Did You Know that the Adopt A Highway Program Began in Tyler
Have you been a part of a group of volunteers to clean up trash on the side of the road in East Texas? Did you know that started in East Texas? Yup, March 9, 1985, the first ever Adopt A Highway was adopted in Tyler on a two-mile stretch of Highway 69 just outside of Loop 323.
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How did it come about?
In 1984, James Evans, who was an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, was behind a truck in Tyler and trash was getting blown out of the truck bed. Evans was thinking about the tax payer cost of keeping the highways clean. To subvert this, he decided to go to some local volunteer groups and asked if they would be willing to pick up trash along various highways.