Thirty communities. Five states. A journey from the wide spaces of West Texas to the Atlantic shore.
Follow U.S. Route 90 from Van Horn to Jacksonville Beach and discover the local stories behind the highway. Mark Bureau explores the depots, river crossings, farms, workshops, waterfronts, and main streets that helped these communities take root and endure.
Visit Castroville, where Alsatian settlers left a distinctive architectural heritage. Discover how railroads and rice mills shaped Crowley, how Bayou Teche influenced New Iberia, and how art and coastal livelihoods came together in Ocean Springs. Continue through the Florida Panhandle to DeFuniak Springs, where a railroad town became a center for Chautauqua gatherings around a nearly circular lake.
Across thirty city chapters, this illustrated volume connects transportation with everyday life: moving harvests to market, building businesses, crossing difficult terrain, and preserving places that still tell their own stories. Each community receives its own history rather than becoming a brief stop between larger cities.
Part of the Roads Through History series, U.S. Route 90 is for readers who enjoy American local history, historic highways, railroad towns, and the heritage of the South. Read it before a journey, bring it along for context, or explore these communities from home.
