President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States when he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The deal with France gave our young republic most of the central part of the North American continent.
A little more than 100 years later, during the early era of automobile travel, they named a right-of-way through those lands in President Jefferson’s honor. The Thomas Jefferson Highway is a 2,300-mile-long roadway composed of various local thoroughfares, stretching from Winnipeg, Manitoba to New Orleans. Conceived as an idea in 1915 and dedicated in 1918, the Jefferson Highway runs through Northeast Texas along the way.
The highway was the idea of Edwin T. Meredith, an Iowa publisher who specialized in periodicals for farmers. One of his publications eventually became Better Homes and Gardens. Meredith, who later served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Woodrow Wilson, thought the road would be an economic boon to the region's farmers.
Over the years, newly numbered highways along the route gradually replaced the Jefferson nomenclature. But today, the original path of the Jefferson Highway is increasingly marked with new signage, in an effort to promote “traffic and tourism” in communities situated from the plains of Canada to the Gulf Coast. That’s according to Jennifer Self-Knight, administrative assistant to the director of tourism for the city of Bonham.
The Jefferson Highway crosses the Red River into Texas at Denison, then bears east through Bells and Bonham, then south through Wolfe City and Greenville. The road then follows the current Interstate 30 corridor through Cumby, Sulphur Springs, Mount Vernon and Mount Pleasant, where it turns south again, toward Pittsburg, Gilmer and points beyond.
This year has seen a significant uptick in activity commemorating the Jefferson Highway, Self-Knight said. The city – along with communities spread throughout the highway route – has been able to install several commemorative signs calling attention to the Jefferson Highway, Self-Knight said, pointing excitedly to a letter the city received from Loring Miller, a member of the Jefferson Highway Association. The organization is based in Diamond, Mo., near Joplin.
The letter endorses the city’s effort to recognize the highway and Miller’s note brings attention to “historic points of interest” that were ‘highlighted for traveler attention.” Those points in Bonham are the Sam Rayburn House, the Powder Creek Bridge and the Magnolia Oil Co. Gas Station.
Self-Knight describes the Thomas Jefferson Highway as the “first north-south highway started in this country. It is part of the Great Roads Movement of 1910.” Self-Knight said planning for developing the right-of-way never has been a state or national endeavor, but rather it has been left to individual communities to do their own planning, fundraising and promotional activity to alert the community of the highway benefit. Some of the early promotional material refers to the “Pines to Palms” element, noting the change of flora along the route.
Denison, which sits alongside U.S. Highway 75 near the state’s border with Oklahoma, was designated a “Cardinal City” along the Thomas Jefferson Highway route, making it the only Cardinal City in Texas.
The Cardinal City designation is meant to set aside one city in each state along the highway to lead the way in luring other communities into the project to participate in promotional activities to boost Jefferson Highway awareness. “The term ‘Cardinal’ must have been a term used at the turn of the previous century to designate importance to the project,” Self-Knight said.
Self-Knight called the Thomas Jefferson Highway a critical part of the First Great American Tourism. She noted that at the turn of the 20th century, when motor vehicles remained a relative bargain, the nation was poised to promote motor vehicle travel as part of a comprehensive tourism effort.
The juxtaposition of the Thomas Jefferson Highway’s promotion efforts and commemoration of Bonham’s 175th year as an incorporated city could not be better-timed, Self-Knight said.
One of the aims of the project is to identify historical sites along the 2,300-mile route from Winnipeg to New Orleans. Several such sites have been found in Bonham and other Northeast Texas locations. As the Jefferson Highway organization notes in a pamphlet:
“The Jefferson Highway was a monumental contribution to early transportation history. The highway became one of the first long-distance international highways. . . . . Communities along the hard-surface roadway experienced renewed public interest and economic growth. Hotels, motor courts and tourist camps accommodated the weary traveler. … Locations identified within an area as Jefferson Highway Historic Sites will be designated on road signs to attract the attention of tourists.”
Which is precisely what Self-Knight and her staff at the Bonham tourist bureau intend to do.
The commission flyer notes that “local organizations paying for the signs are recognized as sponsors. This is another opportunity for communities, counties and states along the Jefferson to promote highway history through recognizable identity.” Another pamphlet shows the highway route from 1916 to 1924, with dozens of communities highlighted on its route. The highway enters the United States at Three Rivers Falls, Minn., and travels south through Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and, of course, through the northeast corner of Texas.
Indeed, Bonham and the Thomas Jefferson Highway seem to be linked inextricably through the hopes and dreams of those who wish nothing but the best for both entities.
Self-Knight added that “people are starting to travel along the Jefferson Highway, the way they travel along Route 66.” Self-Knight told of how she has learned of developers starting to erect hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast establishments along the Thomas Jefferson Highway route.
Officials have identified seven locations in Bonham that will have signs designating the Jefferson Highway. They are the Fannin County Museum of History, as well as along the loop comprising Sam Rayburn Drive and North Main Street. These signs are in addition to the historic site markers at the Rayburn House, the Magnolia Oil Gas Station and the Powder Creek Bridge.
The year 2024 promises to bring even more activity commemorating the highway to Bonham and the region, Self-Knight said. “A military convoy is scheduled to come through Bonham in October next year,” she said, explaining that the convoy will be made up of vehicles from the period in the early 1900s when the Jefferson Highway was conceived and then dedicated. The convoy will be manned by active-duty and retired military personnel, she said.
This quote, taken from the Jefferson Highway Declaration in 1918, sums it up: “May the Jefferson Highway live a thousand years. May Bonham live a thousand years less a day, for Bonham would not care to be on the map should the Jefferson Highway go some other way.”
That’s how Jennifer Self-Knight no doubt sees the city of Bonham and the highway co-existing together. As Self-Knight noted: “This Thomas Jefferson Highway is a forever project.”