It was conceived in July 1914 by the Automobile Club of Savannah, which envisioned a practical all-year driving route from Georgia to California.

Construction was promoted and the use of the highway would be through the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

After investigating and researching where the most efficient points of interest would be in order to determine the location of the highway, a practical route was found, connecting the cities of Savannah, Columbus, Montgomery, Selma, Meridian, Jackson, Vicksburg, Shreveport, Dallas, Fort Worth, Alamogordo, El Paso, Lordsburg, Douglas, Phoenix, Yuma, San Diego, and Los Angeles, which were almost guaranteed to never be snowbound, and provide all-year road access.

The first meeting of the Dixie Overland Highway Association was held in Columbus on July 17, 1914, to celebrate the arrival of the pathfinders from Savannah.

On February 14, 1917, the Dixie Overland Highway Association was incorporated in the state of Georgia for a 20-year period as a nonprofit organization, Its purposes are to foster the construction and use of a highway from Savannah, Georgia, to Los Angeles, California, through eight states, seventy-four counties and nearly two hundred towns and villages; to strive for uniform, wise and equitable road legislation in the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California; to aid in bringing about efficient road administration; to seek continuous and systematic maintenance of all roads and their classification according to traffic requirements; to promote cooperation in 'units' or 'locals' on the parts of towns, cities, communities, precincts and other political subdivisions; to mark the highway; to give publicity to its historical character, by monuments, guide-books, bulletins and other printed matter; to affiliate and cooperate with other good roads associations.

California politicians Stanley Hufflund and Ed Fletcher convinced the association in an August 1918 meeting to choose San Diego over Los Angeles.

[1] Colonel Ed Fletcher began his San Diego career as a produce merchant, but branched out into water and land development.

Early in the century, Los Angeles, unlike San Diego, had a direct rail link to the east.

In his self-published 1952 book Memoirs of Ed Fletcher, he described the celebration of the construction of the Dixie Overland Highway as a "gala occasion."

Fletcher reprinted a tribute written two decades later called "A crystallized Hope" in the tribute it was stated that, "Newspapers in the southwest corner of America tell of another remarkable achievement—the completion of a national highway between San Diego and Phoenix with only 20 miles [32 km] unpaved between El Paso and San Diego.

Twenty years ago this thing was projected as a dream of a super-realtor in San Diego, Ed Fletcher, and in the mind and heart of Governor Hunt, of Arizona.

In 1912, he joined with other prominent San Diego citizens who raised $3,000 (equivalent to $94,700 in 2023[2]) as prize money and challenged Los Angeles interests to a race to Phoenix.

The Los Angeles entry traveled by way of Blythe, a distance of about 425 miles (684 km)—or would have if the car had not broken down in the desert.

After years of fighting, Fletcher convinced the association in an August 1918 meeting to choose San Diego over Los Angeles.