Historic Dixie Highway

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About Historic Dixie Highway

History of the Dixie Highway:

In the 1920's, Automobile use was booming. Models were starting to hit the market that were affordable for the burgeoning middle class. The Good Roads Movement, started in response to bicyclist needs, shifted to promoting longer, transcontinental roads for car travel. The Dixie Highway was heavily boosted by Carl G. Fisher, who also conceived the Lincoln Highway and was a principal investor of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was over 5,706 miles long and stretched as far north as Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (at the border with Ontario, Canada) and reached as far south as Florida City, Florida, south of Miami.

The first thoughts of a highway to connect the Midwest and the South occurred in 1914. At first, the name "Cotton Belt Route" was floated, with a thought to connect Chicago to Jacksonville, Florida, via Atlanta. The organizational meeting for the Dixie Highway Association occurred on April 3, 1915 in Chattanooga, TN. The name was chosen to honor "Fifty Years of Peace" between North and South. Major personages involved besides Mr. Fisher were: W.S. Gilbreath, Hoosier Auto Club of Indianapolis; Gov. J.M. Slanton, GA; C.E. James, Chattanooga resort owner; and Gov. Ralston, KY. In May 1915, the decision was made to have two mainlines, competition had been so keen between candidate cities so as to insure parallel routes and plan for a second northern end in Michigan. By June, cities were celebrating the new highway. In 1916, Michigan joined the Dixie Highway Association and east leg was extended north to Canada. The roads comprising the east and west mainlines were complete by 1927, and the Dixie Highway Association disbanded. The highway was taken over as part of United States Highway system.

Much like the Lincoln, the route of the Dixie Highway was marked by a red stripe with the letters "DH" on it, usually with a white stripe above and below, and was commonly painted on telephone and telegraph poles along the route. Also like the Lincoln, the Dixie's route was changed and realigned over time. Unlike the Lincoln, however (which stayed true to it's original "coast to coast" routing), by 1923 the Dixie Highway had become, at times, a confusing mish-mash of routings and connectors.

When the U.S. Highway System was laid out in 1925 and 1926, an effort was made to keep some of the established routes on a single number. The Lincoln Highway largely became US-30 (US-50 in Nevada & California). The National Pike became US-40. The Dixie Highway did not lend itself to such numbering, with it's two mainlines and a myriad of connecting routes. Some of the Dixie Highway was handed back to that states that built it, other parts were included in the new nationwide numbering system. Old auto-trail signs for the Dixie Highway were replaced as the states adopted uniform sign standards.

The Dixie Highway today exists primarily on street signs, still called "Dixie Hwy" in many areas it passes through. Local roads bear witness of a grand past as major interstate corridors. Today, you could make a good case for calling I-75 the "Modern Dixie Highway", it follows the east DH leg from Canada / Upper Michigan to Knoxville, then bears southwesterly along the DH Tennessee Connector to Chattanooga and follows along the DH west leg from there south to Miami, reforming a link broken when the US Numbered Highway System was forged.

Traveling the historic Dixie today is an enjoyable trip, no matter which leg you take. If you'd like to try it yourself, the Dixie Highway (RVD)" website is a great place for turn by turn directions and other interesting information about the route. (We thank them for their kindness in letting us use portions of the text above.)


What's welcome here:

• Photos from along the route of the Dixie Highway, either the East or West routings. Photos can be of the road itself, or of sights along the way. This includes (but is not limited to) old motels, cafes, historical sites, restaurants, roadside kitsch, old signs, cities and towns, and...well, just about anything on the Dixie itself.

• Though not as desirable here as main routings, photos from along "official" Dixie Highway connector routes are OK too. (Please indicate, in your tags, which connector your photo is on, like "Dixie Highway Tennessee Connector", so that we know. Please don't make us have to look it up.)

• Vintage ephemera (DH brochures, postcards, maps) that directly pertain to the Dixie Hwy.


What we're not looking for:

• No "people shots". We're not really looking for your family or friends, we're looking for things & places we'd see along the Dixie Highway.

• Even if you live on the DH, please... no photos of your yard, your pet, or similar stuff. Again, we're looking for Dixie Highway shots.

NOTE: Please tag your photos with "Dixie Highway", and at least the state & city (or nearest city) and the road it was taken on. Including the current highway number (like US-31W, US-25, etc) is helpful too. Folks might want to see what you photographed for themselves, so help them find it!


Please help us grow!

If you see photos you think should be in this group, simply cut-n-paste this into a comment box to invite the photo:
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Please add this to the "<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/dixie_highway">Historic Dixie Highway</a>" group.
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Likewise, if you know people that don't have such photos, but would enjoy the topic, bring them along too. Invite your friends and contacts! Let's have fun exploring the Dixie Highway together! :-)


How do I find the Dixie Highway?:

Want to plan a trip on the Dixie, or just wonder if one of your photos was taken on an old routing of the highway? Visit this website for turn by turn directions and other interesting information about the route.