The Dixie Highway is significant nationally as the first highway to link the rural American South to the urban North. The construction of this interstate highway (taking place from about 1915 to 1926) is associated with the modernization of the American South, as well as the general growth in U.S. transportation and automobile tourism in the first half of the twentieth century.

In Northwest Ohio (specifically, Wood County and Lucas County) many portions of the original Dixie Highway remain in use as Ohio Route 25, which passes through a number of small towns and forms Main Street in the county seat, Bowling Green. Other portions of the historic Dixie Highway are city streets in Toledo. Some sections of the Dixie Highway in Wood County have been replaced by Interstate 75, and in those locations, portions of the original Dixie remain as low-traffic access roads.

The Dixie Highway is significant in Northwest Ohio as part of a local road system that has been important to transportation and economic development of the region since the 1820s, when settlers began to look for a path across the "Great Black Swamp" that covered much of the area. The period of significance identified begins in 1915, when the Dixie Highway designation began to be applied to the local road that bisected Wood County in a north-south direction, and road improvements associated with the "Good Roads Movement" began to be carried out in order to change local paths into progressive "tourist highways." The period of significance ends with the completion of Interstate 75 in this region, in 1968. Within the period of significance, roadside business thrived, associated with a mobile American population that traveled for commerce as well as for the sheer pleasure associated with automobile tourism. Roadside opportunities for eating, lodging, and entertainment (drive-in theaters, miniature golf courses, etc.) were numerous, and communities along the highway prospered at least in part because of the highway-oriented activity.

Although the route of the Dixie continues to be used by regional travelers, the current highway is no longer a major thoroughfare for national road travel, having been superseded by the four-lane, high-speed Interstate 75. The historic Dixie Highway survives to remind us of the early days of automobile transportation in the nation, and of an exciting era of economic growth and development in the region.

The development of the Dixie Highway as the major route linking the U.S. South to the midwestern portion of the North coincided with other manifestations of the Good Roads Movement that were crucial to the early phases of the U.S. highway system. The Good Roads Movement began in the late nineteenth century, when Americans began to "put great value on individual mobility" and many residents of urban areas desired to obtain a sense of personal freedom and renewal in less industrialized settings (Hugill 1982:328).

Technological developments in transportation, starting with the bicycle and continuing with the automobile, made the desired mobility possible, but few smooth roads were available. As a result, organizations such as the League of American Wheelmen and various automobile tourist clubs, originally formed to promote recreation, became lobbying groups for new road construction. Additionally, farmers' organizations such as The Grange became outspoken advocates of road construction, not for recreational purposes, but to improve access and lower the cost of marketing farm products to the urban population. Another influence on national road construction was the establishment of the federal rural free delivery (RFD) system for mail, a national effort to reduce rural isolation. Between 1902 and 1905 more than 24,000 new RFD routes were established, and the Post Office joined other groups that promoted construction of high-quality stone roads as a replacement for muddy paths (Hugill 1982:330).

The construction of the Dixie Highway was closely associated with "the growing popularity of more cohesive road networks" which began to emerge around 1910 (Carver 1994-95:11). This cohesive approach blended the interests of those who desired local "farm-to-market" roads with those who supported interstate road systems that would provide benefits for the newly-emerging auto tourism industry.

The so-called "Father of the Dixie Highway," Carl G. Fisher, was a major force in promoting North-South automobile tourism. Fisher's biography reveals a number of interlocking business interests that contributed to a desire to promote road-building, particularly travel from the midwest to the south. Fisher's interests in transportation-related businesses had moved from early involvement in bicycle sales, repairs, and racing into similar aspects of the fledgling automobile business early in the twentieth century. In 1909 Fisher was running the Prest-O-Light Battery Company in Indianapolis, manufacturing battery-powered headlights that allowed motorists to drive after dark. Fisher also was part of the group of Indianapolis businessmen who raised funds to build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company. In 1910, Fisher invested in real estate in Miami Beach, Florida, joining many other speculators who believed Florida would eventually become a prime destination for recreational travelers. ("The Hoosier Barnum," 1997)

The combination of interest in selling more cars and interest in the potential for a Florida tourism industry led Fisher to devote considerable energy to the development of better roads for automobile traffic. Fisher's interest in interstate automotive travel, and his persuasive skills, led to the inception of two massive highway-building projects: the Lincoln Highway (beginning in 1913), connecting Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the Dixie Highway.

