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FOREWORD

    Iowa’s River to River Road, extending from Davenport to Council Bluffs across what the whole world grants is one of the garden places of earth, is one of those instances of highway making which have come about through the co-operative effort of the people of many cities and towns and their adjacent country sides, acting in accordance with plans prepared by automobile owners and makers. These thoroughfares are extending to all parts of the United States and it is already certain that they are to form the basis of that comprehensive development of good roads which has been long desired for comfort and long demanded by economic requirements, but which, until the great automobile endurance tours came, did not seem possible of speedy attainment. The farmer had felt keenly for years his need of good highways; but, except in a very partial way, he did not realize much of his hopes in that direction until the auto enthusiast joined with him in efforts to reach a common end. In the case of Iowa’s River to River Road, the famous Glidden tour, scheduled to pass along its length if it could be made available, was the immediate occasion for the improvement of the highway. Committees of business and professional men and farmers in each county gladly and energetically assumed the responsibility and expense of preparation of a part of this road. The King drag was brought into action, fills were made where necessary, and, in so short a time that the achievement seemed little less than miraculous, an excellent highway in all weathers was prepared the width of the Hawkeye state, a highway doubtless destined to such further improvement in the near future that it will become part of a great national pike on the way between Chicago and Denver.

     While the effort of many persons thus brought the road to its present state of excellence and thereby added many thousands of dollars to the economic resources of the state, it is nevertheless true that especial mention should be made of several individuals for the essential parts they took in the matter. To Lafayette Young, publisher of The Des Moines Daily Capital, and publicist and orator of national reputation, is assuredly due the credit for the suggestion of the road and its route and he may, therefore, very justly be called its founder. What more fitting monument could …

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Sheep at the Colonies, South Amana

Along the Road

… such a public man have of his career of effort in the general interest? Through the columns of his paper Mr. Young gave freely and without limit the needed initial publicity for the organization of the project, and the bright young men of the Capital were always and everywhere on the ground, recording the progress of the work as soon as it was under way and up to the hour of its completion. The other Des Moines papers and the papers of all the other cities along the line of the road and throughout the whole state, for that matter, did yeoman service in the good cause. The press, indeed, was a unit and evidence was again given that Iowa has the most intelligent and the most prosperous. An able lieutenant of Mr. Young in his campaign for the River to River Road, and one whose enthusiasm and ability were every moment effective, is Mr. J. W. Eichinger, good roads editor of the Capital. He followed carefully the demonstration of the truth of his chief’s expressed belief in what road dragging methods could do to the highways of Iowa under present legislation and levies with the existing township and county road making organizations.

     Perhaps it will not seem a bit of boasting, if it is said that, just as the new highway is a step in advance, just so are the maps presented in connection with this text an improvement over others of the kind. A novelty of them, at any rate, lies in the fact that they can be fixed without reference to the descriptions accompanying them, though it is hoped to make the latter illuminating and otherwise well worth while. The noted Automobile Blue Book of the East has not this advantage for its users, and in this respect, it is submitted, Iowa map makers have set a new standard certain to be very widely appreciated and speedily accepted by their competitors in other part of the country. It is not too much to say that these are the best road maps ever published. Their accuracy is assured for the reason that the engineers of the Iowa Publishing Company, under the personal supervision of M. Huebinger, C. E., of Des Moines, have an established reputation in their profession second to none in the United States.

     Acknowledgment, last but by no means least, would be made to those who, in the several communities along the route of the road, expedited matters by conveying the engineering parties, the scouting autos and the men of the press from point to point along the great highway. Their assistance was invaluable and the spirit in which they rendered it made the work one of pleasure as well as use. These men are an important part of the River to River Road Association which comprises all those who have assisted directly and indirectly in the project.

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Musquaki Indians camping along road

Near Marengo

     The bottom dropped out of Iowa roads during the fall of 1909 as every Iowan remembers, and the Glidden tour was in sight for advertisement of the state for good or ill. This is why the work was undertaken. The River to River Road Association, formed as a part of the state wide plans formulated by delegates called together officially by Governor Carroll, undertook the achievement. With an executive committeeman in each of twelve counties in charge of the work in his county, things moved quickly. Grades were built up, wet places drained and hundreds of drags put in operation. This is how the work was carried out. Moreover, the same methods and the same organization are keeping the highway in its new condition, and, in fact, bettering it, from day to day.

     That apostle of Democracy, the Frenchman De Toqueville, whose visions of a century ago are still steadily coming true, and who saw as deeply and as clearly into the human heart as any man of modern times, said in his noble work, “Democracy in American,” that “the valley of the Mississippi is, upon the whole, the most magnificent dwelling place prepared by God for man’s abode.” All of the River to River Road lies in this valley, since the Missouri a tributary of the Mississippi, and the traveler along the length of the new highway, as well as along any part of it, is likely to agree with De Toqueville in the latter’s estimate of the beauty and fertility of the country through which it passes. Indeed, it is hard to determine with justice territory traversed is more attractive than any other. Each has its peculiar advantages, offsetting, as it were, those of another.         ~         The Publishers