Fifty Years Ago: New Highway 142 Takes Shape

Those who resided southeast of Doniphan in the summer of 1971 may remember the sound of dynamite exploding with a thud strong enough to knock picture frames and clocks off walls. The noise came from work crews cutting a new road bed for Missouri Route 142. The project cost $1.265 million and took a much different path than the old highway that exited east from town past Missouri Forge. The picture at right shows the highway construction crew in August 1971 looking east toward what was known in those days as the Tschudin Hill. The new stretch ran from the Doniphan city limits for 4.2 miles before rejoining the old highway at Route E. Twenty-four feet wide and made of asphaltic concrete, the new highway was completed in 1972.