In November 1914, at the urging of his friend Carl Fisher, Indianapolis businessman William S. Gilbreath attended the fourth annual meeting of the American Road Congress (a group organized under the auspices of the American Automobile Association), in Atlanta. Gilbreath met with Georgia governor John Slaton, who agreed to support the proposed north-south highway project, as Indiana governor Samuel Ralson had already done. (Preston 1991:53-54). Gilbreath also told the crowd of southerners in attendance that construction of a north-south interstate highway, which he termed "the Cotton Belt Route," would generate "an immense amount of money that would be left in the southern states by an invasion of. . . desirable people." (Preston 1991:54).

For the next several months, Gilbreath traveled in Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky promoting the idea of the new improved road, which was renamed the Dixie Highway. On April 3, 1915, at a meeting in Chattanooga, the Dixie Highway Association was formed. Over 5,000 persons attended the organizational meeting, including business leaders and politicians from over 100 communities in seven states (Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois), who immediately began to compete for a place on the route. (The state of Michigan officially joined the Dixie Highway Association in May 1916.) The group decided that the governors of each of the participating states would appoint two persons to be Directors of the Association, along with seven other Directors, including Fisher, who were also the incorporators of the Association.

Extensive debate about the location of the new highway led to a decision, in May 1915, to give the Dixie two routes, a Western Division that carried travelers from Chicago into the south via Indianapolis, Nashville, and Atlanta, and an Eastern Division that would eventually have its northern-most terminus in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, and would take travelers through Detroit, Toledo, Cincinnati, and Lexington on their way to the southern terminus in Miami Beach. (Carver, pp. 13-14)

From 1915 to 1927 ( when the Dixie Highway Association disbanded) nearly four thousand miles of roads along the designated route of the Dixie were upgraded (Carver 1994-1995:13-14). Gravel and poor quality asphalt roads were changed to paved brick or concrete, with improvements paid for by the local community or by state funding. Contributions by the owners of businesses along the route, such as hotels, restaurants, and automotive supply stores also formed part of the funding for highway construction (Preston 1991:60).

Some federal subsidies were provided as well. Although during most of the nineteenth century, roads were considered to be a state and local responsibility, attitudes toward funding began to change at the same time that other aspects of the Good Roads Movement were affecting American social thought and political activity. The first federal agency for roads, the Office of Road Management, was established in 1893 to serve as an advisory body for state and local official on how to improve their roads. In 1902, Congress considered--and rejected--a proposal by Senator Brownlow of Tennessee to create a Bureau of Public Roads that would provide federal grants for road construction to states or counties that paid half of the total costs (Weingroff 1996a:2-3).

A decade later, in 1912, a bill to establish federal aid for road building was approved by the House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate. In 1913, Congress agreed to appropriate $500,000 for an experimental program to improve RFD routes, with one-third federal funding and two-thirds state or local funding for each approved construction project. Only 28 counties in 17 states were able to use this program. After considerable Congressional debate, the Federal Aid Road Act was passed in 1916, under the sponsorship of Senator John H. Bankhead of Alabama, who became known as "the Father of Good Roads." The bill ensured that in order to receive federal highway funds, each state would establish a highway agency staffed by professional engineers, and also emphasized providing funds primarily for RFD routes rather than for long-distance roads (Weingroff, "Federal Aid Road Act," pp. 3-6). Nevertheless, some municipalities were able to qualify for these federal grants to support improvement of their sections of the Dixie Highway. Only $5 million in funding was available the first year, but by 1922, federal aid for road construction projects had increased to $189 million, and up to 60 percent of the federal funds could be used for interstate routes (Weingroff 1996b).

