I'm not overly familiar with this road, so found the October 27th article in the North Florida News Daily of interest. It was the forerunner of US-90 and I-10 which largely took the OST's (Old Spanish Trail) alignment.
The eastern terminus is across from St. Augustine's Ripley's Believe It Or Not and is marked by a 6-ft diameter coquina stone monument.
The Old Spanish Trail was launched Dec. 10, 1915 to link Florida and California and officially opened for travel in 1929 at a cost of $80 million. Back in 1915, Mobile, Alabama, was finding its shipping industry in decline and went looking for money from travelers. A highway would be just the thing, so started the OST Association to connect the Dixie Highway in Florida with the Jackson Highway in New Orleans. The Association folded in 1919 and a Texas group took over.
San Antonio especially was pushing a road from there to El Paso. Noting that the road ran roughly parallel to the routes of the DeSoto, DaVaca, and DeNavarez expeditions, the name Old Spanish Trail was selected.
Hamal Ayres, a NJ businessman took over and issued thousands of brochures from 1923 to 1931. When US highways were numbered, US-80, US-90, and US-290 pre-empted OST and the interstates essentially doomed what was left of it.
In 1929, St. Augustine had a three-day party for the OST at which the coquina marker was dedicated.
Plans for an OST Centennial Celebration are underway at OST100.
www.oldspanishtrailcentennial.com
No Road Like an Old Road. --RoadDog
RoadDog's RoadLog Blog: Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.
The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.
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