The Post on Bandy's 1924 Fort Worth to Weatherford & Mineral Wells Road Log brought a nice response from Bankhead Highway authority Dan Smith (Who I had erroneously called Dan Davis) with some more information about the route in Tarrant County taken from a new book he has underway. He was kind enough to allow me to use the material and paraphrase his comments:
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This is a page out of the Bankhead Hwy map book he is working on. According to the information he sent with this map, Dan has mapped the original (1921) Bankhead across Texas, based on a 1921 guidebook that seems to be the earliest published route. A 1936 State Highway Department Tarrant county map is used as a base. Smith's map page shows how the route went through Ft. Worth and the county.
The Bandy route of 1924 in the earlier post followed the relatively new SH #1 along a route parts of which slightly shifted north of the original "Kuteman's Cutoff". Kuteman (of Weatherford) had argued for years in favor of his cutoff (which mostly followed today's Chapin Road across Mary's Creek), but in the end the TX Hwy Dept opted for a SH #1 route along what's now Camp Bowie West. Smith thinks as I do that they did that because the original Kuteman's route across Mary's Creek wasn't as good as the crossing slightly north where the old US 80 bridge crosses today.
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Above is the facing page to the map that will be part of Dan's book which is tentatively scheduled out in about a year. The page adds much additional information to that shown on the map. When the book is published we will finally have some well researched information on the Bankhead Highway which was the first all-weather highway across the United States.
In local Tarrant County history, the story of the battle by the early good-road boosters for the Kuteman Cutoff and the maps it showed up on between about 1910 to 1924 has been an interest of mine for several years. In a future post I will try to tell a little more about the west Tarrant County Road Wars of the early 1900's.
Revised map added 02/05/2011 ~ Maps courtesy of Dan Smith
My wife and I followed the Bankhead from Ft Worth to Baird one day. We had fun even if the road was not in the best shape in some places.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to compare Bankhead Highway notes. I'm working on the eastern part of the highay, mostly in Georgia. Ernest Everett Blevins, MFA blevins@alumni.cofc.edu
ReplyDeleteErnest: You can contact me at djold1@lectricbooks.com
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me anything about the Cottage City Tourists Camp Fort Worth W.T. Casstevens Bankhead Highway 1. I will try to attach a pic of have of it. thanks Randy@randysdiecast.com
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