
U.S. Route 160 promotional billboard – Bucklin, Kansas U.S.A. – 1974
Copyright © Mike Fitzpatrick (Piedmont Fossil) on Flickr. All rights reserved.
Then again, considering how beaten this sign is in 1974 — and especially noting the faded area in red on the right of the sign that claims, "All paved roads" — it very well could have been an honest advertisement when this billboard was put up. Through both the Rockies and the deserts to the west, many of the U.S. Highway System routes were not fully paved until well into the 1950s. To give an idea of how rough and time-consuming road construction can be in these areas, even Interstate 70 was not fully completed in Colorado until 1992.
It is still interesting to note that towns and businesses continued to group together to promote a highway even after the era of the auto trails ended. Being on a nationally-signed and mapped route, even if it wasn’t one of the major coast-to-coast or border-to-border highways, was a big deal in the first decades of the automotive age. After all, it was the early promotion especially coming out of Springfield, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma that laid the foundation for the legend that is now Route 66.