Military Vehicle Preservation Association Convoy Command has announced its next transcontinental convoy
The Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MVPA) Convoy Command has announced that its next transcontinental convoy will run through October 31, 2024.
The convoy will retrace the historic 1918 Jefferson Highway route starting in Minnesota, near the US/Canadian border, and traveling south to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 30 days, driving over 2,500 miles.
The convoy will make an early morning stop in Joplin on Wednesday, October 16th, and the public is invited to review the 40+ vintage military vehicles from around 8:30 until 10:00 a.m.
The convoy will stop in the parking lot of the Old Airport Terminal off Highway 171 (5501 Dennis Weaver Blvd). Convoy members will be available to provide information and a history of the vehicles.
The Joplin stopover is a breakfast stop for convoy members (not open to the public). The convoy will be coming from West Mineral, Kansas (Big Brutus), where they will have encamped the night before.
In addition, CFI’s True to the Troops wrapped truck and trailer, operated by Professional Driver and Army Veteran Remy Braun, will be on display, and the Freedom of Flight Museum, inside the Old Terminal, will be open for public tours.
The convoy stopover is supported by CFI and Visit Joplin, with assistance from American Legion Post 13.
ARRIVING: The convoy will leave West Mineral, Kansas, travel through Missouri on Highway 171 to the Old Airport Terminal on Dennis Weaver Blvd, and park in the terminal parking lot.
DEPARTING: The convoy will turn right/west onto Highway 171, navigating the roundabout south on Highway 43. Then Highway 43/N. Main to Zora. West on Zora to Schifferdecker. Schifferdecker to 7th, then west to Kansas.
MILITARY VEHICLE PRESERVATION ASSOCATION
Established in 1976, the non-profit Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MVPA) is dedicated to providing an international organization for military vehicle enthusiasts, historians, preservationists, and collectors interested in the acquisition, restoration, preservation, safe operation, and public education of historic military transport.
This is the eighth Convoy promoted by the Historical Archives of MVPA and the first to travel on a north-south axis through the country’s heartland.
The Jefferson Highway 2024 (JH’24) convoy has been designed to encompass American history along the route with multiple stops at historical sites such as the headwaters of the Mississippi River, parts of the Red River Trail (voyageurs’ oxcart trail) from Winnipeg to St. Paul, the Pony Express Museum, Old Fort Leavenworth, National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, the old Army Road along the frontier to Fort Scott and southward to the old Spanish Road, the Louisiana “Patton” maneuvers area, Fort Polk, and ending with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
Less well-known but engaging stops will include the original Jefferson Highway historic locations, the Border War between Kansas and Missouri, the John Brown Museum and cabin, and sites of Civil War battles and skirmishes.
For more information about the organization, visit https://www.mvpa.org/convoys.
JEFFERSON HIGHWAY
Once promoted as the “Crossroads of America,” Joplin has a rich heritage with both the north-south Jefferson Highway and the east-west Route 66. In November 1915, during the Jefferson Highway organizing conference in New Orleans, Joplin was established as one of the original “Cardinal Points” of the highway. As such, the transcontinental JH was designed to go through Joplin and did so on both the original Kansas and Missouri routings.
The eight-state highway was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, who acquired the Louisiana Purchase. The “Pine to Palm” marketing phrase summarized the geographical route that took travelers from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Joplin was often regarded as the halfway mark of the Jefferson Highway. It hosted the Jefferson Highway Association’s international conferences in 1918 and 1923.
