Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
PLANK ROAD
PLANK ROAD. Unique form of road construction with timbers and planks first used in the United States in 1845. In September, 1851 the Dubuque and Sageville Plank Road Company, whose officers included Jesse P. FARLEY and Platt SMITH, began construction of a road between Dubuque and Sageville along the present route of Central Avenue north of Diagonal Street. Joseph C. Jennings was the construction engineer.
The company was granted permission on September 15, 1852, to begin collecting tolls ranging from five cents for a man and horse to fifteen cents for a four-horse vehicle. The tolls allowed persons to pass over the road and return the same or next day.
On August 8, 1854, a committee was appointed to negotiate with the company for the purchase of the road within the city for $2063.10. Various repairs to the road were made until April 1, 1875, when a resolution was passed to tear up the planks, by then considered an obsolete form of road construction.
The Dubuque and Maquoketa plank road was projected in 1851, but languished. It was the original intention to lay the planks as far as Table Mound before winter set in.
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Source:
Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/franklin-t-oldt/history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl/page-10-history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl.shtml
(Photo Courtesy: Iowa Department of Transportation)