Seventy-five years ago (in 1951), the U.S. Highway 70 Association began promoting US Route 70 as “America’s Treasure Trail.”
Now, as US Route 70 celebrates its 100-year anniversary on Nov. 11, 2026, the old slogan still has legs…especially for us here in eastern North Carolina where images of pirates and buried treasures have permeated the legends and lore of our coastal waters since the Golden Age of Piracy in the early 1700s.
All of this “pirate mania” has been fueled, of course, by the nefarious Capt. Edward Teach, also known as “Blackbeard,” who was considered the most fearsome and ruthless pirate of all time.
The eastern terminus of US Route 70 is in the village of Atlantic in Down East Carteret County, N.C., on the shores of Core Sound, waters that were frequented by Blackbeard’s flagship vessel, Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Interestingly, the western terminus of US Route 70 is in Globe, a small city and the county seat of Gila County, Ariz., situated in the foothills of the Pinal Mountains in America’s Old West territory.
Images of prospectors and miners are central to the history of Globe, which was established in 1876 when large deposits of silver were detected in the region, including one large piece of silver in the shape of a globe.
Indeed, Globe was once a wild and wooly frontier town typical of the Wild, Wild West.
It seems that a “pairing” of tales about North Carolina’s pirates with yarns about characters from Arizona’s western culture could be a “natural attraction” to truly restore the aura of US Route 70 as “America’s Treasure Trail.”
Recently, the I-42/US 70 Corridor Commission, a public-private partnership representing five counties within North Carolina (Carteret, Craven, Johnston, Lenoir and Wayne), approved a Resolution of Appreciation to recognize the observance of US Route 70’s centennial year in 2026.
To emphasize the scenic vistas along the 2,381-mile route, the Corridor Commission is recommending a rebranding approach that gives a slightly new twist to the traditional slogan – “Scenic 70: Still America’s Treasure Trail.”
Pearl Hart adds to Globe’s mystique
In the
Arizona Territory, the community of Globe had a reputation for being a rough-and-tumble Western town.
That image was enriched in 1899 with a stagecoach robbery that
involved one of Globe’s most colorful female citizens – Pearl Hart. She was
dubbed the “Bandit Queen.”
No one
was killed or injured in the infamous stagecoach hold-up. Pearl Hart and her
accomplice William James “Joe” Boot, a two-bit outlaw from Globe, made off with
more than $400, stolen from three stagecoach passengers.
Joe
Boot had carefully planned to intercept the stagecoach near a watering hole in
Cane Springs Canyon on the road between Florence and Globe, Ariz. This was a
narrow and winding passage not far from the Gila River, a perfect location for
an ambush.
This
was one of the last stagecoach routes still operating in the Arizona Territory.
The run had not been robbed in several years, and driver Henry Bacon was alone;
no one was “riding shotgun.”
While
the stagecoach robbery went off without a hitch, the getaway got complicated. Pearl
Hart and Joe Boot galloped away on their horses, but they got lost trying to
find the trail back to Globe and couldn’t get their bearings.
Meanwhile,
Bacon returned to Florence to alert Pinal County Sheriff Bill Truman, who assembled
a posse to pursue Pearl Hart and Joe Boot. The robbers were found asleep at
their campsite and apprehended without incident.
Kathy
Alexander, creator of the Legends of America website, said Pearl Hart’s trial drew
nationwide newspaper coverage.
Though Pearl admitted her guilt, she was
acquitted by the all-male jury, most likely because of her story about being
compelled to rob the stage, so she could send money to her mother back in Ohio
who was gravely ill.
“Judge
Fletcher M. Doan was furious at the verdict, claiming that Pearl ‘…flirted with
the jury, bending them to her will,’” Alexander wrote.
“He
replaced the jury and had Pearl re-tried for unlawfully carrying a gun” (the
one she took from stagecoach driver Henry Bacon).
“Her
charms did not sway the (second) jury, and she was convicted and sentenced to
five years in the Yuma Territorial Prison,” Alexander said.
Author
Jana Bommersbach noted: “Joe Boot (in a separate trial) was handily convicted
of the stage robbery and got a 30-year sentence.”
Hart and Boot arrived at the
Yuma Territorial Prison together, and “Pearl put another notch in her celebrity
bonnet – she was the only female prisoner.”
While
at Yuma, Boot was “squeaky clean” and rewarded. He became a trusty and was assigned
to drive a wagon loaded with food and supplies to inmate crews working outside
the prison walls.
One day in 1901, he drove his wagon through the gate…and kept
on a’goin,’ disappearing into the wilderness. He was thought to have fled to
Mexico and was never heard from again.
On the
other hand, Pearl Hart cozied up to the warden at Yuma. He provided her with an oversized
cell that included a small yard and allowed her to entertain reporters and
other guests as well as pose for photographs.
