The Time Capsule: Traveling the Blue Grass Road
We’ve had two recent inquiries about drivers and motoring, both easily addressed. One asked if we’d done the Eddie Rickenbacker race in Red Oak. We have. Our newspaper covered the 1910 event and, 100 years later, I combined it and a bit of his autobiography to make a column.
If you saw either article you know the answer to our trivia question of the week: who was the Red Oak speedster that beat Rickenbacker? The family name is still in local phone books, so there may be descendants with bragging rights.
The other caller asked about the Blue Grass Road, a super highway across Iowa that was a work in progress the year the 19-year-old Rickenbacker crashed through a fence in Red Oak.
I have a couple of pictures of the road as it was then, and maybe someday we’ll run one in the paper. It was single lane, dirt, and if two cars met they both had to concede some space.
A couple of years ago I drove much of it across our county, a scenic journey that required a map and some time.
Today the White Pole Road to our north is better known, but only because a group with an interest re-marked it and have held annual commemorative events.
The Blue Grass ran a meandering course along the corridor of the CB&Q and was reputed to be the shortest and fastest across Iowa. It hit Main Street in every town it came close to: Malvern, Hastings, Emerson, Red Oak, Stanton, Villisca, Nodaway, and on east to the Mississippi.
The road was already there in 1910, part of a maze of largely unmarked paths and trails. The challenge was to identify one route, arrange for maintenance, and mark the way by painting distinctive colored rings on telephone poles.
J.L. Long, a newspaper editor from Osceola, was the original organizer and president of an association formed for this purpose. Four other prominent citizens from various cities in southern Iowa served on the committee. Each, no doubt, had an interest in seeing the road pass through their town. One was Thomas D. Murphy, founder of the Murphy Calendar Company of Red Oak. Murphy participated in a series of town-by-town programs held for the purpose of explaining the benefits and seeking support. He helped sign up more than 1,200 farmers who agreed to drag the traveled portion as it passed through or adjacent to their land. Sub-committees were formed in the 16 counties traversed. They were responsible for painting “every other telephone pole along the road, and painting three consecutive poles from each turn in the road and where other roads lead off, and every pole where the road passes through a town or city, or where the traveler might get confused.” The mark was to be approximately six feet above grade and consist of two nine-inch bands of white, one above and one below a six-inch band of blue.
Even if the road was dry, the weather good, and the driver didn’t lose track of the blue and white telephone poles, the trip across the state was not likely to be done in a day. Overnighters could find hotel rooms at $1 to $2. The Johnson in Red Oak—advertised as being the finest in southern Iowa—had luxury accommodations at a higher rate. Mrs. Foy in Stanton offered a room with meals for $1.50.
An original “Huebinger’s Map and Guide for the Blue Grass Road” promoting the road and including a map of it in each county, a 160-page book funded at least partly by advertisements (the 1910 ads are as entertaining as the text) was reprinted and re-issued in 2005 by Steve and Kathy Francis of Creston. Their books sell about as quickly as mine. Ten years later Steve still has half a dozen in the garage he’d like to get rid of. If anyone wants a copy they’re available at the Pudgy Pumpkin in Red Oak. When they’re gone I expect the book will be hard to find.
Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.