The long-overdue rebuild of Interstate 70 now underway is a once-in-a-generation project. The first fresh pavement near Kingdom City had traffic diverted onto it this spring. The interchange at Highway 63 and I-70 is being worked up already, and construction on the section from there to the Missouri River bridge near Rocheport might start next year.
While the new road promises to be really great, I have some nostalgia already setting in. The Highway 63–I-70 interchange is currently mid-Missouri’s busiest crossroads, but can you imagine back in the day when its predecessor was Old Highway 63 and Highway 40 by Westlake Ace Hardware on the Business Loop?
For amateur roadway archeologists like me, the I-70 megaproject is an invitation to exhume the routes and highways of our city’s past. If you take the time to look, you’ll find many of them hiding in plain sight. Let’s explore a few.
70, 40, hut hut, hike
Our modern superhighways were largely built out in the 1950s and ’60s. Before I-70, U.S. Highway 40 (now Business Loop 70 through town) was part the National Road from the East to the West Coast.
East of town, on past Westlake, it went straight toward the now Drury Plaza Hotel, then veered right around the grain bins. Today, Sunday drivers can hopscotch on access roads to discover where a town of Kingdom City actually does exist.
West of Columbia, beyond Cosmo Park (formerly the site of our airport), Highway 40 went by ESS, then crossed south of the interstate, in a beautiful secluded stretch to back behind Black and Gold Auctions. Past Midway Golf and Games there now stands a unique curved bridge and historic marker. Proceeding beyond the Midway Travel Plaza, still-named Highway 40 is a back road to downtown Boonville.
The new river bridges at Rocheport are a harbinger of the transformed I-70 to come, an upgrade from the existing interstate. Highway 40 through Midway is pre-1960s, but adjacent to it in places you can see the older Highway 40. While drivable near the Midway fire station, a longer stretch near the dairy farm past Midway Elementary has deteriorated.
To pull an Al Germond here and go back even further, our east-west corridor of the 1800s went straight through town on Broadway, part of the Booneslick Road. To our east, beyond the Eastgate Plaza shopping center, you can see the closed metal bridge across Hinkson Creek, which went on toward Fulton. Going west on Broadway past Hy-Vee, it took Strawn Road up to cross the Perche Creek near Black and Gold.
Old 63 is easier to find
Highway 63 used to come up into town past Nifong Park, following — you guessed it — “Old 63” to Grindstone Park and alongside Stephens Lake Park. It merged with Highway 40 turning left near what is now Westlake, then went back north on Rangeline Street past Boone Electric. Up at the Prathersville roundabout, it veered northwest onto Highway VV, one of the best old highways in Boone County. Beyond Dripping Springs, today’s road gets even more narrow and winding under low-hanging tree branches — it’s like a time machine!
Armchair roadway archeologists know that when you see a street named after a town that lies in that direction, it might very well have been the historic road to get there. For example, Providence/Old Plank Road once went down to the now defunct river port of Providence. Other examples include St. Charles Road, Brown Station Road, Mexico Gravel Road, and Ashland Road near University Hospital.
People have traveled these parts for survival, commerce, and recreation for a long time. As students today get to our colleges via modern highways or our new airport, scholars in the mid-19th century traveled the railroad spur down from Centralia to the Wabash Station or up from the Missouri River, via what is now the MKT Trail, to the station that now houses Shiloh Bar & Grill.
With the rebuild of I-70 in progress, it’s a perfect time to remember the ways folks used to get around Columbia. Try the old routes from time to time in your everyday travels around town, either to avoid the coming I-70 construction headaches or just to enjoy a nice Sunday drive.
