Staff Reports
The MVPA-HA Convoy Command is working it’s way across America this month, and will take a break from their transcontinental trek on Tuesday for a stop in Jefferson.
The group is retracing the historic 1918 Jefferson Highway route from the Minnesota border to New Orleans, La., in 30 days, driving over 2,500 miles.
This is the eighth MVPA-HA Convoy promoted by the MVPA-HA, and the first to travel on a north-south axis through the center of the country. The convoy is hoping to provide a relaxing, less-miles-per-day route, with interesting places to stop. The convoy will celebrate the 15th year of the program created at the Little Rock MVPA Convention in 2006.
The group is arrive in Jefferson around 3p Tuesday, and following a brief rest, will then make a parade through downtown – starting at the Visitors Center up Austin to Market to Lafayette and end back at the Visitors Center. The vehicles will be available to view and learn about following the parade. Local veterans are welcome to participate and Stanford Brantley will be leading them as Grand Marshall.
The Jeffersson Highway 2024 (JH’24) convoy has been designed to encompass American history along the route with multiple stops at historic sites such as: the headwaters of the Mississippi River, parts of the Red River Trail (voyageurs’ oxcart trail) from Winnipeg to St. Paul, the Pony Express Museum, Old Fort Leavenworth, National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, the old Army Road along the frontier to Fort Scott and southward to the old Spanish Road, the Louisiana “Patton” maneuvers area, Fort Polk, and ending with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Less well-known but interesting stops will include original Jefferson Highway historical locations, the Border War between Kansas and Missouri, the John Brown Museum and cabin, and sites of Civil War battles and skirmishes.