Jefferson Highway enthusiasts get kicks on historic route while in Central Louisiana

The Jefferson Highway sign placed at the corner of Jefferson Highway and Military Highway in Pineville is special to Roger Bell, president of the Jefferson Highway Association.

“Because it is actually on a road called the Jefferson Highway,” he explained at the sign’s dedication held last Saturday. It is the only known part of the historic 2,194-mile highway that still carries the Jefferson Highway name.

Unlike Route 66 which many have heard of, not many in Central Louisiana, or even the U.S. and Canada, know much about the Jefferson Highway. It originally extended from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, all the way to New Orleans. The route meandered through Central Louisiana towns including Natchitoches, Colfax, LeCompte, Cheneyville, Bunkie, Alexandria and Pineville.

When the highway was being built around 1915, Pineville was one of the communities that fought to get it routed through town, said Bell, of Muskogee, Okla.

The original route includes the part still called the Jefferson Highway in Pineville, Military Highway and Pineville’s Main Street. The old route crossed into Alexandria on the former Murray Street Bridge before it was demolished. In Alexandria, the route included Lee Street and Masonic Drive where there used to be a campground. Another Jefferson Highway sign was placed at this location and another sign will be placed at the Hotel Bentley.

The markers in Pineville include a Jefferson Highway marker and a historical marker with information about the route. James Robertson with the City of Pineville spruced up the area around the historical marker that sits on the corner of Jefferson and Military Highways with flowers and lights. The Jefferson Highway Marker is across the road from the historical marker.

Historians Mike Tudor, Paul Price and Michael Wynne researched the route’s Central Louisiana history.

Tudor said the road existed in Central Louisiana long before it became part of the Jefferson Highway. Tudor worked with the City of Pineville to get the markers.

“One of the most famous Americans that ever lived, for two years, would either ride his horse down to the ferry, this exact way, up to LSU and back,” Tudor told those gathered for the dedication.

That was Gen. William T. Sherman who was the first superintendent of Louisiana State University when it was still in Pineville and known as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy.

“In his letters to his wife, he talked about walking down this road, crossing the bayou,” said Tudor. “His statue is in Central Park in New York. And this very road, the Jefferson Highway, took this road that was in existence, and that man walked this road for two years.”

Though it started in Canada, it was named for U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and in its heyday, was nicknamed the “Pines to Palms” highway because of the pines in the North and palms in the South. The entire route was completed in 1926.

Last week the Jefferson Highway Association held a three-day conference in Alexandria attended by people from 18 states, Canada and even one person from Bulgaria. They enjoyed being together and becoming friends, said Bell.

“That’s the comradery that made the Jefferson Highway strong in it’s earliest days. That’s what’s going to keep us moving forward as we work together to build this route back as a heritage portal across our country,” said Bell.

“I love the road. I love driving on the road,” said Lina Chakarova of Sofia, Bulgaria. She came to visit her friend in Illinois and to attend the conference which was her third one.

For her the appeal of the Jefferson Highway reminds her of novelist Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel “On the Road” which was about the adventures he and his friends experienced while traveling across the U.S.

“I feel that. I feel that American spirit. It’s a way of living,” she said.

The best part of traveling along the highway for her is crossing from one state to another.

“And a big billboard saying, ‘Welcome to Louisiana,’ ‘Welcome to Texas.’ You feel like crossing different parts of culture, but it’s the same. It’s America,” she said.

Canadian Lou Erickson found out about the Jefferson Highway a few months ago and became interested in learning more about it.

“The route, the Jefferson Highway route, went right through the town that we live in. A town called Morris,” she said, which is in Manitoba.

They now want to better promote and celebrate their leg of the Jefferson Highway. She is a museum volunteer and a volunteer with their visitors’ bureau at the border crossing between North Dakota and Manitoba.

“I’d like to promote it as a tourism venture for Manitoba as well,” she said. No one really knows about it. “Like I asked people, I say, ‘Have you ever heard of the Jefferson Highway? The ‘Pines to Palms’ Highway?’ And they say, ‘No. Tell us about it.’ And then they get excited.”

She now plans to bring what she learned here to help promote the Jefferson Highway up there.

“And hopefully, maybe in a couple of years, we can have the conference, the Jefferson Highway Association Conference, in Winnipeg,” said Erickson.

She and her husband Lionel flew into town and haven’t traveled the highway yet but the do plan on returning to Louisiana, and drive down on the Jefferson Highway next time.

Jane Johnson and her husband Bill from Lexington, Ky., drove a light blue 1955 Chevy station wagon to Alexandria for the conference.

"We've drove the entire length from Winnipeg to New Orleans in that car two years ago,” said Johnson.

She doesn’t have a favorite place on the route because each are unique.

“Different parts have different flavors,” said Johnson. “Winnepeg is a really interesting. Of course, that’s where it starts.”

She wished they had more time to spend there and look around.

“Minnesota is lovely. There's lots of gravel stretches in Minnesota that are well maintained,” she said. Those are part of the original route.

Mark Mueske of Robbinsdale, Minn., said that Minnesota has more miles of Jefferson Highway than any other state.

“Of course, we love Louisiana. Both of my brothers-in-law went to LSU and so we've been down here a fair amount,” said Johnson.

One of the things she finds interesting about the route is the little towns that it goes through, such as Bunkie, and the hospitality that people show.

“It’s just small-town America. There's some little towns in Iowa like that as well,” she said. "You go through, and they've got flags. And we were close to Memorial Day when we drove the whole route and they had bunting up everywhere.”

It's the slice of Americana that she likes.

Bell said that they had a pre-conference caravan from Shreveport with an overnight stay in Natchitoches before coming to Alexandria.

"We’ve been here three nights at the Hotel Bentley and had an unbelievably great experience,” said Bell. “Just a lot of hospitality and really appreciate the community support of our efforts on the rebirth of the Jefferson Highway.”

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Jefferson Highway enthusiasts get kicks on historic route while in Central Louisiana