History & Nostalgia
Left: The Black Bear Trail ran from Canada to Florida (Michael C. Hardy). Right: The Boone Memorial Highway Marker in front of Grace Hospital in Banner Elk (Michael C. Hardy).
Hardy on History: The High Country’s Scenic Highways
By Michael C. Hardy
North Carolina was once known as the “Good Roads State.” A tremendous amount of work in the early 1900s went into making North Carolina accessible. This allowed farm produce to be transported farther and opened the state up to more tourism. There were, however, no interstate systems or numbering systems. In 1912, Carl G. Fisher came up with the idea of a coast-to-coast hard-surface highway. He originally called it the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. A year later, the newly christened “Lincoln Memorial Highway” opened. This was the first attempt to map and mark a road across America.
There were proposals for seven “great national roads,” all originating from Washington, D.C. These were the Washington Memorial Highway, Roosevelt Memorial Highway, Lincoln Memorial Highway, Great National Memorial Highway, Jefferson Memorial Highway, Monroe Memorial Highway, and the Lee Memorial Highway. None of these proposed routes was constructed of new roads. Instead, they would string together existing highways, providing markers and maps to help drivers navigate. Roads could be moved once better routes were available.
The High Country of western North Carolina was not the beneficiary of any of these national highways. Yet there were efforts to mark roadways or construct new roads across the area.
One of the earliest was the Crest of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was the vision of Joseph Pratt, North Carolina’s Geological and Economic Director. Leading the Good Roads movement in North Carolina, Pratt envisioned a scenic toll road from Whitetop Mountain, near Marion Virginia, all the way south to Tallulah Falls, Georgia, some 350 miles. The road would be twenty-four feet wide, with a sand or clay surface, and cost $5,000 per mile. Work began on the section between Altamont in Avery County and Gillespie Gap in Mitchell County in 1912. The United States’ entry into World War I brought the project to a close.
In 1912, the North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution began discussing marking the actual trail of Daniel Boone through North Carolina, all the way to Cumberland Gap. This was overseen by Winston-Salem’s Lucy Patterson. While not a true “memorial highway,” many of the roads that Boone used became the primary roads through the area. Six markers were erected in Watauga County: Cook’s Gap, Three Forks Baptist Church, the Watauga County Courthouse in Boone, Hodges Gap, Graveyard Gap, and Zionville. These markers bore a bronze plaque attached to a boulder.
On the heels of the work of the Daughters of the American Revolution came The Boone Highway and Memorial Association. Led by J. Hampton Rich, this group was formally established in North Wilkesboro in October 1913. Originally, the Boone Trail Highway started in Salisbury, then passed through Mocksville, Yadkinville, and Wilkesboro before heading up the mountain to Boone. Then, the route continued west into Tennessee and Kentucky. Whereas the D.A.R. project was funded by the Daughters, Hamp Rich offered a membership certificate for those donating to the project. Some of the first members were Babe Ruth and Mike McNally. The first marker was placed in North Wilkesboro in 1917. These markers were often shaped like arrowheads, with a plaque bearing an image of Boone. Part of the metal from the markers came from the salvaged battleship USS Maine, sunk in Havana Harbor, precipitating the Spanish-American War in 1898. Local markers included ones in Blowing Rock, Sugar Grove, and Boone, dedicated in 1927; Linville in 1928; Jefferson and West Jefferson in 1929; and Newland and Banner Elk on unknown dates.
By the 1920s, Rich was dreaming of a transcontinental Daniel Boone Highway. Markers began to appear in places that Boone never visited, like Yellowstone Park in Wyoming; Newton, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; and, Los Angeles, California. The last marker was probably the one placed in Virginia Beach in 1937.
Another motor trail or memorial highway was proposed in the 1920s. This motor trail ran from Quebec, Canada, through New York and Pennsylvania, into Virginia, and then North Carolina. In North Carolina, the road passed through Jefferson, Boone, and Blowing Rock. From Blowing Rock, it followed the Yonahlossee Road, passing Grandfather Mountain, into Linville, and then farther south through Altamont. The route moved through South Carolina and Georgia, eventually ending in Miami, Florida. The trail was projected to pass through more than 300 towns. Hugh McRae was the impetus behind the Black Bear Trail. Morganton was the headquarters of the North Carolina office. By 1925, various representatives were visiting towns along the proposed route. Speaking to the Kiwanis in Asheville, McRae believed that after the route officially opened, “two cars a minute during the tourist season” would pass any given spot on the trail.
Over time, the idea of memorial highways faded. The Great Depression, followed by World War II, brought the movement of tourists down to a trickle for over a decade. In 1931, the Yonahlossee Road became a state road, then a U.S. Highway. The markers the D.A.R. placed have been lost or stolen over the years.
Likewise, the Boone Highway markers have disappeared. All three Boone Highway markers in Avery County are gone. The Boone Highway markers in Blowing Rock and Sugar Grove survive, but those in West Jefferson, Jefferson, and Boone do not. Of the Daniel Boone Trail markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the marker in Zionville and Boone survive. The marker at Cook’s Gap was moved to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it was stolen. The marker at the Three Forks Baptist Church was moved to the Blue Ridge Parkway site in 1963 but was stolen sometime around 2002. It does not appear that the Black Bear Highway ever had markers, although one did appear on the brochures and maps.
None of these trails are really remembered these days. The Boone Trail marker plaque in Boone is tucked away in a courtyard. The Zionville marker is on private property. The Sugar Grove marker sits beside the Western Watauga Community Center, while the Blowing Rock marker is beside the Blowing Rock Museum. If you know where to look, you can still see traces of the Crest of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the woods near Gillespie Gap.
If you are looking for more information, please check out Randell Jones’s Trailing Daniel Boone: Daughters of the American Revolution Marking Daniel Boone’s Trail 1912-1915 (2012) and Everett Marshall’s Rich Man: Daniel Boone (2003).