Road markers offer history at any speed

It promised such intrigue: shots fired (illegally, no less), no doubt between historic figures, passions inflamed, possibly a wound, a death … But like so many bits of highway history in a speed-obsessed society, this sign on Virginia Route 120 southbound, at the Military Road ramp onto Old Glebe Road, has become one more passed-up opportunity to learn.

Too bad, because in spite of Americans’ tendency to zip by them, historical road markers are making a comeback, thanks in part to new state programs that have reinvigorated an old genre.

New, more detailed, markers are filled with tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and the organizations behind them want to ensure that their groups get recognized for their contributions to our collective history.

“We want to tell more of the story,” says Scott Arnold, author of “A Guidebook to Virginia’s Historical Markers: Third Edition,” to be released by the University of Virginia Press early next year.

As manager of the historical highway marker program at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources from 1999 to 2005, Mr. Arnold saw the replacement of 400 old signs with new ones that “tell more of the story” — among them the “illegal duel” marker on Route 120 — and the installation of more than 900 additional markers.

A similar move can be seen in Maryland, where the Maryland Historical Trust has administered the state highway marker program since 1988.

According to the Trust’s Nancy Kurtz, Maryland has about 800 state markers; 32 of them have been placed since the program was reactivated in 2001 with a new emphasis on statewide significance rather than simply local history — and several of them have been rewritten for accuracy and to replace outmoded language.

Meanwhile, towns, counties and other localities have been placing their own markers, celebrating events and individuals of both local and national significance.

The juicy details

That doesn’t mean we can dismiss historic duels, even if illegal. Try again:

… Secretary of State Henry Clay challenged U.S. Senator John Randolph of Roanoke. Clay called Randolph out to defend his honor after Randolph insulted him in a speech on the Senate floor….

And again, whoosh! This tale of the famous — and in retrospect, almost farcical — confrontation on April 8, 1826, at Pimmit Run, a half mile north of where this marker stands on a busy ramp, may never find an audience.

That’s in spite of the story’s juicy background details, many of which had to be edited for brevity from even the new, more detailed marker installed in 2000: The brilliant but eccentric Randolph’s attack on Clay, Kentucky’s Great Compromiser, as a “blackleg” or swindler engaged in a “corrupt bargain” with John Quincy Adams that brought Adams the presidency; Clay’s rash challenge to a man known as a marksman almost certain to shoot him dead; Randolph’s insistence on fighting in the only state worthy of his blood; missed shots and a deliberate misfiring, all of it ending in a gentlemanly handshake.

Gandalf’s “Lord of the Rings” set-to with the Balrog it’s not, but it and others like it are windows into what made us what we are.

So pull off to the side of the road when you can do so safely. Read these bits of history. You’ll propel yourself and your family into another time and place.

Story Continues →