contributions to the Illinois section of 66 make him worthy of being called the “Father of Route 66 in Illinois.” I guess I made a good case, because this weekend the Hall of Fame committee voted in favor of Mr. Sheets’ induction. I appreciate the committee’s due diligence and careful consideration that let to this positive outcome.So, who is Frank Sheets? I have the full nominating materials that I submitted available for viewing or download here (warning, the file is 1.5 megabytes and may take a while to open or download). Below are some bullet points about Mr. Sheets:

• Frank T. Sheets headed the Illinois Division of Highways from 1920-1932. During his tenure, the state came from “out of the mud” to break the record four times for miles paved in a year by any state. The Division’s work under his command included the completion of hard surface pavement on all of Illinois State Bond Issue (SBI) Route 4 between Chicago and the McKinley Bridge (over the Mississippi River into St. Louis) by the end of 1926. When U.S. 66 was commissioned and routed along SBI 4, Illinois could boast of being the only state with hard roads along the entire length of its share of the highway.
• Mr. Sheets also served as President of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) and a member of its “Committee of Five” that created the original U.S. Highway map and numbering system. He fought against the regional interests that wanted the highway connecting Los Angeles and St. Louis to continue east through Kentucky and Virginia. He and his fellow committee members won the battle for a “single-numbered highway” connecting Chicago to Los Angeles, and thus they created the highway we now “preserve and promote.”
• From 1927-1932, the Division of Highways under Mr. Sheets continued to improve Route 66 with wider pavements, grade separations, and the change in routing that brought such beloved towns as Litchfield and Hamel into the Route 66 community.

For these reasons, I thought that Frank T. Sheets belonged in the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame. He was in charge of building, maintaining, and improving the highway, and he was instrumental in its designation as U.S. Highway 66. I believe he truly is the Father of Route 66 in Illinois. I am glad the Hall of Fame committee agreed as to his worthiness for induction.

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• As stated in a previous post, I gave a presentation on Historic Route 66 at the Park Ridge, Illinois Library on February 26, 2008. There was a snowstorm the previous day, and the night of the 26th was extremely cold, but nonetheless an overflow crowd showed up to see the presentation. It’s great to see so many folks with an interest in 66–so much so that they brave nasty weather in order to take a virtual tour on the Mother Road. My thanks again to the staff at the Park Ridge Library for hosting the event and helping to make the evening a success.
• In February, I spent a large chunk of time preparing a nomination for the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame. Each year, nominations are sent to the Hall of Fame committee for people, businesses, or structures that “have made significant contributions to the character or history of the Illinois portion of Route 66 while it was an official United States highway in the State (1927-1977),” (quoting from the Association’s bylaws). The person I nominated was Frank T. Sheets, who was in charge of the Illinois Division of Highways from 1920-1932. In 1926, when State Bond Issue (SBI) Route 4 was designated as U.S. 66, Illinois was the only state that could boast of having its entire piece of the highway completely paved with a hard surface. Frank Sheets was the guy in charge of making that happen. Later today, I will post up the full text of my nomination. Yesterday, I received a call from Marilyn Pritchard, Hall of Fame Museum Curator, and she told me that Frank Sheets had indeed been inducted into the Hall of Fame by the committee. This is great news, since, in my opinion, Mr. Sheets was truly the Father of Route 66 in Illinois. So check back a little later to read more about Mr. Sheets.
• On Saturday, after a long, bitter winter, I gave my first walking tour of 2008. An Irish family from Toronto was in town for St. Patrick’s Day. They had never been to Chicago before and had little foreknowledge of Route 66, so I gave them a good orientation to the city and the highway. It was 40 degrees and a bit breezy, but as always we explored inside of buildings as well as outside, so we were never far from places to warm up. So, to anyone out there–if you come to Chicago, I am available to give you a tour that will be enjoyable even if the weather isn’t!

I’ll be working on my next quarterly newsletter in the next few days–I have several more library presentations coming up in April and May, as well as other announcements. Stay tuned!

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U.S. Highway 66 was created along with all of the other original U.S. numbered highways when the first map was approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO). As in all states, the U.S. routes in Illinois were placed on existing state public highways. Originally, 66 followed State Bond Issue (SBI) Route 4 from Chicago to the McKinley Bridge over the Mississippi River in Venice, Illinois. In 1930, the alignment was moved away from SBI 4 from Springfield to Staunton, following SBI 126 from Springfield to Litchfield, and SBI 16 from Litchfield to Staunton.

