The final week of July 1926 saw highway crews leave Gerald after completing the surface of the new U.S. Highway 50.  The new highway was established by the American Association of State Highway Officials as a transcontinental highway and completed from coast to  coast in late 1926. It runs over 3,000 miles from Ocean City Md. to Sacramento, Calif.

No. 50, as it was  commonly referred to then, was not the first highway to run through Gerald. State Highway 12 was an early route that ran from St. Louis to Kansas City.

According to Mirriam -Webster, a highway is a main direct road that connects town and cities. There is no reference to pavement in the basic definition, and that was the case with both highways 12 and 50.

In her historical book, Gerald Wanderings, Opal Schulte recalls Highway 12 as not much more than a dust path. “Fogs of dirt covered the area and settled on trees, lawns and houses. Many times the housewife would hang out the clothes and dust settled on them until she would have to wash them over (on the washboard not in an automatic),” she wrote.

The new No. 50 was also not paved. It was just regraded and graveled. In 1931, crews returned to the area to pave the roadway with concrete. It was topped with asphalt in 1948.