The Dixie Highway

The March 16th North Kentucky.com had an article about the Dixie Highway by Chris Mieman.

The Dixie Highway, all 5000+ miles of it, had two major routes, both ending in Miami, Florida. The eastern one started in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and western one had a terminus in Chicago.

It was the brainchild of Carl G. Fisher, who also was the father of the Lincoln Highway, Indianapolis 500 Speedway and Miami Beach (no wonder he wanted it to go to Miami).

He pitched the idea at a governors convention in 1915. Like the Lincoln Highway, it was not built new, but traversed existing paved surfaces.

Northern Kentucky wanted the Three-L Highway or Alexandria Pike to serve as its Dixie segment, but the Covington-Lexington Turnpike became the alignment in 1915. The Covington to Erlander segment was completed in July 1916 and 400 trees were planted along it and a statue of Simon Kenton was placed at the John Roebling Bridge.

The Erlinger-Florence stretch was completed by 1921 and it was open to Williamston in September 1924. The whole Kentucky alignment was not finished until the opening of the bridge over Rockcastle River in Laurel County in 1925.

A Little Bit O' Dixie on Your Mind. --RoadDog