Old Spanish Trail (auto trail)
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| Southern Borderland Trunckline The Highway of the Southern Borderlands |
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| West end: | San Diego, California |
| East end: | St. Augustine, Florida |
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| States: | California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida |
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Auto Trails
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The Old Spanish Trail (the OST) was an auto trail that once spanned the United States with almost 2,750 miles (4,430 km) of roadway from ocean to ocean. It crossed eight states and 67 counties along the southern border of the United States. Work on the auto highway began in 1915 at a meeting held at the Battle House Hotel in Mobile, Alabama; and, by the 1920s, the trail linked St. Augustine, Florida, to San Diego, California, with its center and headquarters in San Antonio, Texas.
Promoters of the Old Spanish Trail claimed that it followed the route used by "Spanish Conquistadors" 400 years earlier.
Much of that trail still exists, and preparations have already begun for a decade-long Centennial Celebration to begin in 2019 and end with a 2029 motorcade grand finale from St. Augustine to San Diego. The present-day, all-volunteer Old Spanish Trail Centennial Celebration Association OST100 is collecting oral histories, travel logs and news articles related to the Old Spanish Trail in order to conserve the roadways, businesses and historic sites of the original Old Spanish Trail auto highway both physically and in the memory of the American people.
The current work of revitalization, historic preservation, public/private partnerships, restoration, and road enhancements, follows the lead of the original founders of the OST, who involved greatly diverse interests in building and beautifying the original roadway.
The archives of the Old Spanish Trail Association are now held in Special Collections, Louis J. Blume Library St. Mary's University. Smaller archives are held at the St. Augustine Historical Society, Jacksonville University, and other archives along the original route.
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Wikipedia