Kingery was director for only a couple years, but during that time, he instructed road crews to not cut brush along this stretches of roads and tried to have native growth start.
Horner Highway was the first such project in Illinois and one of the first in the nation.
The Horner Clubs' name proposal was a success, at least for awhile. Although the roadway was officially designated Highway 29 beginning in 1940, newspaper articles and advertisements routinely called that section the "Horner Highway" well into the 1950s.
The beautification project also took root although many of the trees planted in the 1930s were felled by Central Illinois' Easter Ice Storm of 1978.
The most visible relic of the old road is a large granite boulder bearing a plaque at the intersection of Illinois 29 with Jeffries Road just north of the Sangamon River. The plaque reads:
"One of the first comprehensive tree planting projects in Illinois is along this route which leads to the New Salem State Park. The planting, which was completed in 1934, was sponsored by the Women's Horner Clubs of Sangamon County."
Never Heard of It Before. --RoadLearnSomethingEveryDay
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