Magnolia Route Marker
Friday – September 8th
Leave early on the “Dixie Bee Line.” Headed north. Pass thru several pretty little places. Springfield and Guthrie were the prettiest. Cross the Tenn. and Ky. state line about noon. Passed thru Hopkinsville a tobacco market about 2:30. We stopped near a mining town to get drinks. Found rough bunch of miners in the old salon (soft drink place) who tried to scare us but failed. This section is noted for coal mining and tobacco growing. The roads are very dusty. Haven’t had rain for 3 months. Camped near Nebo at Mr. Morrison’s. Mitch and I re-lined the brakes etc. on “Lib”. Jabbed a nail in my foot when I started to bed.
Approximate mileage 120 miles.
They were only on the Dixie Bee Line (the western portion of the Dixie Highway) from Nashville to Springfield.
Magnolia Route Map
Courtesy the Newberry Library, Chicago.
From Hopkinsville to Nebo they were on the Magnolia Route. This route went from the gulf coast of Mississippi to Chicago, Illinois. It officially opened on April 20, 1925, and at that time consisted of a forty-hour, 1,000 mile endurance drive from Gulfport to Chicago. This route was designed to bring more commerce and tourism to Mississippi. Even though the “official route didn’t open until 1925” most of the roads did exist when Lloyd traveled.
Both Guthrie and Hopkinsville were part of the region known as the Black Patch, an area where dark fired tobacco was grown. In 1906 there was a Tobacco War pitting the rights of farmers against the monopoly of the large sellers. Hopkinsville was supposed to have the largest tobacco market in the world at one time.
I wonder if the sofa drink saloon was really a speakeasy. During probation, many people mixed drinks to fool law enforcement. Soda became the popular item to mix drinks with and the soda industry grew tremendously during the era. Besides being used as drink mixers, many breweries converted to making sodas during this time.
 Kentucky Tobacco Market |
 Old Kentucky coal Mine |