DIXIE HIGHWAY 



1823 



DIXIE HIGHWAY 



them a paradise on earth ; for it was there that 

 a man named Dixie owned a large number of 

 slaves whom he treated well and permitted to 

 enjoy many of the pleasures of life denied the 

 negroes in some other sections. When aboli- 

 tion sentiment grew strong and he was obliged 

 to send some of his negroes South, they re- 

 gretfully left their Northern home, and sighed 

 for "Dixie's land." 



Whatever may be the truth as to this legend, 

 shivering Northern negroes saying, "I wish I 

 was in Dixie's Land," inspired Daniel Emmett 

 to write the famous and immensely popular 

 Dixie, the song of the Southland. 



DIXIE HIGHWAY, an automobile roadway 

 which will ultimately stretch from the strait 

 of Mackinac, at the northern end of the south- 

 ern peninsula of Michigan, to Miami, near the 

 southern end of the peninsula of Florida. It 

 is distinguished from other new American high- 

 ways by its purpose. Travelers by automobile 

 gain intimate contact with a country and its 

 people, whereas travelers by train get only a 

 picture framed by car windows; it is hoped 

 that the Dixie Highway will add to the friendli- 

 ness between the people of the North and the 

 South which comes from familiar intercourse, 

 and which decades of ordinary business inter- 

 change and tourist travel could never intensify. 

 At present the North has more automobiles 

 and will use the road oftener, but the South 

 is displaying as great an interest. Its people 

 want their Northern neighbors to see the New 

 South, the prosperous, growing, enthusiastic 

 "Dixie" of the twentieth century. Counties 

 and towns along the way are constructing the 

 pavement, a great part of which is cement, and 

 the women of Georgia have started a move- 

 ment for planting trees and flowers by the 

 roadside. 



Originally the northern end of the Highway 

 was fixed at Chicago, and though the route 

 to Mackinac will probably be popular, that to 

 Chicago will undoubtedly prove to be the 

 main-traveled road. The two ways meet at In- 

 dianapolis. Between Chattanooga and Mack- 

 inac the traveler has his choice of two roads. 

 The western, through Nashville, Louisville, In- 

 dianapolis, thence to Chicago or South Bend, 

 Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids and along the 

 shore of Lake Michigan, is the true Dixie High- 

 way. The eastern, by way of Knoxville, Lex- 

 ington, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Detroit 

 and the shore of Lake Huron, will appeal to 

 those who like to go and come by different 

 routes. It will be easy to cross from one to the 



other along the Lincoln Highway, the Pike's 

 Peak Highway or any of the other east-to-west 

 roads. 



An Historic Setting. There are many places 

 of historical interest along the Dixie Highway, 



ROUTES OF THE DIXIE HIGHWAY 



most of them in the South. Just east of the 

 main road at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, is the 

 little farm on which Abraham Lincoln was 

 born, now a shrine of the nation. At Chatta- 

 nooga and Chickamauga are the scenes of great 



