Hank Billings of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader usually delves into little-known local history with his columns, and Monday’s was no exception.
Robert Goodman of Carthage sent Billings a diary that his late grandfather, J.W. Goodman, kept during a 1,019-mile journey from Cleveland to Gilbert, Ark., in 1921. A good portion of the trek was on the Ozark Trail, which was the precursor of Route 66.
The journey took two weeks. And it wasn’t a leisurely drive, either. Goodman’s party went through three tires — the reasons of which will be apparent with the diary’s text below:
“We had fair roads from Lebanon to Buffalo, except about a mile or two in a deep hollow where the road was just wide enough to get through,” Goodman wrote. […]
“A Ford truck stuck just ahead of us and he got a team and I drove the truck while he pushed.
“We stuck but put on the chains and got out all right. Had fairly good gravel road the rest of the way to Springfield. […]
“Had fair roads to Branson, but there were lots of stones in the road which made the driving like it is on a road that has been piked or slagged.
“We were in about the roughest part of the Ozark Mountains. The road followed one of the highest ridges and we could see for about 30 or 40 miles. So far it looked blue.
“The road between Branson and Hollister was built along a cliff of solid limestone and the river (now Lake Taneycomo) on one side.
“They are building a cement curb about a foot high and a foot wide along the low side.”
The diary also recounts about taking a road in Arkansas through dense woods, in which the path between trees at times was barely wide enough for their vehicle. To keep from getting lost, the party followed another person who knew the way to Gilbert.
Such stories make our so-called “bad” modern roads look like paths of velvet.