Allan Williams, a small-town engineer, is the American who created highway rest areas.

The Motor City ignited the roar of the 1920s.

In the early 1920s, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, all located in Detroit, Michigan, became the world's top three automakers. As a result, customers required a location where they could easily and safely access their engines to keep them running smoothly.

The responsibility for the job was taken on by small-town Michigan visionaries who laid the groundwork for the automobile to become associated with the open American highway.

Perhaps the most influential among the first-ever highway engineers in rural Ionia County was Allan Williams.

In 1929, he came up with and built the first rest stop in America, which became extremely popular 40 years later.

Despite being the most visible, the highway rest stop was just one of the many contributions Williams made to the American highway system's speed, safety, and convenience.

According to Sigrid Bergland, a historian with the Michigan Department of Transportation, at that time, he had the capacity to significantly impact not only Michigan but also the entire nation's history.

His curiosity, intellect, varied skills, and vision influenced highway road maps, road signs, and even snow plows.

"He really was a Renaissance man."

Williams also proved a civic leader in both peacetime and wartime.

He helped improve the roads less traveled in his small-town life.

"Bergland described the individual as a "Michelangelo-type" all-around interesting person who did a variety of things throughout their life and happened to be a transportation engineer. He was a true Renaissance man, according to Bergland."

Fun, freedom and ‘automobiling’

In 1892, Ludington, Michigan was the birthplace of Allan Mackenzie Williams, the son of Joseph and Isabelle (Cogswell) Williams.

It seems that the future American roadmaster inherited his diverse interests and innate abilities to repair things from his father.

According to the Michigan DOT, the elder Williams transitioned from a camp cook to an electrical engineer.

"The state agency notes that he opened and ran an electrical shop and later wired the first home in Ludington with electricity."

At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the younger Williams pursued a degree in engineering before transferring to Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo.

In 1919, at the age of 20, he discovered his passion for engineering when he was appointed as the county engineer for the Ionia County Road Commission.

At that time, only a few roads were paved, according to Bergland of Michigan DOT.

Cars constructed in Detroit, 130 miles east, were becoming more affordable, gaining popularity, and spreading throughout the United States.

In 2016, Nick Kurczewski, an auto journalist, wrote that the elite chauffeur-driven crowd would soon be surpassed by the general public who desired the fun and freedom that came with automobiling.

The "public … wanted the fun and freedom that came with ‘automobiling.’"

Michigan highway engineers were the first to witness and shape the future of automobile travel, with convenience being an early need.

According to the American Road Builder magazine, in 1957, "Williams observed a family attempting to enjoy a picnic lunch from a large tree stump beside their parked vehicle on a road under county control prior to the winter of 1928."

"The white cloth on the stump held an appetizing snack, but they couldn't fully enjoy it because they couldn't sit at their makeshift table. Instead, they had to stand or sit on rocks or bare ground to eat their food."

The Ionia Country Road Commission garage had some extra wood and a vision, which belonged to Williams.

‘Thought he was going to get a bawlin’’

In the 1920s, the automobile became a significant element of the American landscape.

During the decade, the number of cars registered in Michigan increased more than fourfold, from 326,000 in 1919 to 1.4 million in 1919.

With growing frequency, Williams observed travelers eating on the roadside.

According to the American Road Builder account, he, an outdoorsman himself, believed that people should have better facilities for resting and refreshing themselves along the highways.

"In the winter, when some of his snowplowing crews were on standby at the county garage waiting for a predicted storm, he assigned them to build picnic tables using 2x4 scrap lumber."

Bergland notes that the tables "probably had plenty of splinters sticking out," while he used "leftover guardrail wood or other surplus timber" according to Michigan DOT.

The tables, painted green, were positioned on Route 16, three miles south of the Village of Saranac.

Colin Williams, then 84, said in a 2011 interview with MLive.com that his dad thought he would receive a scolding for using a plank.

William’s roadside rest area, in today’s terms, went viral.

The "bawlin’" never came.

Williams' roadside rest area became extremely popular and well-known.

According to MLive.com, the state highway department received over 500 written feedback from motorists across the country, including those from Washington, Florida, and Texas.

As quickly as construction crews could pour concrete for new roads, Williams's vision for highway respite spread.

By 1937, over 1,400 picnic tables had been set up in Michigan, with many of the earliest ones constructed by Williams' team in Ionia County.

By 1947, the total number of roadside picnic tables in Michigan had reached 2,500.

According to InsterstateRestAreas.com, there are currently 1,400 full-service highway rest areas along U.S. Interstate highways.

They offer countless picnic tables and seats among them.

‘Just some guy in small-town Michigan!’

Allan Williams reportedly passed away in 1979.

He was 87 years old and is interred in Lakeview Cemetery in his birthplace, Ludington.

According to Chris Bessert, the publisher of MichiganHighways.org, Michigan was undoubtedly the location of numerous "firsts" in transportation, particularly in highway history.

Williams, he writes, was at the center of it all.

"He championed the construction of highways on rights-of-way wider than the standard 66-foot space used to that point, and he designed Michigan's state highway route marker and widened its use."

"The state highway department received more than 500 pieces of written feedback at table locations."

William's impact was also felt close to home.

Ionia County was left with a legacy by traveler bloggers Martha and Chuck 'The Viking' Hayden, as they wrote about it on restless-viking.com.

He held several leadership positions in Ionia County, including serving as president of the Ionia County Free Fair, engineering the Ionia County Airport, and chairing the county hospital board.

During World War II, Williams managed Ionia County's conversion of scrap metal into weapons.

"Bergland of Michigan DOT stated that he was very civically minded and interested in helping people, finding ways to give back to the community, and contributing to it. He was a big-picture thinker."

In 1976, the engineer's contributions to promoting tourism in Michigan were recognized with a Michigan Tourism Award from Gov. William Milliken.

There is some dispute, however, over the Williams rest-area origin story.

"According to RestAreaHistory.org, some documentation suggests that Connecticut established its first site in 1928. However, more solid evidence indicates that Michigan established a site in 1929."

As early as 1919, Herbert Larson, a road commissioner in Iron County, Michigan, erected roadside picnic tables.

While Williams' creation became a national phenomenon, Larson's occurrence was a standalone event, according to Bessert.

Bessert writes that the early development of Michigan's highway system, which was spearheaded by Williams, was replicated and copied globally.

"This was just some guy from small-town Michigan, and it's something that shouldn't be minimized."

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