Highway 50 Ain't That America!

Highway 50 is one of the country’s most historic but under-appreciated highways, full of quintessentially American places that have held fast to a spirit of individuality lost to “progress” elsewhere.

Author James Lilliefors journeyed on this unique road and, in Highway 50, chronicles some of the remarkable people who live alongside it – from the colorful mayor of Dodge City, Kansas, to the woman who created one of the world’s great space museums to a Native American couple in Utah who live on their own terms to the man who paints Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisements on barns. Highway 50“offers vicarious adventure to the house-bound as well as a sense of wonder at what lies ahead." —Publishers Weekly

The central-most of America’s coast-to-coast roads, Highway 50 begins in Maryland and ends three thousand miles away in California. More than any other American road, it tells the tale of the country’s westward expansion, following a route mapped by George Washington in the East, pioneer trails in the Midwest and gold-rush roads in the West. But Route 50 has often been overlooked, taking a back seat to the better-known Highway 40 and Route 66.

This lively travelogue mixes local lore with history as it “navigates the very toughest part of the trip to journey beyond a book-writing notion and put places in our imagination,” —The New York Times 
 

James Lilliefors is a journalist who has worked and written for several national publications and has been a regular contributor to The Washington Post and The Miami Herald. He is also author of the book American Boardwalks, to be published in 2006, and a novel, Bananaville.