Clifton Heights Directory 2024

18 2024 | Clifton Heights-Clayton-Tamm Community Directory Following the Trail of Old Manchester Road If you drive south today on South Vandeventer Avenue from I-64, it will turn into Southwest Avenue at Kingshighway Boulevard. Then, if you continue on Southwest across Hampton Avenue and the River Des Peres you’ll end up in Maplewood. You may not know it, but you will actually be following an ancient Native American trail along a ridge line that eventually became the beginning of the famed U.S. Route 66. This is the old “Kickapoo Trace” once blazed by Osage Indians. Missouri’s first highways were its many rivers. But the European settlers, pushing back from these waterways, soon found they needed overland routes. A ready-made system was there for them. It consisted of the ancient Indian trails, worn smooth by people on foot or horseback. By the early 1800s, Native Americans ceded their final claims to Missouri land. They left behind a system of trails whose dim outlines still mark Missouri’s highways. In 1826, the Missouri State Legislature moved the state capital to Jefferson City from St. Charles. One of the first orders of business was to create an overland route that would supplement the Missouri River access to the capital. The Vandeventer-Southwest route, called Old Manchester, was the first public road from St. Louis to Jefferson City. An extension of Market Street, this route was the only way west without An 1875 view of Old Manchester where it intersects Kingshighway.