First Information highway for the Midwest - Pontiac, Illinois, USA.
N 40° 52.875 W 088° 37.755
16T E 362729 N 4526852
The first Information Highway stretched from The East coast of the USA along US-66. Today there are six wayside exhibits in Pontiac, & each tells a different story about America's Mother Road highway & the City of Pontiac, Illinois.
Waymark Code: WMTC4N
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 10/31/2016
Views: 0
In the 1860's The first Information Highway stretched from The East coast of the USA through the Town of Pontiac, then onto the Mississippi River, paralleling the Railroad & the Pontiac Trail, later to become Route 66.
The Telegraph poles that passed through Pontiac, disappeared long ago The poles on display were taken from a nearby section of Route 66.
The Historic Marker & display poles are located across the road from the Route 66 Hall of Fame & Museum.
This wayside Route 66 historic marker reads:
"The First Information Highway for the Midwest.
The railroad and Route 66 automobile corridor were not only important to the transportation of people and goods, the system of poles and wires that paralleled those byways served as the first information highway for the Midwest."
"In the Land of Lincoln, begins the path of the Mother Road near the shore of Lake Michigan. Connecting the Midwest with the golden state of California, the road from Chicago originally followed State Route 4 from Chicago to East St. Louis. This original piece of gravel road was built before Route 66 even existed and was first called the Pontiac Trail in 1915. In 1918, Illinois began to pave the road and by the time Route 66 was instituted it was entirely paved. This piece of the Mother Road was the first fully paved highway in Illinois and was quickly recognized as the shortest distance between Chicago and St. Louis. By 1927, the Route 66 signs were visible all along the Illinois route." Text Source: (
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