Travel on the Military Road
On your way to Solon you may have noticed two signs on the east side declaring “Dillon's Furrow.” There is a story, of course, about this road.
A military unit was stationed at Dubuque after the decision was made to locate the capitol in Iowa City. Pioneers feared an Indian uprising, and Lyman Dillon of Cascade was engaged to use his teams of oxen to plow a furrow from Dubuque to the capitol. A U.S. Army engineer named Tilghman hired Dillon, then contracted with the Langworthy brothers to build the road in 1839. Congress provided $20,000 that year for this operation. Breaking prairie was difficult, and five team of oxen were used. Eventually the road reached Iowa City; operators were ferried over the Iowa River, and continued to Keosauqua on the Missouri border. To trace this old road, you would find that highways 1 and 151 today follow closely the Military Road of 1839.