This book didn’t put US-20 on my to‑drive list, that happened long ago, but it did move it up quite a bit. At 3365 miles, Route 20 is currently the longest of the U.S. Numbered Highways so it’s quite naturally a road I’ve thought about driving. I have driven bits of it, of course, and crossed over it many times. It would be pretty hard to completely avoid a road that crosses the entire country as this one does. In Historic US Route 20: A Journey Across America’s Longest Highway, Bryan Farr documents an east to west drive over the entire length of the highway and the entire breadth of the nation with a couple hundred great color photos. There is something I’d like to see in just about every one of those photos.
A chapter on each of the twelve states crossed by US-20 follows an introduction and a brief history of the highway. Each chapter’s opening page contains a small map and some statistics such as length and highest and lowest elevation. A few pictures also appear on those opening pages but the best pictures form the chapter’s body. Many get a page all to themselves and few pages contain more than two. That means they are generally big enough to appreciate and the good print quality also helps.
Some images are of noted man made landmarks, such as the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and the Veterans Memorial Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. Others capture the natural beauty of places like the Driftless Area near Elizabeth, Illinois, and Yellowstone Lake. Together they show off the wide range of experiences available along the highway as well as Farr’s photographic skills.
Although it’s certainly not overdone, the book is not without text. There is that one-page introduction and two-page history that open the book and virtually every picture gets some sort of description. Some get a one-line caption while others get a paragraph or two. Most descriptions that go beyond a sentence provide some history about the subject and all are interesting. There are essentially no travel directions. This is not a travel guide. It is a photographic trip journal and a very attractive one. Even without directions, it will certainly be an aid in planning my own trip. As I said, just about every one of those photos contains something I’d like to see and something likely included in any itinerary. Plus, just flipping through it randomly keeps my desire to drive “America’s Longest Highway” at least on simmer.
A Kindle version of the book is available through the Amazon link at the end of this article. New paperback copies are available directly from the publisher at Historic US Route 20.
Historic US Route 20, Bryan Farr, The Historic US Route 20 Association, Inc., February 16, 2015, 8.5 x 11 inches, 166 pages, ISBN 978-1628476880
Available through Amazon.