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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

National Parks Highway - Dated 1919 Concrete


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I enjoyed a good night’s sleep at the Willows in Wilber. I rented a unit with a kitchen just for the fun of it. It brought back memories of travel with our family in the 40’s, when cooking in your motel was the norm. Because food brands were much more regional in those days, I still recall being interested in the “new” brands of milk, bread, and the like.

 

The road between Wilber and Spokane has at least half a dozen abandoned alignments which are worth following. This was only a scouting mission, so when I came to a fallen tree or a patch of rough road, I turned around. I did explore one roadside trash dump that contained several old tin cans with holes in the top. When did we stop using that manufacturing method?

 

East of Davenport there is a long section of the old alignment, much of which still has its old concrete with curved drainage curbs. I tend to think of that design as from the 1930’s, perhaps the first half of the decade. In any event the section is evocative of the first half of the last century.

 

It includes a weathered billboard that I hope stands for at least a few more years. The Davenport Hotel was the pride of Spokane in 1914 when it was built and was a grand stop on the National Parks Highway. It is cited at the top of the list of accommodations in the ca. 1917 NPH Motorists Service Guide., and it has been restored to its former splendor as a 4 star establishment.

 

ARDavenport.jpg

 

I mentioned to the fellow who restored the hotel that the sign was there. He was surprised but not terribly impressed.

 

Obviously the sign doesn’t date to the time of the NPH! For a closer look, go HERE.

 

There is a must drive section of old concrete alignment (see map below) that I actually traveled on the way home, but it fits here. I’m guessing this is the section John mentioned as near Reardan. It is distinguished in two ways. It is laid in the old style without a center expansion joint. And I can tell you the exact day the concrete was poured, and who did it!

 

Map1919Concrete.jpg

 

When you look at a section of this old alignment you immediately see the cracks that run down the “middle” of the road. With no center expansion joint to relieve the stress of changes in the base, and the effects of traffic, it cracked. That is very interesting, and the lack of a center joint helps date old concrete sections.

 

AR1919Concrete.jpg

 

But the real gem is that the contractor stamped the date into the first and last section he laid each day! So if you watch as you drive, you know the date for each section of the road. You can also tell where he quit for the winter (the last date in October) and where he picked up the next spring in May.

 

Note in the photo that these two consecutive sections were poured October 4, 1919 and October 6, 1919. Why not October 5, 1919?!. You guessed it! October 5, 1919 was a Sunday. So we know they worked six days a week, but “never on Sunday!” If you can’t read the letters on the stamp, it says “Standard Paving Spokane __”

 

AR1919Pavement.jpg

 

I confess that for me this was the best old section, after Moses Coulee, because you could read its story day by day. As I was out photographing concrete a farmer pulled up in his pickup and asked what I was doing. Apparently he had been observing me from his field. Today the road serves no purpose other that to provide access to farm fields, so it was natural that he might be curious.

 

We exchanged greetings and I asked him if he knew he was on the National Parks Highway. He didn’t, but he said his grandfather had helped grade the road and lay the concrete. Apparently the old grader was around for a long time, but no longer.

 

Next stop, Spokane and the Guilbert photos.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Dave,

Thanks for another interesting and informative story. I loved the concrete imprints. As a kid, I always liked the residential sidewalks here in town that had brass contractor plates imbedded. I don't see many of them anymore.

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Those concrete photos are fabulous! I can't get over the date stamps. Many street corners near my childhood home were stamped "WPA" or some such, as New Deal programs put in much of my neighborhood's infrastructure. But I've never seen stampings in a road itself. I would probably pee myself if I ever came across something like that, I'd be so excited!

 

I find it remarkable that the concrete is in such good shape, cracks notwithstanding.

 

jim

 

 

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Those concrete photos are fabulous! I can't get over the date stamps. Many street corners near my childhood home were stamped "WPA" or some such, as New Deal programs put in much of my neighborhood's infrastructure. But I've never seen stampings in a road itself. I would probably pee myself if I ever came across something like that, I'd be so excited!

 

I find it remarkable that the concrete is in such good shape, cracks notwithstanding.

 

jim

 

Jim,

 

I just realized that I was there on the 89th anniversary of the final construction of that section! The last dated section was May 18th, 1920. So the concrete lasted for 89 years….so far! Further on, there was signs that the surface concrete had failed in spots, but no spots where the concrete was missing all the way down to the base.

 

HERE is a long, large (13MB) windows media video of driving the a worn section. (One of these days I'll put a flash player on the server, and get away from these endless download times!)

 

NOTE:

is a better choice on YouTube, posted after my pals chastised me! :P:huh::D

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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I couldn't open it with WinAmp - while I waited for it to open I took a shower, got my breakfast and scanned 8 pp of a parts book I'm putting on-line. :D And, oh yeah - I mowed my back yard too. hehehehe

 

All I got from WinAmp was plugs for everything but your video.

 

YouTube sounds good to me.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

Edited by Alex Burr - hester_nec
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I couldn't open it with WinAmp - while I waited for it to open I took a shower, got my breakfast and scanned 8 pp of a parts book I'm putting on-line. :D And, oh yeah - I mowed my back yard too. hehehehe

 

All I got from WinAmp was plugs for everything but your video.

 

YouTube sounds good to me.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

 

Alex,

 

Yah, I don't know what I was thinking. I must have blanked out, and reached for the wrong key! :rolleyes:

 

But, hey, if it inspired you to mow the back lawn, it wasn't a total loss!

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Great pictures.

 

Because food brands were much more regional in those days, I still recall being interested in the “new” brands of milk, bread, and the like.

 

Even today my wife really likes going in to local grocery stores while we're on road trips to see what kinds of different local items they have. Also, how the selection of items changes from place to place. Although things have become a lot more homogeneous over the last few years, there are still some differences, like the size of the canning section in northeast Indiana, and the lard selection in the mountains of West Virginia (I'm not even sure my local supermarket sells lard, although I guess they must).

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I enjoyed a good night’s sleep at the Willows in Wilber. I rented a unit with a kitchen just for the fun of it. It brought back memories of travel with our family in the 40’s, when cooking in your motel was the norm. Because food brands were much more regional in those days, I still recall being interested in the “new” brands of milk, bread, and the like.

 

Dave,

Do you have any photos of the interior of the kitchened unit? Peg and I are hoping to be able to find a good group of such rooms on future road trips as here new restricted diet makes eating out so much more difficult...

Thanks.

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