Captured: Gravel National Road segment
6 March 2013
The old National Road was built in the early 1800s to connect the East to what then passed for the West, but which we know today as the Midwest. In the 20th century, the old road became US 40, more or less.
This is one of the “less” parts – the only gravel alignment of the National Road I’ve ever found, and I’ve explored it all, from Maryland to Illinois. This is County Road 725 South, near the tiny town of Reelsville in Putnam County, Indiana. US 40 lies about 1,000 feet to the south. For whatever reason, US 40 wasn’t routed along this alignment, and so it was never improved to modern standards. It’s about as close to the 1800s National Road experience as you can get.
I’ve written extensively about the
National Road. Here’s a list of posts.
11 Comments
leave one →
The road in front of my folks’ house was gravel until 15-20 years ago. Boy, did the house get dusty quickly!
Yeah, just driving down that segment did a great job of coating my car in dust.
And to think we used to hang laundry out to dry. It’s amazing that our whites stayed white!
I imagine at one time this would have looked like a super highway if you were walking or riding a horse.
Absolutely. In the early 1800s many roads were cowpaths.
Are there any dwellings along it? Or is it just a gravel road?
There are a couple houses on it. But this is farm country, so the houses are few and far between anyway.
I guess it’s not as quiet as you would think being that the new alignment is just 400 so feet away. It looks so peaceful though!
You might be surprised by how lightly traveled US 40 is. It really is pretty quiet out here.
I was thinking something along the lines of what you said when I was looking at the photo. It’s not too hard to imagine what it must have been like taking everything you own and everyone you love slowly along this road in a Conestoga wagon 200 years ago into something not much more than a howling wilderness. Like you said, it’s about as close to the experience as you can get.
And just think — those wagon drivers covered maybe ten miles a day. I can cover 60 in an hour!