THE ST. AUGUSTINE CELEBRATION April 2-3-4, 1929 The monument at St. Augustine and its dedication ceremonies fittingly climaxed the construction of this travelway from Florida through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to California. St. Augustine spent $16,000 on the old Spanish pageantry. The St. Augustine Exchange Club erected the monument. The San Diego, California Chamber of Commerce organized the motorcade to St. Augustine. The Women’s Beautification Department organized the delegation from Texas. The National OST Headquarters led and coordinated the various workers from San Diego to St. Augustine that contributed to its success. The speakers at the dedication ceremonies were— Mayor George Bassett, St. Augustine, Florida. T. J. Brooks, Tallahassee, Florida, representing the Governor. Sr. Don Rafael Casares Gil, representing the 'King of Spain. Harral Ayres, Managing' Director of the Old Spanish Trail. Mrs. F. W. Sorell, National Director of Beautification. Mrs. Alex L. Adams, Pres. Women's Federation of Clubs, San Antonio. Thomas C. Imeson, representing the National Exchange Clubs. Ehvood T. Bailey, representing the San Diego organizations. DEDICATION ADDRESS BY THE MANAGING DIRECTOR Long before the Pilgrim Fathers settled New England, Spanish princes, adventurers and Mission Fathers were exploring and settling this Old Spanish Trail country. Names of discoverers and colonizers like Ponce de Leon, Menendez, de Soto, de Luna, Galvez, Onate, Cortez, Balboa, Coronado and Cabrillo are known over the land. In the church other names have become canonized for noble deeds. Across this land are old stone mis- sions, old aqueducts and other ancient works of that remarkable period. Those were days of travels by sea and up the rivers and bays, or overland by rambling trails. The ancient cities of St. Augustine, Pensacola, Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson and San Diego were settled on those waterways or those trails and they became clothed with romantic history. When the automobile age came those bays and rivers were barriers to travel and those cities were strangers to one another. A group of crusaders met in Mobile in 1916 and declared for an automobile trunk line that would open these lands of the conqhistadores and the padres of past ages to the enjoyment of the American people through future ages. The dream of 1915 is the realization of the people of today. The waterways have been bridged and the continent spanned. California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama said to Florida, we are ready now. St. Augustine, with its mantle of Spanish history resting like a spell over the old city, said come and we will give a festival that will portray the story of Ponce de Leon and others of the past. This monument is not alone to mark the beginning of the Old Spanish Trail of today in its long span across the continent. It is a memorial to the men and women who have mastered the problems and made the highway possible and made our recent motorcade drive from San Diego to St. Augustine as dependable as railroad travel. It is a tribute to the Spanish people of yesteryear and of today. It is a challenge now to the people to go on with this work and keep this far-southern land a joy for travelers for the years to come and a memorial to all that is good in that age of art and chivalry and adventure and of great mission works. We do not have to agree with all they did. We do not agree with all our Pilgrim Forefathers did. But we may take pride in the glories of that age and help pass on to our children memories of it, not forgetfulness of it. We accept this monument from the people of this hospitable city in the name of the people of this land and dedicate this highway now to our people as a sacred trust to carry on to new glories and for the pleasure of all who follow us.