"I will try to tell how the highway came to be located where it is, and the years of struggle we had trying to establish a direct automobile route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

First, one should remember that when this town was born in 1905, automobiles were hardly known, except as contraptions that made a puffing, clattering noise. They scared our horses so that they bolted from the road and dragged our fine buggies and surreys, 'with the fringe on the top', into the gutters.

Of course by 1905 there were a few of the 'idle rich' who had 'horseless carriages', and somebody had the temerity to predict that some day the contraptions would drive horses off the streets. I well remember how one well-to-do chap asked me to say a good word for him at a bank where he wished to make a small loan. So I told the President of the Los Angeles bank Mr. R.J. Water, what a hard-working, conscientious fellow my friend was and that he was doing well and even had a fine, new automobile.

Mr. Waters replied: 'My heavens, Charlie, an automobile is not an asset, but a liability. The market is already saturated with the contraptions and there is not money enough in the world to pay for them.'

That was in the days when there were no paved highways and big contests were staged between Los Angeles and San Bernardino to see who could break the record of several hours travel time between the two cities. Between Los Angeles and San Francisco drivers attempted to make the run in 24 hours.

In 1905, there was no highway to Los Angeles from Las Vegas. The only way to drive an auto to Los Angeles from here was to follow the wagon tracks from Vegas southeasterly past the present site of Henderson, through Eldorado Pass, across the sands of the dry lake, up the long grade to Nelson in El Dorado Canyon, over the mountain to Searchlight and so on all the way to the coast.

But it is really no use trying to describe conditions as they were 50 years ago, because people today could not understand. However, I should mention the great automobile race with a grand prize of $100, staged by Las Vegas, for the best time by automobile between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. There were several entries, and the prize was won by a Vegas boy who made the run in the amazingly short time of 15 hours.

We became determined to get a direct highway to Los Angeles and cut some 92 miles from the difficult drive. It was hard for the little railroad town of Las Vegas to get our newly organized State Highway Department interested. We were 'small potatoes.' But in 1920, they sent C.C. Boyer here as Resident Engineer, and from that time on we could see some progress. Charles E. McCarthy, then County Surveyor, had a road to Goodsprings cleared of brush and we used that as the first section. Mr. Boyer and the State Highway Department had surveyed the extension of Fifth Street, southerly, to connect with the Goodsprings highway. From Goodsprings a road was opened westerly, over Columbia Summit, into Sandy Valley and thence on over the Mojave Desert. To rouse the interest of California in our needs, the highway department made a week's count of the auto traffic over that route. The counting station, as I remember it, being about where the New Frontier Hotel is now located. The court, day and night for one week, showed the amazingly large number of 23 autos every 24 hours and we were much encouraged.

After a year or two, the Goodsprings-Columbia Summit route was abandoned in favor of the present highway to Baker and thence on to connect with Highway 66 at Barstow. This was an improvement, but the road through Cronise Valley stalled many a hopeful driver. If two cars happened to meet there, one was sure to get stuck in the deep sand. This condition was not remedied until California paved the highway through that point.

The growth of the automobile travel over highway 91 was amazing until today, at the busy time of day, there was as many cars a minute as there were in 24 hours back in 1923.

I hope readers will pardon this rather ragged and scrawly story. It was inspired by the fact that our grandson, Charles S. Doherty, came on July 3rd to take us on the Fourth over Highway 91 to Southern California for a visit. Since neither of us had been over this highway for several years, we naturally were interested in the trip. I wrote this on July 3rd, 1957, in rather a hurry, but I may have something more to say about highway travel and freeways. Somehow, just now, I am not too enthusiastic about freeways, and fear that the one proposed on 91 will muss us all up by providing a swift route for drivers who do not wish to stop in Las Vegas. I can see how freeway approaches over the railroad to Ogden and Carson streets could result in the practical abandonment of downtown Fremont Street where there are so many spectacular casinos."