Dixie Overland Highway (U. S. Highway 80)
Forney, Kaufman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the early 20th century, soon after the development of the automobile, travelers, city officials and others began planning for a network of paved overland routes. In the era before the advent of the interstate highway system, road associations provided the vision and the promotion, and states and municipalities provided necessary capital. Early results were piecemeal and inconsistent, but the Good Roads Movement, the National Highway Association and similar organizations continued efforts to improve routes on a national scale. In 1914, the Automobile Club of Savannah, Georgia, proposed an "all-seasons" route stretching from its home base to Los Angeles. Interested towns and parties formed the Dixie Overland Highway Association (DOHA), with offices in Columbus, Georgia. The route, which passed through 75 U.S. counties, including Kaufman, was partially opened by the 1920s, with the western terminus later changed to San Diego. Along the route, travelers met significant obstacles, including what was known as the Forney Gap. Forney's portion of the road entered the city east of Mustang Creek and crossed through town, past the service stations and other businesses that opened to serve travelers. On the west side of town, as the landscape slopes downward to the floodplain of the East Fork of the Trinity River, the paved road stopped, leaving a slippery, muddy hill and a frequently flooded roadway. Despite such obstacles, DOHA's president, in a publicity stunt, made the length of the highway in record time in October 1926, traveling from San Diego to Savannah in just over 71 hours. Two months later, much of the highway became U.S. Highway 80. Its role as a primary interstate route was later superseded by Interstate 20. (2005)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the early automobile age, before the interstate system, private road associations promoted coast-to-coast routes that states and towns then paved piecemeal. The Dixie Overland Highway, launched by Savannah, Georgia, boosters in 1914 as an 'all-seasons' route, ran through 75 counties — including Kaufman — on its way west, though travelers here battled the notorious muddy, flood-prone 'Forney Gap.' Much of the route became U.S. Highway 80 in 1926 and was later superseded by Interstate 20.
Why it matters
The highway captures the grassroots Good Roads Movement that built America's first transcontinental auto routes and remade small towns around the automobile.
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Related events
- · Good Roads Movement
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Forney
Forney, TX
Long before Anglo settlers arrived, a Native American path known as the Kickapoo Trace crossed this land, and pioneer families like the Briscoes and Sheltmans settled here in the mid-1840s. When the Texas & Pacific Railroad pushed through in 1873, the nearby village of Brooklyn shifted to this spot and took the name Forney for a noted railroad official; by 1891 it boasted more than fifty businesses, an opera house, and a booming trade in cotton, Bois d'Arc products, and prized blackland hay. After decades of Depression-era decline, Forney was reborn as a growing suburb of Dallas.
1899 Automobile Trip
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On October 5, 1899, Edward H. R. Green set out from Terrell for Dallas in a newly bought "St. Louis" automobile, joined by its maker, George B. Dorris. The thirty-mile trip took five and a half hours and included a breakdown in Forney patched up by a local blacksmith. When the pair rolled into Dallas to a cheering crowd, newspapers hailed it as a first for Texas.
Hillcrest Cemetery
Forney, TX
The oldest marked grave here, that of M. Elizabeth Collins (1813–1867), predates the founding of Forney itself. When the railroad town took shape, the site was platted in 1880 as a public cemetery and later enlarged with adjoining land—early upkeep even included a short-lived experiment of grazing sheep on the grounds. Those buried at Hillcrest include pioneer settlers, community leaders, and five known Civil War veterans.
Brooklyn Lodge No. 386, A.F. & A..M.
Forney, TX
When the Texas and Pacific Railroad arrived at the village of Brooklyn in 1873, residents renamed the town Forney for a railroad director — but the Masonic lodge organized that same year kept the old name. Meeting first in a building shared with the school and a union church, the lodge became a fixture of civic life, laying the cornerstone of Lewis High School in 1922 and building a new hall in 1966. Its story mirrors the town's growth from rail stop to community.