OLD SPANISH TRAIL IS NOW BEST TRANSCONTINENTAL HIGHWAY
Members and Engineers Congratulated
Demand for Travel Literature Shows Interest of People
Road and bridge construction along the Old Spanish Trail have now advanced to a point where this great trunkline can carry travel the year round with less interruption than any other transcontinental highway. Tourists and home seekers are learning o( these improved conditions and seek information about hotels, auto camps, old history, opportunities for settling, relaxation, fishing, hunting and touring. These inquiries can not be answered thoroughly except information is extensively gathered and carefully compiled and printed—the time has come for this to be done and we must find ways to meet the costs.
Extensive Demand for Information
40,000 travelogs have been issued covering Louisiana and Texas, one half the total mileage, and travel information is included from St. Augustine to San Diego so that travelers may readily get to any section. A hundred thousand more travelogs are needed so extensive is the demand.
They arc on distribution all over the United States and also extensively used by schools and colleges for teaching physical geography and old history. 10,000 lithographed maps were made; these arc all gone. National magazine articles are sought and many published but fresh photos and data are hard to keep in hand. These improved travel conditions and this recognition of the value of the Old Spanish Trail literature emphasize the need now for a constant supply of travel booklets and maps covering all the territory from St. Augustine to San Diego. By general cooperation the printing and distribution can be maintained at small cost to each locality and the people brought in to build up the country. This sort of cooperation has not been possible until many essential road sections and bridges were built.
The Past Ten Years of Labor
In the past the sections that blocked travel have been so difficult and the discouragements so numerous it has often seemed as though a continuous highway, particularly along the Gulf of Mexico, would drag beyond our lifetime. Bogs and bad ferries that killed tourist travel were common but two or three years ago. But in darkest moments new elements of cooperation would come to the front; some locality would vote bonds of heroic proportions; some highway department would achieve the impossible at some barrier point; some city would pass the hat for funds to break across an orphan section; then the powerful aid of Senators and Congressmen and the War Department at Washington was secured, past failures were forgotten and the