The Association's magazine, titled Dixie Highway, kept track of improvements in a series of state (and county and municipality) reports, and also published feature articles on the benefits of automobile tourism and the great pleasures to be experienced by traveling (usually focusing on northerners going south). By the mid-1920s, federal and state governments were funding almost all interstate highway improvement and maintenance, so local commercial expenditures could concentrate on roadside business rather than the road itself. Simultaneous with the construction of the improved highway, the "Dixie" name began to be attached to the road, through distinctive Dixie Highway signage (red and white with the letters "DH") installed along the route. Also, numerous roadside businesses adopted the "Dixie" name. Even when the Dixie name was not used directly, the improved highway stimulated extensive commercial development. Overnight sleeping accommodations (including tourists camps, courts, cabins, inns, motels, and hotels) were built in many small towns around the entire route of the Dixie, along with restaurants, diners, gas stations, and other automobile-related commerce. Notable examples of automotive roadside architecture include the Wigwam Village No. 2 complex, near Cave City, Kentucky, where all the sleeping facilities were in the shape of teepees, and the Sanders Court and Cafe in Corbin, Kentucky, where Colonel Harlin Sanders began to develop the unique recipe for what later became the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Another important element of auto-related business on the Dixie was the development of "attractions," such as Mammoth National Park in Kentucky and Rock City in Tennessee (Carver 1994-1995:15).

Some roadside business was much less formal, including roadside markets run by individual entrepreneurs who took produce, blankets, baskets, and other farm goods and crafts products to the side of the highway. Some of the roadside markets later turned into specialized regional commerce areas, such as bedspreads and other fabrics sold along the Dixie near Dalton, Georgia (Carver 1994-1995:17).

The construction of the Dixie Highway was essentially completed by 1926, when a newly-established federal interstate highway system was identified. Standardized black-and-white, shield-shaped signs bearing U.S. route numbers replacing "named" interstate highways like the National, the Lincoln, and the Dixie. Much of the southern route of the Dixie became U.S. Route 41, while the Dixie route sections in Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan were numbered as U.S. Routes 25 and 27 (Preston 1991:133).

The route of the Dixie continued to be significant for automotive travel long after the numbered highways replaced the red and white "DH" signs. Until the superhighway interstate system was completed in the 1960s and early 1970s, at least some portions of the old Dixie route continued to function as an integral part of the American commercial and recreational landscape. However, in December, 1977, the last portion of Interstate 75 was completed, connecting Sault Sainte Marie with Tampa (Liebs 1995:32), and the era of the Dixie Highway as a key national transportation route ended.

Today, identifying the route of the Dixie Highway is complicated by the change from names to numbers and by the fact that "the designation was somewhat fluid and changed as the road was improved" (Carver 1994-1995:14). Some portions of the highway in several states continue to be identified as "Dixie" or "Old Dixie" Highway and some businesses along the route continue to incorporate Dixie into their names. Also, roadside architecture remains along the route, serving as a reminder of--and a tribute to--the importance and vitality of efforts made early in the century to develop a national network of good roads.

The path of the Dixie Highway in Northwest Ohio in many ways coincides with the history of settlements in the area, and with the historical development of Wood County as a key transportation corridor for traffic moving between Detroit and Toledo and then going south toward the larger urban populations in Lima, Dayton, and Cincinnati. The establishment and eventual improvement of a north-south road through the center of Wood County was a critical element in the settlement and economic development of the area, starting in the early 1800s. The path that was established as a result of draining "The Great Black Swamp" provided the route that later became the Dixie Highway.

For much of its history, the present day area of Wood County was covered by a large swamp which was the result of glacial movements in an earlier geologic era. Early "roads" of the area were paths used by Native Americans to carry canoes from one stream to another (Johns 1997:1-2). Although the southern portion of Ohio was well-populated in the nineteenth century, with major settlements along the Ohio River as well as the southern interior of the state, the northwest section was much more sparsely populated. Wood County was especially desolate, except for settlements in the extreme northern section of the county, including the current cities of Perrysburg and Maumee, as well as the military outpost at Fort Meigs. In 1812, U.S. Army officer Eleazar D. Wood (for whom the county would be named) noted in his journal:

