You are within sight and sound of a Midwestern dream come true - the Meridian Highway.
In 1911 a group of Kansans and Nebraskans drafted a plan for a highway paralleling the sixth principal meridian through America's heartland from Canada to Mexico. The path of their Meridian Highway followed an Indian trade route that later served as the Chisholm Trail, the famous cattle drive route from Texas through Indian Territory to the stockyards in Kansas.
The highway was completed in 1924 with the opening of the Meridian Bridge at Yankton, South Dakota. America's love affair with cars and the open road was in full bloom.
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Motorists collected pennants as they traveled form town to town along the Meridian Highway, the "Main Street of North America."
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Pan American Highway
In 1936, the Meridian Highway (U.S. 81) became known as the Pan American Highway. Today, the highway extends 17,000 miles from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to the southern tip of South America.
Missouri National Recreational River
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
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