Railroads Eclipse a National Road

“Thus will scientific power conquer space.”

For several decades in the early 1800s, thousands of Conestoga Wagons, “ships of inland commerce,” ruled the National Road. With their sloping bodies, wheels taller than a man and six-horse teams

skillfully maneuvered with a single ...

Roads To The West

The Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail began in 1821 when William Becknell led a small group of men on a trading expedition from frontier Missouri to colonial Santa Fe. Mexico had recently declared its independence from Spain and abolished ...

Roadside Park on Hamblen Drive

Named for Will H. Hamblen (1878 - 1952), who in 1890's pioneered a crude road (about 6 mi. N) into Palo Duro Canyon along old Indian trails. This cut 120 mi off the settlers' trips to courthouse in Claude, but ...

Hampton Roads

World’s Largest Natural Harbor

Preface: Newport News was a small community located in Warwick County until late in the 19th century. Established as a town in 1880, it was incorporated as a city in 1896. Warwick County, one of the eight ...

Railroads Bring Change

The I.C.R.R. Co. Steam locomotive was popular in the mid 1850's, when Lincoln worked for the Illinois Central. It was named “American Standard,” and latter ran from Decatur to Champaign. Locomotives were originally wood burning, and the railroad often purchased ...

Early Roads To San Felipe

During the mid-1820's, When Stephen F. Austin was founding this town, the only roads in the area were wagon ruts or beaten trails marked by notched trees. Within a decade, however, the village of San Felipe, one of the first ...

Headquarters, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, U. S. Army

The splendid natural harbor of Hampton Roads served the nation as a military port of embarkation in the Spanish American War and two World Wars. In World War 1, headquarters were set up at Newport News on July 11, 1917, ...

The Hampton Roads Golf And Country Club

First in Virginia & One of the First 100 in the Country

The Hampton Roads Golf and Country Club was established in 1893 on undeveloped land purchased for speculation by Mary Frances Armstrong in 1888. This site today would extend from ...

Hampton Roads – World’s Greatest Harbor

Historical Events Passing the Shores of Olde Wythe

The body of water before you, named Hampton Roads, is one of the world’s biggest, deepest, natural harbors. It is formed at the mouths of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth Rivers and empties ...

Valuable Crossroads

Battle of the Wilderness

Just after noon on May 5, 1864, Union troops raced toward this intersection. With Confederates from General A.P. Hill's corps sweeping down the Orange Plank Road from the west, blue-clad troops under George W. Getty arrived here ...