These two rivers, the Miami and the Sandusky, are thirty-six miles apart, and the country, which lies between them, is almost an entire marsh, or sunken swamp; which on account of its being miry and generally covered with an immense body of water, can scarcely be passed at any other time than in summer or middle of winter, after its waters are sufficiently frozen to bear the traveller. [Maurer 1947:66]

South of North Baltimore, continued north through the eastern section of that present little city, ran just west of now Cygnet, and from the Portage blockhouse veered east, ran through Bowling Green near the western edge of the Bowling Green State University grounds and crossed the Maumee about two miles south of Maumee City. ["History and Government of Wood County," quoted in Johns 1997:3]

The surveyor, or more generally a person whose only qualification was that of knowing the proposed route, blazed a course along the line. A track of sufficient width was cleared of trees, brush, and dead logs. The low swampy places were bridged by placing logs of equal size on the ground to form a corduroy construction, a system much used until ditches were made to drain the land. At times the logway was covered with dirt so the vehicles might pass over it more smoothly. . . . In making the roads, care was taken that the streams should be forded at the most convenient points. Small bridges, not requiring extra lengths of timber, were easily constructed, but larger streams were provided with ferries, as were the smaller streams during stages of high water. (Maurer 1947:69-70)

In 1845, highway improvements occurred on the route that would later become the Dixie. The two names of the road--the "Findlay-Perrysburg Mud Pike" in 1845 and the "Findlay-Perrysburg Plank Road" in 1849--describe the changing technology of mid-nineteenth century road construction. Construction of the plank road was aided by a $5,000 contribution from Perrysburg Township on the northern edge of the county, and $2,000 from Plain Township (containing part of the town of Bowling Green) in the center of the county.

The plank road was completed and turnpike toll gates were put in place in 1853. Like other turnpikes constructed in the 1840s and 1850s in northern Ohio, the improved road was considered by civic boosters to be both a direct aid to local treasuries (through collection of fees of one or two cents per mile, depending on the size and number of passengers per wagon, carriage, or horse), and a way to ensure additional access to and from markets for goods. But the road was difficult to maintain and the tolls were unpopular, "particularly after the first wet season when the planks became displaced and were not looked after" (Maurer 1947:77).

Wood County roads continued to be subject to rapid deterioration until efforts were made to drain the swamp, beginning shortly before the Civil War, with major work accomplished in the 1870s and 1880s. The country spent $1,5000,000 on ditch digging and road construction from 1874 to 1881 (Johns 1997:8). However, even after the swamp was drained, the Findlay-Perrysburg Turnpike remained a plank road, and was extremely muddy and difficult to negotiate during rainy periods (Johns 1997:11).

Oil was found in Wood County in 1886, and stimulated extensive industrial and residential development in the area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to the oil industry, several glass works were established as well, capitalizing on the abundant gas and the sand hills remaining from glacial times which became more accessible after the swamp was drained (Fletcher 1985). Some of the most prominent structures in the county seat, Bowling Green, also were erected during this period, including several National Register properties: the Wood County Courthouse, the Downtown Bowling Green Historic District, and the residential "Boomtown" Historic District.

In 1905, county commissioners approved an improvement project for the Findlay Turnpike (as it was then known) which may have involved changing the wooden plank road into a macadamized stone road (Johns 1997:11-12). The existence of the improved road also apparently contributed to the decision to locate a State Normal College in Bowling Green in 1910 (Johns 1997:11-12).

By 1915, when the national Dixie Highway Association was established, interest in automobile transportation and road improvement was significant in Wood County as well. Newspaper accounts in the Wood County Democrat of this time (1914-1916) refer frequently to automobile sales (including both manufacturing plants and dealerships), to motor car accidents, to police use of automobiles, and to other commercial and recreational uses of road transportation (Richardson 1997:6-7).

