Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 130

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Popular Culture Review

After I succeeded in identifying the memorial road’s course across the
continent, I wrote the article as a preliminary report on my research. Since that
time, I have written other articles on different aspects of the TREH. The Society for
Commercial Archeology, for example, published Portland to Portland: The
Theodore Roosevelt International Highway (Skidmore Portland”), the State
Historical Society of North Dakota published “Remembering TR: North Dakota
and the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway” in the summer of 2000
(Skidmore “Remembering”), and “Minnesota and America’s Bully Boulevard”
appeared in the Journal o f American and Comparative Cultures in spring of that
same year (Skidmore “Minnesota”). There will be other articles as time permits,
and I now have completed a manuscript for a book on the subject: Moose Crossing.
My goal, admittedly ambitious, is to bring official recognition once again to the
Theodore Roosevelt International Highway.
Since writing the article for the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal,
much has happened. I have conducted research in libraries, archives, and museums
in every one of the twelve states along the route and the Province of Ontario. This
research has uncovered a considerable amount of valuable material, including
newspaper accounts of the initial plans for the TRIH; the personal papers of Mathias
N. Koll, one of the Highway’s founders; and original publications from the Theodore
Roosevelt International Highway Association. I have spent time at the Library of
Congress where, among other things, I found invaluable maps and have interviewed
countless newspaper editors, local historians, and others who have knowledge of
the TRIH.
Additionally, in order to experience the actual road and to seek remnants
of the old TRIH, I drove the entire route twice. In 19971 drove it from east to west
in honor of America’s westward movement. In the summer of 1999,1 completed
the trip from west to east. I also have driven many portions of the route at other
times. Because of considerable retracing, taking each of various alternate routes
and the like, I have been unable to check the distance from Portland to Portland
accurately. It is, however, somewhat in excess of four thousand miles (original
sources from the 1920s list it as 4,060 miles). The total mileage for my last trip
from the Midwest, to Oregon, to Maine, and back to the Midwest was 8,598. My
unhurried journey required a total of four weeks.
The route did vary somewhat during the Highway’s existence, but it
remained remarkably close to the original plans. The beginning point (east to west)
was at Longfellow Square in Portland, Maine. For those who wish to follow the
Theodore Roosevelt International Highway today, I have prepared the following
detailed guide using current highway numbers.