July 30, 1840 – Surveyor I.B. Davis sends his plat and field notes to Stephen B. Gardner – Clerk in Johnson County, Iowa. These notes address the first six miles of one of the oldest roads built in Johnson County – a road that will eventually extend from Bloomington to Iowa City.
In 1839, the one big problem with building a whole new city from scratch, is that there were very limited options on how to get people in and out of Iowa City! In Johnson County’s first pioneer community – Napoleon – (above right) there were only three transportation options of the day:
- An ancient Native American trail running north/south – now called Sand Road,
- The Iowa River flowing south to the Mississippi River, and…
- A roughly-cut wagon trail going east from Napoleon to Bloomington.
But now, in 1840, with Iowa City becoming the new Territorial capital, a new and improved road was needed to connect these two growing communities – Iowa City & Bloomington (Muscatine). Join us for a rare look at the early stages of development on one of Johnson County’s oldest roads.
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