Read time: 5 min.

I’m fascinated by the National Road- the early highway that connected Cumberland, Maryland, with Vandalia, Illinois, and blazed its way through East-Central Indiana in the 1820s¹. There’s no better resource to learn more about it than Jim Grey’s blog, Down the Road! I was scrolling through the archives over my morning crumpets when I read a comment that suggested there was an 1800s-era mile marker near Woodside Drive in Richmond. Curiosity took over: I had to find it for myself!

Milestones -tombstone-looking markers that demarcated distances between communities and state borders- were placed along much of the National Road. I get the impression that many remain along the old road’s right of way in other states, but only two seem to stand in Indiana. One’s a mile east of Centerville, and another lies three miles west of there². I’ve driven that stretch of road countless times, but I’ve never laid eyes on them! Jim has, though, and here they are. 

It was in the comments on Jim’s sixteen-year-old post that I first encountered the suggestion of a third marker. Someone mentioned a plastics factory on Woodside Drive- a former alignment of U.S. 40, though, crucially, never part of the National Road- that seemed to feature one on its property. Here’s what that guy had to say, lightly edited for clarity: 

“On the East side of Richmond, at Garwood Rd., turn onto Woodside Dr. It is a half circle. Across from Red Lobster is an old Spartech Plastic Factory- it’s been a Purex factory, and PROCOM Plastics. At the southeast corner in the rear there is a stone mile marker. I worked there from 1983 to 1998. I did the yardwork, and I’ve personally seen the marker³!”

I scoped the place out on Google Street View and, sure enough, there seemed to be some kind of concrete whatever at the southeastern corner of the lot. I was headed to Richmond the next day, anyway, so I vowed to see what was going on. 

After my appointment, my sister and I made our way over to Woodside Drive. We spotted the old plastics factory, looped around at Red Lobster, and started scouting for a good vantage point. The parking lot of what appeared to be a shuttered carpet store offered the best view, so we pulled in. From there, I set off to clamber down a hill covered in rip-rap. I was curious to see what waited below.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the concrete thing I’d found on Street View. I poked around anyway, but it quickly became clear there was nothing to see aside from some discarded garbage. I took a photo of the modern US-40 alignment from down in the trenches, along with a few of the abandoned factory, but nothing indicated a National Road milestone. 

I hated to waste the opportunity, though, so I traipsed past the property’s broad side facing the big hill up to US-40. Sure enough, there was a marker. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an old National Road milestone. Rather, it was an Indiana Right-of-Way marker. They’re common as dirt! Over the years, INDOT installed them everywhere it took over major repairs or improvements. The marker behind the plastic factory was old, but not 1800s-old. There still seem to be only two old 1800s milestones across Indiana’s stretch of the National Road. 

In the end, I didn’t uncover a lost National Road milestone. That said, it wasn’t a wasted trip: If anything, my drive down Woodside Drive reminded me of how history really works: the highway marker behind it might not date to the 1800s, but it represents another layer of change laid on top of the path first carved by the National Road nearly two centuries ago. 

Sources Cited
1 1 History of Henry County, Indiana (1884). The Inter-State Publishing Co. [Chicago]. Book. 
2 Grey, J. (2009, November 16). Indiana National road milestones. Down the Road. Web. Retrieved February 21, 2026. 
3 Crawford, D. (2020, February 26). On the East side of Richmond,at Garwood Rd, turn onto Woodside Dr. It is a half circle. Across from [Comment]. Web. Retrieved February 21, 2026.