"A Look Back"

The Stories presented here are about people and events during the early days when this corner of Colorado was first settled.

Victory Highway
By Shannan Koucherik for the Museum of NW Colorado

As the people of the United States moved forward from the Great War, they began looking for ways to honor those who had given their lives fighting for world peace in faraway lands. The magnitude of the war left Americans stunned and then determined not to forget.

There were numerous local monuments erected, but there was a general consensus that there needed to be something bigger – national in scope.

In the summer of 1921 a group of businessmen and civic leaders came together to form the Victory Highway Association. Incorporated under the laws of Kansas, the purpose of the association was the development of a road that would span the country from sea to sea, providing lasting tribute to the fallen warriors.

At the time, roads in America varied in quality from two-track paths only passable during dry months, to cobbled roads that had been in use for more than 200 years.

The chairman of the Victory Highway Association proposed one road that would run roughly along the 40th parallel, beginning in New York and ending in San Francisco.

It was a massive undertaking, but citizens in large and small towns embraced it and worked to make US 40 – the Victory Highway – a reality.

There were plans to erect mileage markers at every crossroad, marked with the mileage to the next town and to San Francisco and New York, state monuments engraved with the names of those lost in each state and statues of a bald eagle on a nest engraved with the names of soldiers who were lost in each county. Individual towns and cities were also encouraged to show their respect in ways the citizenry chose. (Craig Empire November 4, 1924)

By August of 1921, the road signs had already reached Craig from the west and the workers continued on toward New York.

In April 1922, the Craig Women’s Civic Improvement Club “went on record as favoring the changing of Main Street to Victory Avenue (as US 40 went through Craig). They will request the town board…to take the steps necessary to make the change in name.” (Craig Empire April 19, 1922)

The following month the town fathers voted unanimously for the name change; “Craig is doubtless the first town on the route of the now famous Victory highway to change a street name to conform with the great ocean-to-ocean thoroughfare. Much favorable advertising will result from the action.” (Craig Empire May 17, 1922)

Patriotism was strong, but so was the determination to make Craig a profitable place to live and work. The town fathers recognized that their small town was part of a much larger picture.

By the fall of 1922, the Victory Highway Association was sending out reports of the condition of the highway through various parts of the country. The optimistic plan was to have half of the road paved (or at least well graveled) by the end of 1923.

The Victory Highway was the first road in the United States to receive federal funds for construction. The 12 states it ran through were ordered to designate seven percent of their roads to receive the special funding. US 40 was at or near the top of every list.

The Victory Highway Association produced travel brochures and promoted US 40 for several years. In an article presented in Colorado Highways magazine in December 1925, we can see how strongly some people felt about the intercontinental roadway;

“When the Victory Highway is completed it will constitute the greatest monument in all history. From the pyramids to the peace palace at The Hague, there is nothing that compares with the gigantic enterprise of proclaiming our part in the World War by means of a paved roadway crossing the continent and linking the two oceans with a concrete chain 3,300 miles long. The most colossal of the triumphal arches, ancient or modern, becomes a minor circumstance when contrasted with the Victory Highway. And like the roads of ancient Rome, it will be an enduring monument as long as the Victory Highway remains the great republic of the west.

“In its entire stretch across the country, the Victory Highway is historical and scenic and in the west it supplies a passage to the Pacific which takes in the minimum of desert.

The claim was a bit high-minded, but no one could fault the enthusiasm of the people who wanted to unite the country as they drove into the future in motor vehicles.

George R. Stewart documented the length of the Victory Highway in his 1953 book, U.S. 40 – Cross Section of the United States of America. Stewart drove the entire highway several times and took time to photograph many of the places that caught his eye. He focused on the geological and technical aspects of the road.

Over the years, US 40 has been joined by other interstate highways and combined with others. We take paved roads for granted today, hopping into our cars and traveling at high speeds to Denver, Kansas or points west.

Most of the road signs and statues are gone, but the road is still the Victory Highway, dedicated to the soldiers who fought and died in what the world then thought was the biggest war ever fought. In some large cities, it has grown to six lanes with overpasses and cloverleafs. On other sections, like through Moffat County, it is still possible to see the original path of the highway cut through the high desert of Northwest Colorado.

The next time you drive down Victory Way, remember how the road got its name, and take the time to thank those in whose honor it was constructed.