ppoo

Definitely not my expertise, either. I got those MC&T's a few years ago from eBay because the listing mentioned the PP-OO article. They're interesting enough I'd like to get more, but they don't come up very often and $100 is over my budget... I'd be interested in seeing more early auto mags, if anyone's willing to scan. I'll be gone for a few days and will try to scan the rest of the PPOO articles next week. I'd definintely be interested in a new thread on magazines, just to learn more. -PPOO

Funny you should mention magazines - reading this forum has encouraged me to spend some time organizing some of the info I've pack-ratted away and yesterday I put up a link to a handful of magazines at http://www.ppoo.org/PPOOMags/ (sorry about the large image files for the PPOO articles - I'm working on it). They're always a trip to read and do have lots of good info (the precursors of AR!) Interesting that our magazine lists have no overlap, in fact I've never seen Touring Topics. Maybe I'll check the local library some Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for the tip. Great site! I've also found some state document sites and library sites useful. E.g. I've gotten some photocopies of letters from the PPOO Association to governors of Nevada and Utah asking about potential routings for the highway. Also an announcement for a PPOO convention in 1914. Some librarians will copy them for free and mail them. Eventually, all this stuff will be digital.

I don't know if anyone's following such things but several PPOO items have recently sold on ebay: a porcelain sign for $643 (that's gotta be rare!), a 1922 guide for $57, and a letter on PPOO letterhead for $70. You have to have deep pockets to collect this stuff.

Thanks - useful info. Note that http://www.geocities.com/findinglincolnill...parkandcem.html has a photo of a 1922 right-of-way marker in Lincoln IL, which looks quite different, consistent with your second reference. You never know how authoritative info from such websites is (including Wikipedia!) but when they all seem to agree, I begin to listen. -Rick

Well so far nobody's convinced me that the marker is not IL-10 and that IL-10 is not the PPOO. There is definitely a symbol on the marker between the R and the O on the post and it looks like a poorly inscribed "1" - so I doubt it says ROW. The curved road north of White Heath that connects to the current IL-10, referred to in Pat's earlier post, still exists but is blocked off and overgrown, according to a friend who lives in Champaign. That might make a nice drive next weekend. He also says there's another IL-10 marker somewhere north of White Heath. And Denny's overlapping maps are pretty convincing... I'd say that's a pretty darn good job of scale matching!

Denny - great trip info and photos! Let's do it again sometime. I think I mentioned that I remebered a short TV program on the interurban that included the Fifthian station, well here it is http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/index.php/prair...re/segment/C28/ including video! It's the Illinois Traction railway. Old route maps on http://www.illinoistractionsociety.org/Plat.html show it followed the PPOO route from Danville thru Jacksonville. BTW, re: your photo of the IL Route 10 marker. The closeup I took looks like it says "State R10" (see photo) so it's the PPOO - route 10 no longer goes this way.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. And it just dawned on me who "KtSotR" is... And, yes KtSotR I'd love to exchange info on the PPOO. My travels have been from PA to CO so I'm quite ignorant of the current state of the western route(s) and have less info on the historical side out there. And to add to the confusion of the earlier discussion of the northern vs. souther PPOO route in west IN and east IL, I offer the attached image of a Rand map of IL showing both routes (PPOO is labeled with a '2') simultaneously. Unfortunately dating this map is a bit tricky - date code is 9R23 which doesn't seem to fit with the RMCA decoder (http://www.roadmaps.org/date.htm - it claims the 'R' would mean 1936, but there's no way it can be that late since it has no US highway numbers and does list named auto trails). I'm voting for the '23' in the code to be 1923. Any ideas on this one?

Hi road people, I've been lurking on this board for a while but got interested in this thread thanks to an email from Denny. Lot's of good stuff! Anyway, I have a 1927 PP-OO guide so it does exist. Cover looks just like the 1926 but has fewer pages, few city maps. It shows US highways (Rand McNally was good about updating quickly). FYI, Anderson IN routing looks the same as in 1926. Rand 1928 IL map still labels PP-OO route, BTW, so they didn't drop the names immediately. Also have a 1924 National Highways Assoc PP-OO map wich shows the route thru Lebanon-Crawfordsville-Danville-Chambana to corroborate an earlier post. I'm almost sure I've seen some map with both routes marked (the northerly thru Danville, Il and the older southerly thru Danville, IN-Crisman-Tuscola). The older route enters Decatur further south than the 1924 version, and that's where the existing "Ocean Trail" street is that I put a photo of on my website ppoo.org. Someday I'll get around to updating that site...