Two stone columns made of differently-sized stone bricks are almost invisible in the clutter of the unattractive intersection of E 32nd St and Rossville Blvd/Dixie Highway/US 27 in an industrial area of Chattanooga.
Each column has a plaque inset, as follows:
The plaques read as follows:
"[W side column]
Four armies have marched over this road, two opposing armies in the Civil War 1861-1865, one in the Spanish American War 1898, and the last in the World War 1917-1918.
[E side column]
To the American Soldiers who in three wars have marched along this road, the American Legion Auxiliary Davis King Summers Post No. 14 dedicates this road in loving memory.
August 1930
[supplemental plaque]
World War II 1941-1945
Summers Whiteshead Unit No. 14
October 1948"
Rossville Blvd is the modern name for the historic "Battlefield Route" of the Dixie Highway's western division, which ran from Chattanooga to Rome GA.
From the Encyclopedia of Tennessee: (
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"THE DIXIE HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION
By Leslie N. Sharp , Georgia Institute of Technology
Constructed between 1915 and 1927, the Dixie Highway was part of the new road system built in response to the growing number of motorists in the early decades of the twentieth century. When completed, the highway extended from Ontario, Canada, south 5,706 miles to Miami, Florida. The Dixie Highway Association provided the driving force behind the development of the highway. Motor enthusiasts and/or entrepreneurs formed the Dixie Highway Association and similar groups to promote the construction of roads that would connect cities to each other.
The idea for the Dixie Highway came from Carl G. Fisher, an Indiana entrepreneur and land speculator. By 1914 Fisher and Michigan businessman W. S. Gilbreath had gained enough support for this north-south highway to bring the idea to the annual meeting of the American Road Congress in Atlanta.
Governors Rye of Tennessee and Ralston of Indiana called an organizational meeting of the Dixie Highway Association for April 3, 1915, in Chattanooga. Over five thousand people attended this first meeting, including governors from Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida.
The Chattanooga Automobile Club, newly formed in 1914, was an enthusiastic supporter of the project and remained closely allied with the Dixie Highway Association throughout its history. Five local members of the Chattanooga Automobile Club and eight other men pledged one thousand dollars each for the formation of the Dixie Highway Association.
The purpose of the Dixie Highway Association was to build a permanent highway from a point on the Lincoln Highway near Chicago through Chattanooga to Miami, with an eventual extension north to Ontario. Both the eastern and western divisions of the highway passed through Tennessee. The western route headed south from Springfield through Nashville, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Tullahoma, Winchester, Cowan, and Monteagle to Chattanooga. The eastern division went south from the Cumberland Gap through Knoxville, Rockwood, and Dayton to Chattanooga.
The Dixie Highway Association headquarters were located in the Patten Hotel in Chattanooga, roughly the halfway point of the highway, and the incorporators who were delegated to create a charter for the association all came from Chattanooga. These prominent businessmen emerged as the biggest proponents of the highway in Tennessee. Chattanooga judge Michael M. Allison was elected to serve as president of the Dixie Highway Association, after C. E. James, a Chattanooga builder, declined to serve. Allison remained an extremely active president throughout the life of the Dixie Highway Association until it disbanded in 1927. The Dixie Highway magazine was published in Chattanooga and prominently featured the city and region in articles and advertisements. Monteagle Mountain in Marion County was the last highway link to be completed, creating national concern because of its crucial location on the road."
From the Encyclopedia of Georgia: (
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"The Dixie Highway, a network of roads connecting Canada to Florida in the early decades of the twentieth century, was an ambitious undertaking to build the nation's first north–south paved interstate highway. . . .
Launching of the Dixie Highway
On April 3, 1915, Georgia governor John M. Slaton and his counterparts (or their representatives) from five other states met in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the inaugural meeting of the Dixie Highway Association (DHA). . . .
...[T]he Dixie Highway became a network with Sault Ste. Marie on the Canadian border as the northern terminus. From there, the highway extended southward through upper Michigan and then via ferry to Mackinaw, where the highway split into a Western Division that included Chicago and an Eastern Division that included Detroit. Following roughly parallel paths southward, the two divisions reunited at Chattanooga.
Envisioning an influx of tourists, different cities and counties competed to be part of the Dixie Highway. In Georgia, rivalries became intense—especially between Rome and Dalton, each sending hundreds of supporters to the DHA's initial meeting to argue the merits for including their city on the route. Dalton not only offered the shortest route from Chattanooga to Atlanta but also boasted that it was the "Battlefield Route" associated with Union general William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, which would attract Civil War tourism. Rome made a persuasive case that it had a larger population base and could build its portion more quickly than Dalton.
As a compromise, the DHA approved two routes south from Chattanooga—one through Dalton and one through Rome—with both routes converging near Cartersville, where they rejoined the Dixie Highway's Western Division. This division then followed a route south in Georgia to Atlanta, Macon, Americus, Albany, and then on to Tallahassee, Florida. In 1916 the DHA approved a new Eastern Division running southeast from Atlanta to Waynesboro to Savannah, before continuing on to Jacksonville, Florida. That same year, a new Central Dixie Highway was added linking the Georgia towns Perry, Waycross, and Folkston, and then heading southward to Jacksonville.
. . .
The Dixie Highway ceased to exist by that name in 1926, when federal and state highway officials replaced named trails across America with numbered highways. Because the Dixie Highway was not a single highway, its various divisions became parts of the new U.S. numbered highway system (most notably U.S. 1, 17, 19, 25, 27, 41, and 129), plus a variety of state-numbered highways."