THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: East Main Street was part of the Dixie Highway, which became Route 1 in the 1920’s. This is a Vermilion County Museum Display; (Jennifer Bailey/News-Gazette)
DANVILLE — The state’s first highway has a rich history, as maintained at the Vermilion County Museum.
Sue Richter, the museum’s executive director, said the road was first known as the Vincennes Trail and then Hubbard’s Trace, after trader Gurden S. Hubbard.
It also was the Dixie Highway, originally a cattle trail dating back to 1822, running from Chicago to Danville. It was established as a state route in the 1830s.
Hubbard’s Trace and the Vincennes to Chicago Trail became Illinois 1 and part of the Dixie Highway.
“Vermilion County was the first one to have hard roads,” Richter said. “The Dixie Highway came straight down, it hit Main (Street) and then actually it went east to Covington (Ind.) and then south, (which) was the Dixie Highway route.”
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