As early as 1845, Cleveland newspapers began to promote plank roads. In that year, Charles Whittelsey, a geologist and founding member of the Western Reserve Historical Society, traveled to Canada to examine its plank roads and reported his findings in the Cleveland Herald. Soon the plank road "craze" began. If your town or village didn't have a plank road, you were behind the times. The above diagram depicts a plank road in New York State.
