"Drivin' the Dixie: Automobile Tourism in the South"

October 1998 - Chattanooga, Tennessee

Historic Highways Workshop
This workshop, designed for preservation professionals and those interested in preserving historic highways, focused on the identification and evaluation of historic highways and related resources. Staff from the National Park Service, State Historic Preservation Offices, and Georgia and Tennessee Departments of Transportation discussed the upcoming National Register Bulletin on historic road corridors.

DIXIE HIGHWAY BUS TOUR: "Bedspreads and Bypasses" A circuit of both the Western and Eastern Divisions of the route between Chattanooga and Cartersville, Georgia. In addition to viewing a wide variety of roadside architectural types, participants saw bypassed segments of the Dixie Highway and the junction of the highway's two Divisions. In addition to several brief tour stops at significant roadside resources, there will be two extended stops including a visit to Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens in Summerville. A world famous visionary artist, Finster's work has been featured in several exhibits, an R.E.M. music video, and appeared on the covers of record albums by R.E.M. and Talking Heads.

DIXIE HIGHWAY BUS TOUR: Moonpies, Monuments, and Motels
A day-long bus tour of Southeast Tennessee and its roadside environs. In addition to several brief tour stops at significant roadside resources, the tour included an extended visit at Rock City atop Lookout Mountain.

PAPERS presented in five sessions:

"Seeing the Scenic Upland South: Mother Nature and the Morphology of Tourist Landscapes"
Kevin J. Patrick, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

"Developing a Tourism Landscape: Roadside Architecture in the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains"
Blythe Semmer, Middle Tennessee State University

"Saving Our Rural Landscapes by Preserving Historic Roads"
Peter Dedek, Middle Tennessee State University

"Park 'N Pray: An Examination of Drive-In Religion in South Florida"
Carrie Scupholm, Archaeological Consultants, Inc.

"Decorative Drive-In Screen Tower Design"
Thom Thompson, Mt. Sinai, New York

"Chenille, Gas and Snowbirds: The Totem Pole, A Dixie Highway Icon"
Cherry Condra, Tennessee's Backroads Heritage, Inc.

"FIREWORKS"
Karl Puljak, Louisiana Tech University

"The Best Road South: Early Auto Touring and the Dixie Highway in Indiana"
Suzanne Fischer, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana

"Straight Through the Grid: The Meridian Highway in Nebraska"
Carol Ahlgren, Nebraska State Historical Society

"Pleasing to the Eye": Brick Paving and the Dixie Highway in the Sunshine State"
Walter S. Marder, Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation

"The DAR, Roane Fleming Byrnes and the Birth of the Natchez Trace Parkway"
Sara Amy Leach, National Park Service

"Resurrection of Sam's Diner"
Marc Wagner, Virginia Department of Historic Resources

"Roadside Luxury: Urban Hotels for Tourists Motoring Along the Dixie Highway"
R. Stephen Sennott, Lake Forest College

"Born-Again Along Southern Roads: Dixie Diner Deco and the Neo-Moderne"
Robert M. Craig, Georgia Tech

"Caving and Clogging: Keepin' Cool in Tennessee Caves, 1920-1950"
Ruth D. Nichols and Robbie D. Jones, Tennessee Department of Transportation

"Arkansas's Highway History and Architecture"
Christie McLaren, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program

"Signs of Tourism Along U.S. Highway 11-W (the Lee Highway) in East Tennessee"
Charles R. Gunter, Jr., East Tennessee State University