Roadsleuthing

Warning: Roadgeekery of the highest order ahead.

Aurora, Indiana
US 50 and old US 50 in Aurora, Indiana

What passed for highways in the 20th century’s first few decades would surprise you. They were usually cobbled together from existing local and farm roads, so they were often unpaved and routinely followed meandering paths or were full of 90-degree turns around property boundaries. As more people bought cars, they wanted their highways paved and straightened, and states obliged. Indiana in particular seems to have started improving its highways in the early 1920s and built a full head of new-highway steam during the 1930s. Very often, these improvements left the highways’ old alignments behind. Regular readers of my blog know that I looooooove to find those old alignments. Sometimes I’m asked how I find them.

I always start with Google Maps. Just by scrolling along the highway, I find all sorts of likely old alignments. Anytime a road branches off at an angle, it may be an old alignment. Sometimes Google Maps even labels them as such, which is about as good as gift-wrapping them. Here, Old US 50 branches away from current US 50. The old highway leads directly to the little town of Dillsboro; the modern road bypasses it.

Sometimes Google Maps reveals road segments that curve around the modern road. Here, as four-lane US 50 leaves Aurora, it is bracketed by Indiana Ave. and Trester Hill Rd. I’ve drawn a green line showing how the former flows right into the latter. I’ll lay money on this being US 5o’s previous routing.

Sometimes the road’s path has been modified so much that its original path is not obvious. Here, US 50 bypasses the little town of Holton. Do you see near the map’s right edge how US 50 curves away from its formerly straight path, yet a road continues straight from that fork? That just screams old alignment. That road is even labeled Versailles St., which is a good sign as that is the next town to the east, and old highways very often were named for the towns they connected.

Versailles St. continues westbound for another mile beyond the edge of the image above, but then it forks widely, and neither fork reconvenes with modern US 50. This is when I get out my old maps and road guides. I have a stack of Indiana road maps going back to about 1920 and a CD-ROM full of even older Indiana road maps that I bought from a collector on eBay. As they cover the entire state, they only show the old highways’ general shapes, but sometimes that’s enough.

Typical ABB cover

When the maps don’t solve the mystery โ€“ and they didn’t for the road around Holton โ€“ I reach for my Automobile Blue Books. These were published annually from 1901 through about 1930, giving printed turn-by-turn directions between most cities across the nation. The company that published them employed people to drive around the country, find the best ways to get between the nation’s cities and towns, and write detailed directions. This was a real service in the days before auto trails and numbered state and US highways as there were often no direct roads between major destinations, and signs were spotty and inconsistent. The oldest ABBs leaned heavily on landmarks in their directions (such as, “Right past school”); it was often the best that could be done. Over the years, ABB directions got simpler and shorter as more direct routes were built and as roads began to be signed. I own 1916 and 1924 “Middle West” ABBs; the earlier volume has nearly twice the pages as the later book. Numbered state and US highways finally put the ABB out of business as their signs made wayfinding almost trivial.

Back to Holton. The 1916 ABB tells the driver to “cross RR. at Holton Sta. 58.5.” 58.5 is the number of miles from the beginning of this route, which began in Cincinnati. It continued: “59.5. Left-hand road; turn left. 60.0. Cross RR. and immediately turn right. Caution for downgrade, cross bridge 61.6, running upgrade beyond.” The 1924 ABB describes the same path, even calling it “State Highway No. 4.” So after you cross the railroad tracks on Versailles St., you drive a mile, turn left, drive another half mile, cross the tracks again, and turn right. Well, exactly one mile west of the railroad tracks in Holton is that long driveway at the left edge of the map image above. That driveway was once the highway! It continued south of the farmhouse and crossed the tracks. That crossing was removed somewhere along the way.

The 1916 ABB talks about crossing a bridge at 61.6 miles. When I trace the route and count the miles, there’s a bridge on modern US 50 at that point. But Google Maps shows something else just south of the current bridge โ€“ an older, abandoned bridge!

