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When Roy Atkins started work with the Highway Department in July, 1948, there were not black topped secondary roads in the county at all. The “super highways” of that time, Routes 211, 522, and 231, were hard surfaced; the rest ranked as just wagon trails, judged by today’s standards.
“Route 622, from the C!ash Store back up a mile or two into Harris Hollow, that was the first one we paved,” Atkins remembers. “Route 642 behind Hackley’s Store in Amissville was done that same year.
“When I went with the state, there were several different sheds (maintenance headquarters) scattered over the county—one in Sperryville, one in Flint Hill and one on Route 729. Each had a crew boss. It was Carlton Atkins here in Sperryville, M. H. Bradey in Flint Hill and Frank Kinsey on 729.”
Highway Department equipment had passed the mule and wagon stage in those days but was still a long way from modern mechanization. “Everything was loaded by hand,” Atkins remembers. “There was very little crushed rock used. What we got, we dug out of the creek beds—there was one between Five Forks and Rock Mills—where the waters had dropped and left the gravel in a pile. We used that for mud on dirt roads.”
In the winter, when roads iced over, highway crews would mix a little sand
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