Mills County, Iowa

Silver City Community History
1879 - 1979

ROADS LEADING TO SILVER CITY PAVED

It was a long time coming but once started, things moved pretty fast. “It” is the five and one-half mile strip of broad white paving connecting Silver City with Highway 34 to the south. Since the mid-1930’s, the people of this Mills County town wanted Highway 242 made into a permanent road. After a 25-year running battle with the Iowa Highway Commission, they finally got their wants.

The old road was a combination of gravel and mud and each fall and winter, the gravel disappeared, leaving a quagmire that did damage to vehicles and caused a rise in the population’s blood pressure. Each spring it was patched, only to worsen again with wet weather. It took petitions and personal visits to the Highway Commission by townspeople to get the job done.

Grading on the project was completed in 1960 and the 22 foot wide, six-inch thick line of concrete was laid in about 15 working days. The road was built by the slip-form construction method. The forms were slid along the paving machine, reducing the labor and time involved. The people of Silver City finally won phase one of their battle.

After the shoulder and main street parking areas were completed around Labor Day, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held. The Commercial Club had a celebration to formally open the $450,000 road that included an afternoon and evening program with a talk by State Senator William Harbor of Henderson, free watermelon, concessions and a midway. First formal use of the new paving was a dance on main street that evening.

About five years later, the paving continued on north connecting Silver City with Highway 92. County Road D was officially opened in November of 1965.

~submitted by Roseanna Zehner & Darlene Jacoby