Charles Merritt Babcock, 1940.Painting by Carl Wendell Rawson.

Charles Merritt Babcock, 1930.

Charles Merritt Babcock, Elk River, 1924. Photograph by Lee Bros., Minneapolis.

Charles Merritt Babcock, ca. 1915. Photograph by Brush Studios, Minneapolis. Photographs Collection (1995.017.008), Sherburne County Historical Society, Becker, Minnesota. Used with the permission of the Sherburne County Historical Society.

Map of the route of the Jefferson Highway, 1917. From the maps collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Jefferson Highway inside Itasca State Park, ca. 1930.

A Jefferson Highway Transportation Company bus on Jefferson Highway south of Farmington, ca. 1925.

A Jefferson Highway Transportation Company bus on the Jefferson Highway, 1925. From the Jefferson Highway Company photo album (Jefferson Transportation Company records, box 67). Manuscripts collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

A section of the Jefferson Highway in Little Falls, photographed in November of 1922. At the time, the section of highway—175 miles—was the longest stretch of paved road in Minnesota. Cropped from a “Little Falls Paving Celebration” newsletter in the Mathias N. Koll papers, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.