The Arizona
Silver Belt newspaper, published in Globe, reported: “An afternoon rarely
goes by without her having lots of callers and herself being photographed. The
camera fiends have taken shots of her with all sorts of firearms and looking as
much the desperado as they can make her.”
Unexpectedly,
Pearl Hart was released from prison in December 1902, pardoned by Arizona
Territorial Gov. Alexander Brodie. In addition to “pockets full of cash,” she
was given a train ticket to Missouri. The rumor was that Pearl Hart was “with
child.”
Sources
indicate that Gov. Brodie “decided that a baby could not be born in a prison,” so
she was pardoned on the condition that she would leave the territory, never to
return.
When
queried about the reason for the pardon, Gov. Brodie’s secretary simply stated:
“For good behavior.”
It may
all have been a ruse by Pearl Hart. If there ever were a baby, there is no
record of him or her.
Pearl
Hart was born in 1871 in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, about 85 miles northeast of
Toronto. Her maiden name was believed to be Davy. The family lived in poverty.
Pearl’s
first brush with the law occurred at age 11, when she and brother Willie, 13,
were caught stealing a cow and re-selling it. She was released, but Willie was
sent off to spend three years in a boys’ detention school.
In
1893, Pearl Hart attended the Chicago World’s Fair and was fascinated by a
performance of “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show,” glamorizing the western and
cowboy lifestyle. She was mesmerized by Annie Oakley and her shooting artistry.
Pearl
Hart reportedly worked her way west as a cook and singer, possibly
supplementing her income as a demimondaine, while developing a fondness for
cigars, liquor and morphine.
Pearl
is believed to have perfected her marksmanship while sitting in a rocking chair
on the front porch of her cabin in Globe with her pistol, blasting rattlesnakes
who ventured too close for comfort.
Pearl
Hart’s character was featured in two popular American western television shows
in the early 1960s.
Beverly
Garland played the role of Pearl Hart in a 1960 episode of “Tales of Wells
Fargo," starring alongside Dale Robertson, who portrayed the lead character
Jim Hardie.
Anne
Francis was cast as Pearl Hart in a “Death Valley Days” episode that aired in
1964. Jesse Pearson played her accomplice, Joe Boot.
John
Boessenecker, author of “Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild
West’s Most Notorious Woman Bandit,” said that Henry Bacon’s stagecoach “was
not a large, six-horse Concord coach of the type commonly seen in television
and film.”
“Instead,
the stage was a much lighter conveyance that looked like a carriage, known as a
‘mud wagon.’ It had three seats, a canvas top and a four-horse team.”
The ‘Treasure Trail’ continues...
There’s
no shortage of “treasures” in between Atlantic and Globe.
Moving on through
Tennessee in a westerly direction, motorists are invited to visit Lebanon, the
county seat of Wilson County (east of Nashville). The locals pronounce it
“LEB-nin.”
The
community is known as the “Antique City of the South,” and its Fiddlers Grove
Historic Village is a popular tourism destination.
Lebanon
is the home of the world headquarters for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store,
which was founded in 1969 and now boasts 660 restaurants in 44 states.
Meet Charles
“Tommy” Lowe, 94, a co-founder of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, who
partnered with the late Dan Evins to open the first Cracker Barrel restaurant
in Lebanon, Tenn., in 1969.
In
2025, Lowe counseled Cracker Barrel’s CEO Julie Felss Masino to reconsider the controversial
$700 million rebranding project that briefly dropped the iconic “Old Timer”
logo.
Lowe urged Cracker Barrel “to stay true to the company’s Southern country
roots.”
(The
decision was reversed, but Masino was replaced in 2026 by David Deno, the
former head of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.)
Cumberland
University, a private university founded in 1842, with an enrollment of about
3,000 students, adds “academic character and cultural programming” to Lebanon’s
community life.
Glenwood,
Ark., is the mid-way point of US Route 70 between Atlantic and Globe.
Glenwood,
is in Pike County, about 30 miles west of Hot Springs in the southwestern
quadrant of Arkansas.
The
community is “nestled in a bend of the Caddo River with spectacular views of
Arkansas’ Ouachita Mountains,” which rise to a maximum elevation of 2,753 feet.
(Ouachita is pronounced as WAH-she-taw.)
This
area developed a reputation for having one of the “best stands of timber in all
of Arkansas,” and several lumber companies were formed to harvest the trees.
Pike
County is the home of the world-famous Crater of Diamonds, a popular state
park. Over millions of years, volcanic eruptions and erosion brought many
diamonds up to the surface.
Visitors can simply walk in with a shovel, sifting
screen or even just their hands, and if they find a diamond, it’s theirs to
keep.
