Historic Highways of America

I came across an interesting offering of this in eBay with a minimum bid of $49.95. It was written byArcher Butler Hulburt.

The 16 volumes were printed from 1902 to 1905 and covered items such as Indian roads, Braddock and Forbes roads, Boone's Wilderness Road, the National Road, Pioneer roads, canals and what I would especially consider of interest, a whole volume devoted to "The Future of Road-Making in America."

It would be interesting to see what they had to say back in 1905 and the Good Roads Movement.

Anyone know anything about this set?

Looks like some of it at least is available on Google Books. I wouldn't be surprised if if it is out of copyright so the full contents can be made available. I think this is the volume you are interested in - link. You can find other volumes by punching in "historic highways of america" in the title section on the advanced search page.

This is roughly the time period covered in Ken Burns' documentary "Horatio's Drive", isn't it?

I would have to say the time period of the books would take you up to Horatio's Drive, especially the last one.

An update to this thread:

Most of the volumes of this book are now available on Amazon. Some are available FREE for Kindle. Five of the volumes are $4.99 each for Kindle. Paperbacks are available for some, but not all, with a great range of prices.

I found this thread when it was listed in a "Similar threads" below my historical/scenic roads camping thread. Had to check that out!

Horatio's Drive is a book as well as a Ken Burns' America documentary.


Donna