I was pressed for time and had not done full research before I made my recent trip along this portion of US 50. I didn’t know about this bridge and so missed the opportunity to photograph it! (Fortunately, a bridgefan passed through here before me, photographed the bridge, and shared his findings at bridgehunter.com.)

In my rush I also missed a great possible old alignment. Back where US 50 leaves Aurora, I had guessed that Indiana Ave. and Trester Hill Rd. were US 50’s old alignment. I still think that, but apparently an even older path lurks. My 1924 ABB sends the driver down US 50’s current corridor, but my 1916 ABB very clearly sends the driver down Lower Dillsboro Rd., a winding drive through the country.

Because the US route system began in 1926, and my 1924 ABB specifies US 50’s current corridor, Lower Dillsboro Rd. was never US 50. But US 50 was originally signed along old State Road 4, which came into being in 1917 when Indiana formed its first numbered highway system. I’d need a 1917 (or maybe 1918) ABB to know for sure whether old State Road 4 ran along Lower Dillsboro Rd., but my gut says it did. Remember how I said that the first numbered highways ran along existing roads? Dillsboro is the next town west of Aurora; it sure makes sense that Indiana signed its highway along the existing road to Dillsboro!

Even the oldest roads were sometimes improved. At 4.8 miles west of downtown Aurora, the 1916 ABB cautions the driver: “Caution for sharp right and left turns across small bridge.” I traced the route to 4.8 miles and found this:

Do you see the old bridge there just above the center of the image? It is now part of somebody’s driveway. Lower Dillsboro Rd. now sweeps smoothly by. Can you see the traces of the original route?

I’ll have to make a return trip to catch Lower Dillsboro Rd. and that abandoned bridge west of Holton. But now you know how I find the old alignments. You can do it too. Even if you don’t want to lay out the dough for the maps and road guides, Google Maps and your wits will get you at least halfway there.

Have you ever wondered how many times a road’s path must change before it’s no longer the same road? I sure have.

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Comments

21 responses to “Roadsleuthing”

  1. Lone Primate Avatar

    “Warning: Roadgeekery of the highest order ahead.”

    AllllRIIIIIGHT! :D

    …Now I’ll go back and read…

  2. Lone Primate Avatar

    Correct me if I’m wrong, Carl-Bob, but I’d say there’s a strong possibility that Gnawbone Road (WHAT an original name) was an even older alignment of Hwy 50 and that Indiana Avenue was the slick, cars-are-going-faster-now alignment to improve it, say, in the 1940s or 1950s. That’s a guess, of course!

    I’ve seen some really nice examples of this kind of thing. North of Toronto, there used to be a pair of curves connecting Leslie Street and Woodbine Avenue along Mulock Dr./Vivian Rd. called Bogartown Curve and Pleasantville Curve. I understand they were notorious in the 60s through the 80s for young guys who’d just gotten their licenses to cruise at the top speed they had the guts to muster. There were made redundant by the extension of the 404 up the middle in and were closed in the 80s; Leslie Street was reconnected to itself again, and now they’re just sad remnants… you can see them here…

    http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bogarttown+Curve,+Newmarket,+Ontario&sll=43.719505,-79.411926&sspn=0.501219,0.895386&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bogarttown+Curve,+Newmarket,+York+Regional+Municipality,+Ontario&ll=44.050522,-79.419608&spn=0.015576,0.044332&t=h&z=15

    http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bogarttown+Curve,+Newmarket,+Ontario&sll=43.719505,-79.411926&sspn=0.501219,0.895386&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bogarttown+Curve,+Newmarket,+York+Regional+Municipality,+Ontario&t=h&ll=44.050152,-79.414673&spn=0.031153,0.055962&z=14&layer=c&cbll=44.05081,-79.404492&panoid=06gTu7uLQh6r8P2reblPQQ&cbp=12,290.52,,0,5

    http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bogarttown+Curve,+Newmarket,+Ontario&sll=43.719505,-79.411926&sspn=0.501219,0.895386&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bogarttown+Curve,+Newmarket,+York+Regional+Municipality,+Ontario&t=h&layer=c&cbll=44.048649,-79.424049&panoid=muCyDHOIkO5RjdZiiuS8yA&cbp=12,84.64,,0,5&ll=44.048432,-79.425927&spn=0.003925,0.006995&z=17

    Old 1908 (missed) bridge… the photos on bridgefinder… isn’t that gorgeous? Imagine driving across that, years ago, when it was isolated. That must have been something.

