Officials in Miami, Oklahoma, want to use a Rails to Trails project to help rehabilitate the historic stretch of the 9-foot-wide Sidewalk Highway of Route 66 between Miami and Afton, Oklahoma.
KSNF-TV reported the four-phase project will involve an eight-mile route across Ottawa County and the Neosho River, near Miami.
The project will also incorporate the rehabilitation of Route 66 with a walking, biking, and hiking trail.
“Route 66 is kind of going to be the key to this thing being very successful,” says Earls, “we have the last stretch of ribbon road the original 9 foot wide section in the nation.”
Here’s the video by the television station:
The so-called Sidewalk Highway, aka Ribbon Road, was built in 1922. It was narrow because local officials wanted to pave more miles of road with the limited dollars they had. The road predated Route 66 as a section of the Ozark Trail.
Much of the Sidewalk Highway today is covered with gravel to smooth potholes and washboarded sections. The gravel also keeps the original road surface underneath from deteriorating faster, but it lacks aesthetics.
The Sidewalk Highway was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Here’s a video I shot about 10 years ago on the Sidewalk Highway section near Afton.
(Image of the Sidewalk Highway in 2007 near Miami, Oklahoma, by gsamx via Flickr)
What is not mentioned about so-called “ribbon roads” is that at the time there would have been a large number of animal-hauled wagons – using oxen, horses, mules – and that their feet would have had trouble gripping the relatively smooth paved surface. But they would have had no trouble with the gravel surfaces either side of the central paved section. I saw this in Africa in the 1970s, where full width paved single carriageway roads had gravel to each side for animal drawn carts, etc. Another type of “ribbon road” – called “strip roads” – had two narrow paved sections just wide enough for the wheels of motor traffic with a gravel central strip and wider gravel strips on either side. In both types of ribbon road, two oncoming vehicles had to go to the side to pass each other, leaving only the wheels near the centre of the road on the/a paved strip. Broken windscreens from flying stones when vehicles passed each other at speed were common. I know – I experienced one in Rhodesia.
Just a couple of minor clarifications. 1) 9-foot wide roads were common in the early days of auto travel, especially in rural areas where traffic was extremely light. They can be found in multiple locations in many states. The oft-repeated story of the sidewalk highway being paved 9 feet wide to get more distance due to lack of funding is a myth. 2) The gravel applied to the ribbon road is a modern remedy to allow local traffic and farm equipment to utilize the roadway.
Thanks for weighing in, Jim. That old saw about the not-enough-money-for-a-full-highway always sounded suspicious to me, but it’s been oft-repeated.
Jim – are you saying the gravel on either side is a recent addition, effectively making a full width road out of a 9-foot road? Or did the original “9-foot road” have gravel either side for animal traffic? How much animal-drawn traffic was there in the 1920-1930s in the USA? What is the difference between a sidewalk highway and a ribbon road?
This sounds wonderful. My wife and I drove that ribbon road a few years back. It’s a treat for nerd “road scholars.” But I have an open question: What exactly is “rehabilitation”? Resurfacing? If so, does “rehab” not become “replaced with a replica”, at some point? I actually have never thought about this facet of preservation. I’d appreciate if some “old guard” would comment, and possibly suggest some relevant literature.
I was through there day before yesterday. It’s difficult to imagine. The people, the machines, the duration time of travel, the problems. The light colored stripes aren’t painted road margins. They are concrete curbs. I can see old tires rubbing up against the curb as opposing vehicles attempt to pass. The dirt. The dust. It was a different time now mostly lost in the silence of the past.