Books about Trips, Outings, and Errands

• The Camping Trip That Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Our National Parks. Barb Rosenstock. Illustrated by Mordecai Gerstein, Dial Books, 2012. The story of a famous 1903 camping trip that led to the creation of our national parks.

• Road Trip. Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen. Yearling, 2013.

• Clementine and the Spring Trip. Sara Pennypacker. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Disney Hyperion, 2013

• A Long Walk to Water. The alternating stories of Nya and Salva, two 11-year-olds in Sudan, seek water and safety in a war-torn land.

WEB Resource:  Summer Road Trip: A Smithsonian At-Home Activity Guide

Roads, Highways and Automobiles

The National Road, America's First Major Highway - linking Maryland & Ohio

• • Also known as the Cumberland Road or the Main Street of America

  • Authorized in 1806; begin in 1813, reached Illinois in 1839

  • Workers crushed and hauled stone by hand

History of Route 66

• • 2448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles

  • John Steinbeck in the Grapes of Wrath called it the "mother road"

  • Part of it follows The Trail of Tears

  • Listen to and view Nat King Cole perform the song Route 66

The Interstate Highway System

• • Begun in the 1950s under President Dwight Eisenhower. Go here for primary sources about the highway system from the Eisenhower Presidential Library

  • Federal-Aid Highway Act led to the building of 47,800 miles of highways throughout the country

  • Highway A1 is in Alaska

  • Original Intent: Purpose of the Interstate Highway System

  • History of the Interstate Highway System

  • Ike's Interstates at 50, National Archives, 2006

  • 10 Things You Might Not Know About the Interstate Highway System

Other Famous Streets & Highways in the U.S.

• • Is Bourbon Street Authentic? New Orleans Scholar Makes the Case in Grand, New History

  • The Pan-American Highway - About 15,000 miles long, it is considered the longest motorable road in the world

  • The Mississippi River (from resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki)

  • The Erie Canal (from resourcesforhistoryteachers)

  • Interstate Highway System (from resourcesforhistoryteachers)

  • The Oregon Trail and the Santa Fe Trail (from resourcesforhistoryteachers

  • The Mohawk Trail in Massachusetts (from resourcesforhistoryteachers)