One of the named highways upon which Route 40 was built is the Victory Highway. It ran from Kansas City to San Francisco and for the most part follows the path of contemporary Route 40. There were two major differences between the Victory Highway and Route 40 west of Kansas City:
The Victory Highway was established following WWI as a memorial to those who fought and died in that conflict. While the Lincoln Highway traversed Nevada slightly to the south, the Victory was one of the first highways to follow the path of the California Trail across the Silver State.
The 2,010 miles of the Victory Highway are well documented in the so-called Hobbs guide, a 20-page touring guide jointly published by the Mohawk Rubber Company and Howard F. Hobbs. Click here to view the Hobbs Guide.
While the Lincoln Highway is certainly more celebrated, a few artifacts remain to remind us that the Victory Highway once passed through. This is especially true in Colorado and Utah where the Victory Highway was the first major through road in many areas. Every once and a while you will stumble across a street sign for Victory Street or an old sign for the Victory Motor Court.
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Last updated: 2010-11-04 14:39:57