Rolla further improved its image by completing the paving of city streets connected with the highway. The completion was cause for a huge celebration. Work began on the concrete slab in 1928, and from Rolla to Lebanon, it was the last piece to be paved in Missouri because of its difficulty. When Route 66 came through, it replaced Route 14, a difficult gravel road to travel in anything but good weather. Today, the school provides 12 fields of engineering and science degrees, including mining and metallurgy. In 1870 the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy was founded due to Rolla’s location and its mineral riches. Soon, as many as 20,000 Union troops were stationed in the vicinity, and the town became an important transportation hub as supplies were shipped from the east and loaded to wagons headed west. Two minor forts were built during their occupation - Fort Wyman and Fort Dette and Camps Glover and Davies. Many area residents had Confederate sympathies during this time, and Union forces took Rolla in June 1861.
The outbreak of the Civil War halted the westward expansion of the line. On December 22, 1860, the first train arrived in Rolla, making the city the road’s terminus. Civil War refugees take shelter in the Union camps in Rolla, Missouri by Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1862.
