Nowadays, Wilson Road in Chesterfield curves to hook up with Clarkson Woods Drive at a stop light with Clarkson Road, which dates back to the widening of what is MO340. But it wasn’t always like that.

In fact, back in 1878, when Julius Pitzman published his atlas of St. Louis County (I could have sworn there was an earlier edition from the 1860s once available on-line), Wilson Road didn’t even exist. Looking at the plate above, I have shown where there right-of-way for Wilson Road would later be cut through. What is fascinating is how many roads were already there, even way out west in the county at such an early date, just fifty years after statehood. Then we look below, in 1937, and Wilson Road has appeared, and Clarkson Road has been upgraded to a two-lane highway. Note how Wilson Road goes straight south  between the land parcels.

Today, you can still see the old road, the telephone lines still running parallel to the asphalt, which is slowly being reclaimed by Nature.