    Go get ’em, tiger. :)

    1. Jim Avatar

      Yep, good call, Gnawbone Road is probably an even older alignment. If you go to the aerial map on max zoom, you’ll find some evidence to bolster the claim. Here’s the link to that spot; zoom in to max and tell me what further evidence you see.

      http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=aurora,+in&sll=39.858734,-86.216548&sspn=0.007972,0.016329&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Aurora,+Dearborn,+Indiana&ll=39.046119,-84.922138&spn=0.004033,0.008165&t=h&z=17

      Couldn’t tell you when all the realignments happened, of course, without doing serious research at INDOT (Indiana Dept. of Transportation). I don’t have any connections there, alas.

      The links you included are very cool. I have to wonder why they removed most of the Pleasantville Curve. It might be useful still if they had left it in.

      I am still mad at myself for missing that 1908 bridge. There are a handful of abandoned bridges like that in Indiana — the road was moved, sometimes a considerable distance, and they tore out the old road, but left the bridge.

    2. Jim Avatar

      And PS. There’s actually a tiny town called Gnaw Bone in Indiana, in Brown County on SR 46. I am also aware of some places that no longer exist in Indiana that were named Lick Skillet. The Lick Skillets are said to have been so named because their residents were so poor that to get enough to eat they not only had to clean their plate, but lick the skillet. I imagine Gnaw Bone’s name has a similar origin.

  3. tina Avatar

    This is pretty cool. I bet I could find some of these “old alignments” around my area just by using Google.

    1. Jim Avatar

      Tina, yep, you probably could. Try following US 41 — I’ll bet it has tons of old alignments. It has roots in some pretty old roads — Tamiami Trail and maaaaybe the Dixie Highway. Anyway, a quick map scan and I already found one old alignment of 41 just north of a bridge into a place labeled Gibsontown.

  4. Aaron Moman Avatar

    Love this stuff! Fascinating as always. Maybe I can tag along on a trip sometime?

    1. Jim Avatar

      I’d love to have you along. I’m thinking about going next maybe Jul. 3, and/or maybe Jul. 17.

      1. Aaron Moman Avatar

        Excellent. Just let me know. Thanks!

  5. Joseph M. Avatar
    Joseph M.

    I found a road in Marion Indiana called Valley Road that looks like an old highway but I can’t find any evidence of which route it could’ve been. Maybe it was an old plank road but I don’t think so.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I think I’ve found it on Google Maps. It could be the original alignment of what is now SR 9.

  6. Joseph M. Avatar
    Joseph M.

    I just found an old bridge at Hazleton Indiana that is part of old U.S. 41. Looks impressive from the air. That thing is narrow.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I know the one you mean. I haven’t been to see it but I’ve seen photos. It is partially collapsed.

      1. Joseph M. Avatar
        Joseph M.

        I’m guessing it is partially collapsed at that tree line at the north end of the bridge.

  7. Joseph M. Avatar
    Joseph M.

    Wait I see it now, one slab of concrete fell over. Deck must’ve corroded

  8. Joseph M. Avatar
    Joseph M.

    I think I have solved your mystery of the Dixie Highway at Covington from your highways page. Where you had put that question mark on the green line, it must have continued south. The crossing of the river must have been just north of that abandoned railroad bridge at Washington Avenue.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      You have got to be right about that. Why else would Washington St. extend all the way to the river?

      1. Joseph M. Avatar
        Joseph M.

        If you look at Washington just before the river, you can see what may be an 8′ concrete road that is extremely narrow.

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          It could be a narrow strip of pavement or it could be overgrown on both sides. Only way to know for sure is to see it in person!

  9. Joseph M. Avatar
    Joseph M.

    Another obvious old alignment is at Kentland IN. You can just see how the old alignment deviates from the street grid.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Yup – that’s clearly old 41!

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