By 1916, plans were underway to promote a network of roads through Oklahoma called the Ozark Trail, planned by the Ozark Trail Association to create a system of better roads connecting surrounding states and among the first roads classed as publicly supported highways. Early plans were grandiose, envisioning the trail as an ocean-to-ocean link marked by impressive pyramids and concrete mileage posts, with roads intended to be above high water, hard surfaced, and later oiled. As towns competed to be included, routes increased rapidly. In the early 1920s, pyramids marked the trail for travelers, and Oklahoma trails crossed the state east to west and north to south, later becoming or paralleling routes such as U.S. Highways 60 and 62, Oklahoma 9, Route 66, and the Turner Turnpike. One of several pyramids on the trail from Tulsa to Dallas, the Stratford Pyramid had identical counterparts at Chandler, Meeker, Shawnee, and Sulphur. Work on the Stratford Pyramid began in December 1921. Its buried base was six feet square, the next section was four feet square, and its tapered top stood twenty-two feet high. The original pyramid stood in the center of Main and Hyden Streets, one-half block to the east, and bore the words Ozark Trail on all four sides of its upper part, with each side listing mileage to the next towns along the route. It was wired and lighted in April 1923. In the early 1940s, it was pushed over and buried where it stood. In the early 1970s, its pieces were exhumed and partially restored, and they now stand on a private ranch near Stratford. Another original pyramid, presumed to be the Chandler pyramid, is located west of Stroud off Highway 66. A replica was erected near the original Stratford site in the summer of 1997 because traffic and safety concerns prevented rebuilding it in its original location.