Part 2: Road Beautification in Marshall County

Last week I had a column about a highway beautification program undertaken by Indiana in the mid-1930s. It gave background on how the program developed and initial projects. This column picks up with the program in Marshall County.

By September 1935, additional locations were identified and included Highway 31 near Seymour, Highway 29 (Michigan Road) near Kirklin, Highway 30 from New Haven to the state line (east), and Highway 6 near Gary. By 1936, additional sections included Highway 30 between Warsaw and Columbia City, Highway 30 between Plymouth and Atwood, and Highway 31 between Franklin and Greenwood. A South Bend Tribune article on March 22, 1936, stated that the Plymouth-atwood planting had started along Highway 30 by men employed under Relief programs from both Marshall and Kosciusko Counties.

From my observations, I see maybe a dozen or so trees likely from this program that remain along Lincoln Highway between Plymouth and Atwood, and about the same number between Atwood and Warsaw that were likely added after 1936. Many of these are honey locust trees, and I heard once that the tree was chosen because it was under locust trees that President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. I find no source for that. Lincoln Highway, though, runs through Gettysburg.

After I forwarded the article on Lincoln Highway to Karin Rettinger, and lamented I couldn’t find reference to Highway 31 in Marshall County, she went digging. Not only was the Michigan Road stretch through Marshall County part of the program, according to an article in the Argos Reflector from March 1935, it actually was the FIRST segment in the state completed. The project employed a crew of 35 men and included planting sycamore and elm (most of these succumbed to Dutch elm disease), as well as a variety of flowering trees and was anticipated “to make this strip of highway the most beautiful in the state.” It seems obvious from existing trees that the program extended north of Plymouth as well.

Here are some tips to help you discern what trees may have been part of the program. First of all, the trees will be in the right-of-way, which often means the mowed area between road and farm field. Unfortunately, a number of trees were likely lost after rural electrification because the right-of-way became the path for utility lines. You can see the loss particularly along Michigan Road where lines have taken priority over trees that once shared the corridor. Fulton County took more care in preserving their trees as many of the lines fall along the property line and roadside trees are pruned accordingly.

Another thing to look for is approximate age and fullness of tree crown. These trees are approaching 100 years of age and would have a fairly thick trunk and wide-spreading crown due to a lack of competition by other trees. Some of these are nearer fence lines that have been allowed to grow with vegetation. If that’s the case, look for the dominant tree in that area, but always inside the right-of-way. Look for the species specified. Lincoln Highway has a preponderance of honey locusts, but these are also located along Michigan Road. Several pin oak and sycamore also grace the Michigan Road. Finally, watch for a pattern to emerge. Often the trees are planted in pairs, some distance apart, first on one side of the road, then the other. This is particularly common near a natural feature like a ridge or waterway. And they were often used to provide a vista when driving into a community-so they frequently became gateways to communities, but think city limits in the 1930s.

I recall a pair of pin oaks that flanked the entry to Fairmount Cemetery near Tri-way Drive-in Theater on Michigan Road that I believe, now, were likely part of the program but were cut down several years ago. I also recall a few large sycamore trees just north of Plymouth on Michigan Road that fell to the saw when Veteran’s Parkway was built west from U.S. 31. One of these sycamores remains in front of the old Ev & Jane’s Irish Inn. If a planting program existed between Lapaz and South Bend, the trees are likely gone due to widening U.S. 31 in the 1950s-1960s. Since we are a generation removed from any men who would have taken part in this program, I don’t imagine we can be provided a firsthand account, but if your father or grandfather ever spoke of this program or pointed out trees he planted, I would surely like to know. I do hope that we can protect those few trees from that program that remain along these roadways, if for no other reason than to honor the work of past generations.