The road leading to Carbondale from Marion that we now know as new Route 13 is a far cry from what or where it was in the early days when it was no more than a trail. Before Crab Orchard Lake was constructed around 1939, and a section of Route 13 was re-located around it, there was old Route 13, a narrow road extending out West Main Street in Marion and running almost straight, dead west to Carbondale, joining East Walnut in Carbondale, about a half mile south of where new Route 13 now intersects Giant City Road.
In 1857, a plank (wooden) road was contracted to be built from Carbondale to Marion and a company was chartered to carry out the job but it doesn’t appear to have ever gotten off the ground, leaving travelers to trudge down the muddy dirt road.
In the days prior to 1872, before the Carbondale and Shawneetown Railroad was built which connected Marion to the Illinois Central Railroad lines in Carbondale, the old trail road would have been used by horse and oxen drawn carts to transport goods and materials in and out of Marion.
With the advent of the automobile, a concrete surface was finally applied to the old narrow road bed in 1923 and immediately traffic and speeding became an issue, just as it is today. The hard road was opened just in time for a shoot-out on the highway just inside the county line that precipitated the Herrin Massacre.
The following is an article taken from the September 11th, 1923 issue of the Carbondale Free Press:
Marion Road Opens; Speed Officer on Job
Says Does Not Want Arrests, But to Enforce Law
The Carbondale-Marion state hard road was officially opened today.
Beginning of the Williamson County Fair today found the road opened and much traffic at once began travel over this section which connects with the Marion stretch leading west from Marion.
Heavy traffic and truck traffic will not be allowed on this road until the 14th, as announced a few days ago by District Engineer Schwartz.
Opening of this road gives Carbondale outlet to the east and the coal field towns, a highway to the main north and south highway and St. Louis route by way of Carbondale.
Little fear that speeders will find a heaven on the new road is felt, for yesterday a state officer to enforce auto laws took position on the Marion and Carbondale road. Officer Waters is equipped with a high powered motor cycle and everything needed to talk the way he wants to drivers who disregard the laws.
(Article from Carbondale Free Press, September 11, 1923)