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Us 36 And Pp-oo


mobilene
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I needed to go out to Terre Haute today so I did it via US 36 and and finally finished my drive from Rockville to Illinois. I also went as far into Illinois as IL SR 1, then up to Chrisman, west to their square, and then all the way back to US 36 near the IN SR 63 interchange on the PP-OO.

 

How do I know it's the PP-OO? Because the map from a TIB guide published here shows the shape of the road, and there's a country road coming out of Chrisman with the same shape.

 

I also finally took a photo of the 1931 gas station building along the National Road in Terre Haute. It used to be in town. I vaguely remember where it was -- it was before my roadgeekdom and so I wasn't paying close attention. It was next to Maurizio's Pizza, for what it's worth, but I can't remember the cross street! But that spot is a vacant lot now, and the building, which looks like a small house, is now a concession stand and restroom for the baseball field at Rose-Hulman. It's still on US 40, just a few miles east of its original location. Rose and the National Road Assn. moved it in 1999 to save it from demolition.

 

I'm doing this hurriedly since it's late and the 5:30 alarm will go off whether I'm ready or not tomorrow. To see the photos, go to my Flickr space at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/, then wade through the handful of other photos I have there to get to the ones I'm sharing from this trip. Full writeup will follow, eventually.

 

jim

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Mobilene,

 

I too am rushing, but I enjoyed the update and photos. I like the old service station. They must have moved it rock by rock.

 

Is the house on Victoria your new digs? Looks really charming, and has a lovely setting. If that is what you can buy for 100K in your area, quit your bitc** about the taxes and live rich, well, and happy.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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The house stuff is all relative. Houses are a heckuva lot cheeper just down the National Road in Terre Haute. I had outright sticker shock when I moved to Indy in 1994.

 

So from where I sit, the glass is half empty. From where you sit, it sounds like my glass is way more than half full.

 

My brother would move to Oregon, specifically Portland, yesterday except for the cost of housing.

 

jim

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How do I know it's the PP-OO? Because the map from a TIB guide published here shows the shape of the road, and there's a country road coming out of Chrisman with the same shape.

I was aware of the maps at FHWA but apparently hadn't looked at them too closely. Since later maps (that I'm slightly more familiar with:-) show the PPOO going through Crawsfordsville, IN, and Danville, IL (i.e., US-136), your Chrisman comment at first made me go "Huh?". But it was just one of the many reroutings that had people calling it "a highway that couldn't make up its mind".

 

I've just acquired a recently published book called "Call of the Road - The Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway" that I really have some mixed feelings about. Anna Clark put it together based on the notes of Dr. Harold Meeks. Meeks wrote a book on the Yellowstone Trail which I don't own but believe is a pretty good work. Meeks died before he could finish his planned PPOO book and Clark has essentially published his notes for it. I certainly appreciate the notes being available but can't help feeling the $32 price tag for the 104 page spiral bound book is a bit high. I know it's a small audience and Clark may be just covering her costs but the price itself will help limit the audience and the quality of the book doesn't seem to justify it. It contains quite a few pictures and many are in color. It's not a glossy photo book so the pictures have that "ink jet" look although I imagine the printing method is actually something a bit above that. But what seems most aggravating and unnecessary is that some photos are merely stretched or scrunched to fit a space. Clark, or who ever did the photo editing, seems unaware of the concept of cropping so when a rectangular photo is to go into a square space, there's a good chance one dimension will just be changed to accomplish it. I'm from Darke County, Ohio, and see the Annie Oakley statue pictured in the book on a regular basis. The short plump Annie in the book is kind of amusing but it ain't Annie.

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I was aware of the maps at FHWA but apparently hadn't looked at them too closely. Since later maps (that I'm slightly more familiar with:-) show the PPOO going through Crawsfordsville, IN, and Danville, IL (i.e., US-136), your Chrisman comment at first made me go "Huh?". But it was just one of the many reroutings that had people calling it "a highway that couldn't make up its mind".

 

Denny -- Just curious what the date of your mapping is that shows the PP-OO riding along US 136 routing? The 1925 Auto Trails map I have shows it heading west on 36 still. I've been studying that map a lot lately trying to figure out the next auto trail to rediscover.

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First, let me offer up the site www.ppoo.org, which is what I used for my article on U.S. 36. It shows a 1923 map of the road going through Muncie, Anderson and Crawfordsville.

 

Mobilene, are you going to write a full report for jimgrey.net on this road trip? I'm also very curious about the route you took between Rockville and Dana. Looking at the map you directed us to and looking at my current map, I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out the old alignment between those two towns. From Dana to Chrisman, it is easy to follow, though.

 

And let me know the next time you come to TH, maybe we can get together for a donut and coffee at Square Donuts!

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Bob -- Thanks for that web site. Looks like someone's taking quite an interest in that route. I'm going to have to study my '25 maps more thoroughly tonight. I must admit I've somewhat ignored the PPOO through Indiana, but this discussion has definitely raised my awareness of it now. I'm thinking once mobilene gets moved in, we'll all have to pick us some obscure auto trail in Indiana to unearth some weekend. Anyone else with us??? On that note, make sure you have subscribed to or have access to purchase off the shelf the next issue of American Road that comes out in a month or so. That's all I'm gonna say, as I've just said too much! :rolleyes:

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Denny -- Just curious what the date of your mapping is that shows the PP-OO riding along US 136 routing? The 1925 Auto Trails map I have shows it heading west on 36 still. I've been studying that map a lot lately trying to figure out the next auto trail to rediscover.

