In 1984 James R. “Bobby” Evans, a district engineer for the Texas highway department in Tyler, saw trash blow out of the back of a pickup truck. He challenged a local group to “adopt” a section of highway. The Tyler Civitan Club took a two-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 69. On March 9, 1985, the signs went up: “First Adopt-a-Highway in the Nation.”
Today nearly 90,000 groups take part, in 49 states and in other countries. Each adopted stretch carries a sign with the name of the group responsible for it.