Drivin’ the Dixie's initial run in June 2001 had groups leaving simultaneously from Blue Island and Danville, meeting in the middle at the end of the day at an island park in Momence.
Elaine Egdorf, who helped organize the annual Drivin' the Dixie events that started in 2001, points out a map of the Dixie Highway route on an information sign along the highway in Homewood. Registration fees for the event over the years helped pay for the signs in towns along the route.
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In his book “The Dixie Highway in Illinois,” historian James Wright describes how Carl Fischer, who sold headlamp parts for the new automobile industry, worked with the Good Roads Movement to establish the paved Lincoln Highway in 1913. As the new millennium dawned, Egdorf, a longtime resident with a keen interest in local history and lots of connections, was asked by Homewood’s mayor to put together an event linked to Dixie Highway.
The first event was filled with pomp, including a send off in Blue Island from Gov. George Ryan and a police escort for the pace vehicles. That club, A’s R Us Model A Ford Club of America, also helped administer the event, handling registration each year. Another group of classic tech enthusiasts, the Tri-Town Radio Amateur Club, established in 1931, handled communications along the way, with members “keeping track of everything going on in each town, helping if someone broke down or needed help before everyone had cellphones,” Egdorf said.
That event was marred by a storm at the end, but “people stayed around in the rain to get their door prizes,” Egdorf said. Its example may have paved the way for Southland beverage mongers to create the Dixie Highway Brewery Trail, using the road’s imagery and passport model to help drive business at local establishments.
But more important than that, even to a history buff, were “the wonderful, supportive people that were willing to spend time on it,” she said.
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