The Second Night\u27s Stop : Effects of U.S. Highway 301, Tourism, and Interstate 95 upon Statesboro, Georgia, 1950-1975

The history of the automobile is a vital part of the history of the twentieth century United States The automobile began to significantly reshape America following the second World War. The construction of the enormous National Interstate and Defense Highway System assured the dominance of personally-owned automobile as the mode of transportation in the United States. Improved highways made far-flung suburban communities possible and the 41,000 miles of Interstate highway traversing our nation and entering our metropolitan areas assured crowded city streets and time-consuming traffic jams. What however, has the Interstate system done to the rural areas of our nation? This examination of Statesboro, Georgia gives some insight The invasion of Interstate 95 down the eastern coastal area of Georgia radically altered the existing traffic and tourism patterns that had slowly developed since the 1920s and rose to its highest levels in the 1950s and 1960s. Statesboro—as its Police shoulder badges attested—was known as the Tourist City and relied upon Northeastemers visiting Florida for a significant portion of its yearly income. The main travel artery that carried this traffic before the Interstate system was U. S Highway 301, which ran through the heart of downtown Statesboro. The Interstate system could have a profound effect upon rural communities, depending upon where the highway was routed. In Statesboro\u27s case. Interstate 95 was constructed fifty miles away, effectively cutting the community off from the traffic that would use the newer road The loss of tourist traffic, due to I-95\u27s construction was an additional hardship upon Statesboro. Statesboro\u27s tourism memory and the reaction to the Interstate are the heart of this work, as well as a look at where Statesboro is today and efforts to revitalize some tourist traffic on the old regional highway. Along the way, the changing world of highway travel will also be examined, paying special attention to the homogenization of the roadside experience, from chain restaurants, to impersonal motels, to the death of small towns