Prior to 1918, the State’s role in road building was to help county and township highway departments with design and planning of roads and bridges and to administer the State Aid and Federal Aid programs. In 1918, the voters of Illinois ratified “An Act in relation to the construction by the State of Illinois of a State-wide system of durable hard-surfaced roads upon public highways of the State and the provision of means for the payment of the cost therof by the issue of bonds of the State of Illinois.” The law would come to be known as the $60 Million Highway Act, and it was the first legislation to authorize direct “construction by the State of Illinois,” rather than simply providing funding and design aid to local highway departments.

Each of the SBI routes authorized by the Act, numbered 1 through 46, were mandated by the act to connect some specific municipalities; the Illinois Division of Highways was given the authority to choose the specific right-of-way and alignment. The Act described SBI 4 as follows:

Thus, SBI 4 was mandated to connect Springfield to Edwardsville via Carlinville. The 1918 Road Act also created SBI 16, which would become important to the Route 66 story later:

The important section for U.S. 66 purposes was the stretch of SBI 16 that would place hard surfaces upon the road between Litchfield and Staunton.

In all cases, the SBI routes would follow existing public highways and would use pavements that had been previously constructed using State Aid or Federal Aid. Within cities and towns, existing streets would also be utilized where practical. In areas outside of municipal limits, existing State Aid pavement considered acceptable according to State quality standards was utilized where practical; in most cases this existing pavement was sixteen feet wide and followed section lines. As the state building program continued, new right-of-way was acquired for wider pavements and elimination of right-angle turns. The state had no jurisdiction or funds for constructing pavements within municipalities of greater than 2500 in population. In Springfield and other large cities, the SBI routes were built to the corporate limit. In 1923, the state was granted permits to mark the routes within large cities as an aid to the traveler.

The Division of Highways started publishing Route Bulletins in 1924, designed to inform the traveling public of the conditions and pavements they would experience on the evolving SBI system. The 1927 Route Bulletin was the first to contain a map of the SBI routes through Springfield:

Anyone who has driven the “Historic Route 66″ alignments as marked currently by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) can instantly see that the route shown here for SBI 4 as of 1927 bears little resemblance to what is now marked with brown-and-white signs as “Historic Route 66 1926-1930.” It is clear from this Route Bulletin map that SBI 4, and Route 66, did NOT follow the currently-marked route prior to 1930. (We will see as we go here where that incorrect routing had its genesis.) Is is also clear that the correct original routing of U.S. 66 and SBI 4 was: entering Springfield from the north on Peoria St., veer south on 9th Street, turn west on Enos, south on 6th Street, west on Capitol Ave., south on 2nd Street, west on South Grand, and south on West Grand (now known as MacArthur Blvd).

Another Road Act was ratified in 1924, calling for an additional $100 million in bonds for road building to complete the original 46 SBI routes and to add many shorter connection routes to the system. Included within the new routes was SBI 126:

Legal challenges to the new law, and the mandate that all of the original 46 routes had to be completed first, delayed the start of work on SBI 126 and the other new routes until 1928. The 1928 Division of Highways Annual Report showed that the state had grand plans for SBI 126 once it was completed:

The dotted line from Springfield to Staunton via Carlinville indicates a “temporary” routing of U.S. 66, and the solid line through Litchfield indicates that this was the intended permanent routing. This brings up the intriguing possibility that if the 1924 $100 Million Road Act had not been delayed, and therefore work on SBI 126 could have been started four years earlier, 66 would have never followed the “temporary” routing along SBI 4 through Carlinville.

The 1929 Route Bulletin showed no changes to SBI 4 (still 66), but did acknowledge the new presence of a portion of SBI 126:

Above, we see SBI 126 heading south out of Springfield on 6th Street. The same Route Bulletin indicates 13.9 miles of completed pavement on SBI 126:

So, as of 1929, the pavement of SBI 126 ends 6 miles south of Cotton Hill. Clearly, 126 was not yet ready for “prime time” as a U.S. highway alignment, but that would change just a year later. Here is the description of SBI 126 from the 1930 Route Bulletin:

Only 0.6 miles of SBI 126 was gravel as of this Route Bulletin, the rest had hard surfaces. The routing of SBI 4 and 126 remained the same through Springfield as shown in the 1929 bulletin map (above), but now U.S. 66 could take its permanent alignment. At 6th and Capitol, 66 continued south on 6th Street with 126, rather than turning west on Capitol with SBI 4.