There are maps reproduced in the Clark/Meeks book from the 1925 PPOO guide and maps at ppoo.org (which Bucfan mentioned) from 1926.

 

Whereas the Dixie Highway followed scads of north-south roads simultaneous, the PPOO followed scads of east-west routes one at a time. :)

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The map I found at fhwa.dot.gov show the Dana-Chrisman PP-OO route existing in at least 1915 and 1916. I believe its route through Crawfordsville to the north came later.

 

I can't tell you how cool it was to be driving this farm road, realizing that at one time it stretched to the coasts. I wondered, if I had an accurate map of the route, how much of it is still driveable today.

 

From Rockville to just west of Montezuma, US 36 and PP-OO appear to follow much the same route. There are two places where PP-OO diverges, and reconverges, with US 36 about 3 miles west of Rockville. One of those was the photo of the gravel road; the other of those was the photos of the covered bridge and the forgotten segment of US 36. (OH how I wish I had looked for a marker on the new bridge there telling when it was built!!!!)

 

To see the PP-OO diverge from US 36 west of Montezuma, go to Google Maps or Windows Live Local and look up Montezuma, IN. Follow US 36 west. Just before SR 63 note E 610 S, an old alignment of US 36. West of SR 63, US 36 curves sharply and then back again to cross the railroad tracks. PP-OO, on the other hand, stays with the tracks. It's marked E 500 S. At that point, US 36 banks pretty good, and you have to make a left to get on E 500 S/PP-OO. Stay on it as it leaves the RR and then curves to head straight west. You'll pass through Dana before you know what hit you. When you cross into Illinois, the road changes from asphalt to a chip-and-seal that kicks pebbles into your car's undercarriage.

 

Now that I look at the map of Chrisman I'm not sure whether the PP-OO went all the way to the town square. It may have turned north briefly at IL 1/US 150, and then back west on 2300 N.

 

When time allows, I'll update my existing US 36 trip report to include US 36/PP-OO to IL 1, and then PP-OO back to just west of Montezuma.

 

Denny, how disappointing about that PP-OO book you mentioned. Those are amateur mistakes.

 

Pat, I'd love to make a trail trip one of these days.

 

Bob, you know in all the years I lived in Terre Haute I never ate a square donut? Anyway, I don't get out there often but one of these times we'll have to get together.

 

jim

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I may be able to help with the PPOO discussion. I have the Official 1926 PPOO Guide, and TIB Guides with the strip maps for a couple of years in the late teens. I also have large auto trail maps for every state for 1926, and several Automobile Blue Books for the area. I probably have auto trail maps of earlier vintage for the road as well. I’m sure I also have half a dozen period atlases.

 

I am happy to reproduce sections of anything that would help, but I prefer to know the target before I start searching and copying. What time period do you need?

 

I can make any on line road map site look shabby. Forgive me for bragging becasue others have better collections, but they are not on line.

 

In fact, I am thinking about doing a road map site that presents auto trail routes on the “original” maps. What would be the interest? I'm not into busy work.

 

 

Keep the Show on the Road

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In fact, I am thinking about doing a road map site that presents auto trail routes on the “original” maps. What would be the interest? I'm not into busy work.

Keep the Show on the Road

 

Are you kidding? Not to ask you to do any more work than you currently are but a website like that would be a resource that I would use often.

 

roadhound

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I drove the last leg of this trip, Rockville to the IL state line, last Saturday. But this trip was much more a hunt for the PP-OO than it was a mere drive down US 36.

 

A strip map from a 1915 TIB Guide provided a lot of clues. Just by the shape of the road on that strip map I was able to make some good guesses about PP-OO's alignment all the way to Chrisman, IL.

 

I got to excited about the PP-OO that I forgot to take the obligatory photo of the Illinois state line, which marked the end of the US 36 trip.

 

To pick up where I left off, in Rockville, go to this page and click "next" at the bottom of each page.

 

On the last page, I've placed a link to a bonus page, on which I trace my drive along the PP-OO from Chrisman back to where the PP-OO rejoins the US 36 route just west of Montezuma. Let's just say there's not much more than corn on the PP-OO out there.

 

Peace,

jim

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I drove the last leg of this trip, Rockville to the IL state line, last Saturday. But this trip was much more a hunt for the PP-OO than it was a mere drive down US 36.

 

A strip map from a 1915 TIB Guide provided a lot of clues. Just by the shape of the road on that strip map I was able to make some good guesses about PP-OO's alignment all the way to Chrisman, IL.

 

I got to excited about the PP-OO that I forgot to take the obligatory photo of the Illinois state line, which marked the end of the US 36 trip.

 

To pick up where I left off, in Rockville, go to this page and click "next" at the bottom of each page.

 

On the last page, I've placed a link to a bonus page, on which I trace my drive along the PP-OO from Chrisman back to where the PP-OO rejoins the US 36 route just west of Montezuma. Let's just say there's not much more than corn on the PP-OO out there.

 

Peace,

jim

 

Thanks for the trip, Jim. I have driven 36 between Indianapolis and Decatur, IL, a couple of times. But that was before I got into American Road and road trip reports of my own.

I do remember the long truss bridge, and a stop in Dana at the Erinie Pyle museum. That and a lot of absolutely nothing between Dana and Tuscola over in Illinois. And not much more between Tuscola and Decatur. LOL

 

Someday I'll have to run that again - this time with a different view in my head.

 

Safe Travels everybody.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

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