Dixie Highway-Wilderness Road Collection

Collection — Container: 1

Identifier: BCA 0177 SAA 173

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection is comprised of photographs from the dedication of the section of the Wilderness Road being linked to the Dixie Highway that would create a straight highway south from Ohio. The photographs show the roadway as it was before paving. They were taken in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s by Howard Wilson—manager of the Civic Affairs Department of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Included in the collection is a miniature cast-iron model of a house—a souvenir of the time.

Dates

Other: Majority of material found in 1920s-1930s

Conditions Governing Access

Records can be accessed through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no known restrictions on the collection other than federal copyright regulations. Please cite all references to this collection.

Extent

1.00 ms_boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Shaped by Native American paths and old buffalo traces, the Wilderness Road was forged in 1775 by Daniel Boone for the Transylvania Company. The trail, and later the road, winded through the Cumberland Gap–a notch in the Appalachian Mountains located near the intersection of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee–through the interior of Kentucky and to the Ohio River. The Wilderness Road served as an avenue of westward migration for some 300,000 settlers and led to the establishment of the first settlements in Kentucky and to Kentucky’s admission to the Union in 1792. By the early 1790’s the trail was being widened to accommodate wagon traffic and was commonly being referred to as Wilderness Road. Private contractors, authorized to keep up sections of the road, charged tolls for its use; however, the building of the National Road and an increase in the use of water ways for travel initiated a decrease in the use of the Wilderness Road and, by the 1840’s, the Road was essentially abandoned. Since 1926 the Wilderness Road has been linked to U.S. Route 25 (the Dixie Highway) connecting Detroit, Michigan to Miami, Florida. Like the Wilderness Road before it (which brought settlers and supplies westward), the Dixie Highway brought travelers and tourism to rural areas.

Other Descriptive Information

BCA 0177 SAA 173

Processing Information

The collection was arranged by Rachel Burnside, Archives Processing Assistant. The finding aid was created by Rachel Burnside and Lori Myers-Steele, Collections Archivist, in December 2014. Postcard added March 2018.