There were no changes shown in the 1931 Route Bulletins, but a major change in 1932:

Here, we see major routing changes to SBI 4 and SBI 126/U.S. 66 within Springfield. 66 still entered Springfield along Peoria Rd. from the north, then veered onto 9th Street as before. Eliminated was the jog west on Enos–instead, 66 went straight south on 9th to South Grand, then south on 6th Street with SBI 126. Also striking here is a new re-route of SBI 4, parting company with 66 north of the Fair Grounds (Taintor Road), south on 5th Street, west on North Grand, and again south on 2nd Street. This clearly represents a NEW alignment of SBI 4, separate from U.S. 66, and the first time that any state route followed the roads north and west of the Fair Grounds. This is 1932–two years AFTER the period the current “Historic Route 66 1926-1930″ signage covers. Clearly, these brown-and-white signs in Springfield are clearly just plain wrong.

Here is hoping that the signage will be corrected before the Scenic Byway program within Illinois proceeds.

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Just a reminder to anyone interested–I will be bringing my “Historic Route 66″ PowerPoint presentation to the Park Ridge Public Library on Tuesday, February 26th at 7 p.m. The Library is located at 20 S. Prospect Street, just south of Touhy Avenue and Northwest Highway. The Library would like anyone interested in attending to register by calling 847-825-3123 or by using their online E-vents registration.

Also on the Internet Archive site is the 1917 Illinois Road and Bridge Laws, a fascinating resource of information in a transitional phase of road building in the state. Prior to 1913, responsibility for maintaining the public highways of the state resided with townships, county road districts, and municipalities. In 1913, the state created a State Aid program that required each county to take charge of what would be considered the “primary” highways in their jurisdiction and provided that the state would pay half of the cost of construction, as well as the total cost of maintenance of State-Aid “hard roads.” By 1918, the state formally entered into the business of road building, with the passage of the $60 million dollar road bond law. The laws remained relatively unchanged until more roads were added to the State system in 1924, with another bond issue of $100 million dollars.

I have not had the chance to explore the Internet Archive in more detail, but I certainly will. It is a great online resource, and I thank the Lincoln Highway Association for introducing me to it!

Nicolson Pavement

Originally uploaded by daveandcarol.geo

In my recent research on early Chicago roads, I came across references to “Nicolson Pavement.” A little internet search brought me to this page, where the University of Michigan has placed the full text of over 10,000 books on line. This is a great resource, named the Making of America (MOA) Book collection, that I intend to explore further. The book that this drawing is from is titled The Nicolson Pavement, published in 1859.

Samuel Nicolson of Boston came up with several methods for paving streets with wood blocks that were secured in place by a mixture of pebbles and pine tar. The book indicates that the first use of Nicolson pavement in Chicago was on Wells Street south of the Chicago River in 1856.

“Like all the other great highways of the early days, it became a plank road. Milwaukee avenue ws the northwestern plank road, Madison was the western plank road; Ogden avenue, which branched off it, was the southwestern plank road. The Madison street plank road was carried out westward fromt he city to the branch of the Desplaines river at Robinson’s. This work was done in 1850 and 1851. The road was soon built west to the DuPage county line, making seventeen miles in all. The Elgin and Genoa company then carried the plank work westward through DuPage county for twenty-eight miles, making a total plank highway to the west of fifty miles.

“The Southern Plank Road was carried out ten miles to Kile’s tavern. This is said to have been the best plank road leading out of the city. It was kept in better repair and was more popular than any of the others. It led to Riverside and LaGrange. Another famous old road that branched out of Madison street was what is now Colorado avenue. In 1834 and for may years afterward it was known as Barry Point road, because it led to the Widow Barry’s farm.

“Many interesting associations cling about the intersection of Madison street and Ogden avenue, where the plank roads joined. Here was situated the famous Bull’s Head Inn and the first Chicago cattle market. This cattle yard began business in a small way in 1848, just southeast of the intersection of the plank roads. There was nothing west of Ashland avenue, known as Reuben street at that time. Farmers from all over that wild section beyond Ann street [now Racine] used to drive their herds into this market; wild uncouth men from the wilderness, some of them coming in from as far as Oak Park.”

For those unfamiliar, Oak Park is about 5.5 miles west of the Madison and Ogden intersection, so by today’s standards it seems that those wild and uncouth Oak Parkers did not have far to go through the wilderness to offend the sensibilities of the refined Chicago city-dwellers. It would not suprise me if virginal city ladies had many a sleepless night from the nightmares of having Oak Parkers so close at hand–much like barbarians at the gates of Rome! Here’s hoping they were wearing their chastity belts at all times when perambulating around the west side plank roads!

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