Northwest Ohio boosters of the Dixie began seeking local community support for the project in June 1915, only two months after the Dixie Highway Association was organized in Chattanooga, and less than a month after the official route had been established. An announcement in the June 4, 1915, edition of the Democrat invited interested citizens to attend a meeting in Lima "for the purpose of organizing to secure a loop of the Dixie Highway to extend from Dayton, O., to Detroit, Mich." The reason for the road project was:

Southern folks want a road over which they may tour north for the summer and northern folks want a road over which they may tour south for the winter. . . . There is a strong appeal upon the part of the southern representatives for a loop to the lake resorts. [Quoted in Richardson 1997:7]

Another gathering took place in July 1915, which was identified as the first organizational meeting of the Dixie Highway Association in Wood County. Newspaper accounts reported that speakers urged local support of the Dixie Highway project because it would provide "valuable adjuncts to commerce and travel" and would "help the whole community," not just automobile owners. Speakers also tied the highway construction project to appeals for national strength and unity (Richardson 1997:9-10). The local Dixie Highway Association met again in August 1915, where speakers noted "the necessity of the highway from a business standpoint" and said it would "increas[e] the value of farms from 25 to 100 percent, it would bring many tourists from the south, excite pride, raise the standard of citizenship and improve market facilities" (Richardson 1997:10).

By January 1916, the Democrat reported that the Dixie Highway was complete from Toledo to Cincinnati (Richardson, p. 12), and the "Good Roads Map of Wood County," dated 1916 and issued by the Wood County Savings Bank, boldly displayed a bright red line marking the Dixie Highway as the most prominent in the county, covering the entire north-south distance of the county and extending through Perrysburg and Rossford on the north into Toledo. The map also proclaimed Bowling Green to be "The Best and Biggest Little City on Earth" and noted:

The Advancing Property Values and Increasing Population and Building Improvements indicate "Phenomenal Prosperity" in Bowling Green, Ohio. ("Good Roads Map," 1916)

Publications from later in the 1920s further emphasized the importance of Dixie and other highways in the region. The Wood County Automobile Club's Official Touring Guide (1925) and the Wood County Board of Health publication, Tourist's Guide Thru Wood County With A Map Showing All The Stone Roads (1926) contained detailed descriptions of road conditions (noting where "good concrete and macadam" replaced lesser-quality roads) and also contained advertisements for garages, restaurants, and tourist camps that were on or near the Dixie. Some of these establishments incorporated "Dixie" in their name, including the Dixie "Log Cabin" Tourist Camp near Perrysburg and the Dixie Inn, north of Toledo in Erie, Michigan. A 1927 publication of the American Automobile Association, the AAA Northeastern Tour Book, informed travelers that the entire route from Toledo to Dayton, now designated as U.S. Route 25, was "All paved. 'The Dixie Highway'" from start to finish.

Although specific references to the Dixie Highway in Northwest Ohio seemed to decline somewhat after the Route 25 number officially replaced the Dixie name, the importance of highway-related business was still clearly evident. In a 1937 survey of Toledo real estate, the northern section of Detroit Avenue (still marked on area maps as the Dixie Highway) contained a large number of gasoline service stations as well as other automobile-related businesses such as repair shops. Tourist camps, tourist courts, and tourist homes continued to appear in the Bowling Green city directories during the 1930s and 1940s, with listings for motels becoming frequent in the 1950s (Goldner 1997). These business, along with other travel-related establishments such as Frank's Dixie Lunch and Service, just south of Bowling Green, continued to thrive. An undated postcard advertising Frank's Dixie lunch noted that the location of the business, which includes "Cabins, Meals, Gas, Oil , Complete Service" was "on Dixie Highway or National Route 25" and the Dixie Highway was labeled in extremely large lettering at the bottom of the postcard (Postcard in Bowling Green State University Popular Culture Library).

The completion of Interstate 75 in Wood County, in the late 1960s, siphoned much travel-related business off of the old Dixie. Several restaurants, motels, and gas stations closed, and use of the Dixie name on signage became less frequent. However, a few local road signs still carry the "Dixie" appellation, as do a handful of businesses along the route.

Much of the route of the Dixie remains in use in Wood County as state and county roads and as the main street of towns along Route 25. The sign that directs I-75 travelers to Downtown Toledo deposits traffic on Route 25, using the streets that were proudly labeled as the Dixie in the 1920s. The impression of the Dixie Highway survives on the local landscape, as a fading but not-completely-forgotten reminder of the early days of transportation development in Northern Ohio, and in all of America.