Wildcat Highway Markers (US 74) - Charlotte and Wadesboro
When many of the numbered highways we drive on today were being put together over a century ago, they usually had names. The Lincoln Highway, Dixie Highway, and Bankhead Highway, to name a few. In North Carolina, we had the Central Highway - much of today's US 70. However, there were a few others not as well known; fortunately, traces of those efforts remain. This Wildcat Highway marker can be found at the entrance to Charlotte's Independence Park. (7th Street and Hawthorne Lane) After World War I, the War Mothers of North Carolina, led by Mary F. Jones, pushed for North Carolina's two major east-west highways, the Central Highway (NC 10 now US 70) and the Wilmington-Charlotte-Asheville Highway (NC 20 now US 74), to be named after veterans of the Great War. The Central Highway would be named the "Old Hickory" after the 30th Infantry Division. The 30th was named Old Hickory after President Andrew Jackson and consisted of men from the Carolinas, Georgi...
