The Jefferson Highway In Oklahoma The Historic Osage Trace Jonita Mullins by Jonita Mullins 9781467136334, 9781439658888, 1467136336, 1439658889 instant download after payment.

The Jefferson Highway was an important asset to the new state of Oklahoma. The Jefferson Highway Association was formed in New Orleans, and a large group of businessmen from Oklahoma made the trip to attend that important meeting.  Oklahoma became the forty-sixth state in November 1907, and eight years later, in November 1915, a group of Good Road enthusiasts made a bid to obtain an International Highway for Oklahoma.  When the first organizational meeting of the Jefferson Highway Association was held in New Orleans on November 15–16, 1915, it expected to attract about fifty delegates, but over six times that number attended. In fact, more than fifty delegates showed up from the new state of Oklahoma alone. This first meeting showed how much rivalry there was between the states, as all of them wanted the Jefferson Highway to run through their cities.  The Muskogee Times-Democrat newspaper dated November 6, 1915, contained the following statement about the Jefferson Highway: Believing an auto road—which in time will be a cement thoroughfare permanent enough to move armies over—will be worth more to Muskogee than another railroad, the delegates will join a special train leaving Parsons, Kansas with about 100 Kansans aboard, here the evening of November 12. Vinita, Dr. Bagby said, will send four delegates—other towns in eastern Oklahoma will send from one to a half-dozen, and Muskogee, with over 40,000 population, ought to send 40 men if they can be found willing to neglect their personal business long enough to go down and help out vote Missouri and Arkansas.  D.N. Fink of Muskogee became the leader of the Oklahoma delegation and, along with other representatives, won the vote to route the highway through Texas to Durant, Oklahoma, and then north through McAlester, Muskogee and Vinita to the Kansas and Missouri state lines. Mr. Fink was popular with all delegates and was elected vice-president at this same meeting.