It was 3,096 miles (4,983 km) long and stretched from Baltimore, Maryland (some old maps indicate New York City was the actual eastern terminus) to California.

Truman's name would remain on the letterhead of the National Old Trails Road Association well into the late 1940s, listed as "president".

Designed by Arlene Nichols Moss of the DAR, the statues are dedicated to the pioneer mothers of covered-wagon days.

The DAR describes the statue: "The `Madonna of the Trail' is a pioneer clad in homespun, clasping her babe to her breast, with her young son clinging to her skirts.

Although the western half of the road was signed by the Automobile Club of Southern California in mid-1914, according to their in-house magazine Touring Topics, the routing remained under much discussion until 1917.

Eventually, however, the alignment below was agreed upon, which followed earlier Indian trails, preexisting railroad tracks and, in some cases, new construction.