The Dixie Highway Brought Paved Roads to the South-- Part 2: Carl Fisher, Man of Many Hats and the Dixie Highway.

The Dixie Highway began with an organizational meeting of 5,000 delegates in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 3, 1915.  There were representatives from some 100 towns in seven states:  Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Four routes were mapped out for the new highway and all were completed by private landowners and local governments by 1927.

The Father of the Dixie Highway was Carl Fisher, the automobile, auto racing and real estate entrepreneur who had already spearheaded the nation's first intercontinental road, the Lincoln Highway, in 1913.  He became the first director of the Dixie Highway Association and he went through a lot to get the road off the ground, especially since it would be providing routes to a resort community he was developing in Florida called Miami Beach.  So, there was a definite method to his madness.

A photo of him accompanying the article is captioned:  "Carl Fisher made his name making auto parts, developing Miami Beach and helping create the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500.

Miami Beach was incorporated on March 25, 1915.

--RoadCarl