Jefferson Highway

A granite monument on St. Charles Avenue in downtown New Orleans takes you back more than a century to a time when automobile travel was new and roads were few. The Jefferson Highway could take motorists from Winnipeg, Canada to Bourbon Street. The route was called the Pine to Palms Highway.

“The Jefferson Highway is actually older than Route 66,” and most other numbered highways, according to Arlene Gould, of the Jefferson Highway Association. The multi-state group formed more than a decade ago to bring attention back to the old transcontinental route. Gould recently retired from the Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau. Natchitoches is located along the old route. She searched old photographs at the nearby Northwestern Louisiana University Library. “Here’s an old picture of Jefferson Street and it’s still a dirt road,” she commented. The photograph shows a horse and wagon stopped in front of one of the old downtown buildings that is still standing in Natchitoches.

jefferson highway promotes travel

Gould explains that the early highway was created to help farmers get their goods to market and also to encourage automobile tourism at a time when the Model T was new. “It kind of opened the doors for people from the North to get to the South…. and see and do things,” she said.

a meeting in New Orleans

The original Jefferson Highway Association, with representatives of states along the proposed route, met in New Orleans in November, 1915. Roger Bell, who is president of the new association, explained that the meeting was contentious, as cities argued why they should be part of the route. “They say it got so heated, they called it the second Battle of New Orleans,” Bell said. He added, “It was thought to be a huge economic benefit to have people traveling and staying in their communities, just like we try to do today.” The meeting ended with the selection of “cardinal” cities along the proposed road. It was up to the communities to connect the dots.

Athe jefferson highway on tv

The Louisiana part of the highway

I drove the old road using a web-based map created by the Jefferson Highway Association (click here to see the map). The route is occasionally named ‘Jefferson’ in some communities. But it is largely without any identifying markers. The JH signs that were originally painted on utility poles are long gone. State and federal highways were given new numbers, and the old Jefferson faded away. Many towns that were once located along the popular route are now bypassed by four-lane highways and interstates. The drive from New Orleans to the Texas state line west of Shreveport lasted more than 12 hours. The return trip on interstates and 4-lane highways took less than half the time.

the road less traveled

Tourist organizations across Louisiana and other states are reinstalling the classic “JH” signs along the old route. Bell explained, “it’s just amazing the things that we find along this route.” It’s part of a promotional effort to draw tourists back to smaller towns to discover the history and culture along a great American highway.