"The Good Roads Movement"

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"Illinois was a leader in the Good Roads Movement that swept through rural America during the early 1900's. Road dragging contests - "sleds" hitched to a team of horses and dragged along the road, packing and smoothing the road surface - were held as part of a campaign to improve Illinois highways.

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While communities like Genoa had been linked to major markets by railroads, they realized the need for a good hard road system in order to reach other services and entertainment in nearby communities."