“Plank Road Mania” was running wild and the legislature passed bills funding forty nine different road building companies. These companies would fell trees, split them into planks and lay them in parallel fashion creating roads.

This post was contributed by Ross Malone. A historian and a retired school teacher, Ross has authored many books about Missouri’s history, weird facts, and folk tales. He has also written children’s historical fiction. Visit his website, and buy his books in the Missouri Life store.