- The Old San Antonio Road near Bastrop, July 1941 Bastrop County project files, Texas Highway Department Records, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives.
Online exhibit of Texas highway history just for road nerds
We kid, of course. We’re unrepentant road nerds ourselves. It’s hard not to be when your ride a motorcycle. I mean, you have a much more tactile experience with the road than you do in a car. You learn to read roads, and their surface conditions because your safety relies on it. Everyone who rides knows that tar snakes at 100 degrees become slick as well, what they are, oil. You learn that chip seal is just gravel stuck, more or less, to tar. And in this manner riders become road nerds, whether they like it or not.
Roads as the “Third god”
The fine folks at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission have created an online exhibit they call “From Pioneer Paths to Superhighways.” It includes a reference to Historian George B. Tindall who concluded that good roads were the “third god” in the transformation of the modern South, along with industrialization and education. So there.
- The Highway Department pulled out all the stops for the 1936 Centennial highway map, including not only the usual road and geographic information but also historical information, tourist stops, and even the words to the state song, “Texas Our Texas.” Texas State Archives Map Number 6193
The exhibit has plenty of historic photos and maps. If you have some time to kill, patience, and a hankering to learn more about the story behind Texas’ highways and the Texas Highway Department, which later became TxDOT, check out the exhibit.
