Iowa's historic automobile roads

The historic roads study was developed as a result of findings reported in an archaeological report (Artz 1995a). This study presented the results of the Phase II archaeological investigation of a cut-off highway section on U.S. 61 south of Muscatine, in Muscatine County. As a result of that report an agreement was reached between the SHPO and the Iowa DOT outlining the current project. This project's initial objectives were two fold. The first was to locate two prospective study routes within the state containing abandoned or cut-off highway segments for analysis. The second was to devise a method to identify, outline, and define the criteria for evaluation of the potential National Register eligibility of such cut-off highway segments. One primary result of the project was to enable cut-off segments of Iowa highways and related historic resources to be consistently evaluated. The criteria for evaluation were to involve only the route's engineered cross-sections between the right-of-way boundaries. Only engineering elements, which include design, material acquisition, and the construction methods of the study highways, were to be evaluated. Roadside architecture beyond the highway right-of-way was to be generally excluded from this study.