A Few Approaches To Replacement Milestones

[cbustapeck]

The National Road, in the United States, followed a tradition present in the UK and elsewhere of using milestones to mark the distances along the road. The Congressional act that provided funding required some sort of regular marking of distances, and thus came to be the milestones that we have on the road today. As I've shown in my earlier posts, many of the milestones have survived. However, in some places, for various reasons, the milestones have been destroyed or gone missing.

 

Between Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland, some missing stones have been replaced by nondescript ones cast of concrete, like these two, 56 M to B and 58 M to B.

 

 

Farther west, at the east end of Clear Spring, Maryland, a beautiful little National Road town, we come to milestone 82 M to B. The top of the stone is not a perfectly rounded like the others - there is a bit of a flourish to the design. The text appears to have been sandblasted into it.

 

 

Milestones 96 and 97, in Hancock, Maryland, are carved from stone. The stone is similar in shape and size to the stones that it replaces, but is a harder material. I'm not sure what the history is behind these stones, but they are clearly recent replacements, an acknowledgement of the town's tourist economy, both past and present. (Note: both stones are, in fact, the same size.)

 

 

In Maryland, west of Cumberland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, the milestones are made of cast iron, poured by local foundries. The missing milestones in Pennsylvania have been replaced by ones moulded from fiberglass, while those in West Virginia have been, depending on how one reads it either restored or "re-cast". The fiberglass replacements cost about $500, a tenth of the cost of a cast iron replacement.

 

 

While I understand the economy of the fiberglass milestones, I think that something is definitely lost in their use. Further, there's something appealing about the rusty cast iron milestones, with the weld marks showing where they've been hit by automobiles. When the fiberglass ones are damaged, they can simply be replaced - what history is there there?

 

I think the approach taken by Clear Spring is an excellent compromise - their stone has the look and feel of a milestone but with a somewhat more justifiable expense than the cost of carving one of stone. I also think that before seeking out replacements, a greater effort should be made to find the orignial milestones and put them back by the roadside, rather than moving them to museums. I'm sure that many are sitting around in people's back yards, waiting to come back to the road.

 

- Christopher

[mobilene]

I certainly agree that it is better to replace a stone, when necessary, with something as close to the original. But given the order-of-magnitude cost difference between the fiberglass and iron markers, wow, I'm not a bit surprised that some places go with the fiberglass. I think the history is lost when the original marker is lost, and that replacement markers are a mere shadow. I'm just glad that there is enough care to replace them at all. jim

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

I note that DennyG has given some insights as well on the topic of miilestones. I know nothing about the subject, but like Mobilene, all the info helps with future trip planning.

 

Milestones aside, I am aslo impressed with the apparent wealth of the "built environment"

 

Keep the Show on the Road!