Discover Auburn Talk

Getting Out of the Mud:  The Alabama Good Roads Movement and Highway Administration, 1898-1928

Dr. Marty Olliff, Professor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives, Troy University, Dothan

Date and Time:  Thursday, February 8 at 3 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

With the development of national markets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans began to regard the nation as a whole, rather than their state or region, as the most important political entity.  Many Alabamians wished to travel beyond their local communities in all seasons without getting stuck in the mud of rudimentary rutted dirt roads.   Dr. Olliff explores the history of the Good Roads Movement and how middle-class reformers in Alabama overcame obstacles to construct a road system that would accommodate economic growth in the twentieth century.

Sponsored by:  Auburn University Libraries.