Mike Buettner sent along a May 9 clipping from The Lima News about a new Lincoln Highway pillar in Ohio. Dedicated on May 1, 2010, near Williamstown, it stands where an original one had been set in 1930. The Eagle Creek Historical Organization (ECHO) planned the dedication with a meeting of the state’s LHA chapter. The pillar now overlooks the intersection of U.S. 68 and the fomer Lincoln Highway exit to the town. Photo courtesy ECHO.
The Kearney Hub reported on the Lincoln Highway Association’s plans to celebrate the road’s centennial in the Nebraska city, including new signage.
“This is something that we have wanted to accomplish for a number of years, and it’s wonderful to see the signs up representing the history that once passed through our community,” said Sarah Focke of the Kearney Visitors Bureau.
The visitors bureau has been working with several other Kearney organizations to erect the 12 signs and to lay the groundwork for the Lincoln Highway Association’s 2013 convention in Kearney.
The markers, with the letter “L” and red and blue bands, are going up along Highway 30, which passes east to west through Kearney.
A full article was in the May 26 Hub print edition.
Here’s a release reprinted from Southwest Iowa News about a talk this Sunday in Council Bluffs.
The Historical Society of Pottawattamie County will celebrate the Lincoln Highway in the final lecture of its spring lecture series at the RailsWest Railroad Museum, 16th Avenue and South Main Street.
On Sunday, Francie O’Leary, project manager for the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway in western Iowa, will speak. The presentation is free to the public and will cover the story of the Lincoln Highway and explain how historic byway development can benefit the communities along the route. The lecture starts at 2 p.m.
For the past year, O’Leary has researched historical photos and literature for Pottawattamie, Harrison, Crawford, Carroll and Greene counties to be developed into a traveling Lincoln Highway exhibit.
More historic photos, stories and information related to the Lincoln Highway route from 1900 to 1940 are sought. The public is encouraged to bring any related material. Scanning and recording equipment will be available in the museum following the presentation until 4:30 p.m. For more information, contact O’Leary at (712) 792-4415, francieoleary@gmail.com or go online to http://www.mmdividercd.org.
The Historical Society encourages owners of classic automobiles to motor on down to the RailsWest to show them off. For more information, contact the Historical Society at 323-2509 or info@thehistoricalsociety.org.
Our friend David at the 42N blog once again brings us news from Iowa. On May 3 the Palisades Hotel near Mount Vernon, Iowa, was demolished in just three hours; at right are before and after pics from his blog. He writes, “The structure was built in the 1880s and was known as the Cedar Springs Hotel. Its original guests were railroad employees working on a nearby quarry…. Palisades Hotel was the place to go long before the convenience of getting there was possible. The hotel stood 20 years or so before the Lincoln Highway was built nearby and many more years before modern State Highway 30 came even closer. Better roads and more reliable cars made visiting other sites around the region more accessible, and eventually helped lead the hotel into retirement in the 1950s. The demolition of the Palisades Hotel (aka Cedar Springs Hotel, Upper Palisades Hotel, Palisades Hotel, Biderman Hotel, and Old Dutch Inn) marks the end of an era when this site served as a gathering place for legions of students, families and relaxation seeker.”
The 31st annual Lincoln Highway Bridge Festival is set for today and tomorrow May 14 and 15, in Tama, Iowa. The event, sponsored by the Tama-Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce, features carnival rides along with events. Friday evening includes an ice cream social, live entertainment in the fire station, the Citizen of the Year presentation, and a street dance. Saturday starts with a firefighters pancake breakfast and 5K Run and Walk. The Grand Parade starts at 10 am and is followed by a full day of entertainment and events.
The little concrete bridge is famous for having “Lincoln Highway” carved into its side rails, and in 2007 even got its own new age song written and performed by Phil Christensen. He says, “The bridge hearkens to a time when Model T’s coughed, sputtered and competed with horses and buggies. I tried to capture all this in a song called the ‘Lincoln Highway Bridge Song’ and it’s available through our Notes Along the Road website and i-tunes. The instrumental is a playful homage to bygone days; tasty guitars are layered over a back-firing rhythm loop, while gentle pads capture the rolling plains and farmlands.”
Also, visit our friend David Chase at 42N Observations blog to see a 1915 view of the bridge.
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor is sponsoring a one-day bus trip along the Lincoln Highway from Schellsburg to Gettysburg and back on June 26. Departure from Shawnee State Park will be 8:30 am, return by 8 pm.
Jean Bonnet Tavern along the Lincoln Highway west of Bedford.
The deluxe motor coach trip will be narrated by Dr. Fred Gantz, an adjunct faculty member at several area colleges who knows the route well and will share little-known facts about the country’s first coast-to-coast route.
In addition to photo opportunities at two roadside giants and five Lincoln Highway murals, bus guests will be treated to a lunch buffet at the 1815 Inn at Herr Ridge, where the Battle of Gettysburg began in the fields around the inn. The tour will then catch Neil Simon’s “45 Seconds from Broadway” matinee at the Totem Pole Playhouse. This is not community theater, but live professional theater. Dinner in historic McConnellsburg. Cost for meals, transportation, show, and lots of LH history is $110.
For information or reservations visit www.LHHC.org or call 724-238-9030.
Rand McNally has launched its 2011 Road Atlas with updated maps, more city and national park insets, five new “Best of the Road” tours, and most exciting to Lincoln Highway fans, the marking of historic highways. The company describes this as “The addition of specialty highway shields to show historic and scenic routes including Route 66, the Lincoln Highway, the Great River Road, the Great Lakes Circle Route, and the Lewis & Clark Trail Highway.” The 144-page atlas (suggested retail $13.95) is arriving in stores or visit randmcnally.com/.
Mike Auran of San Jose, California, sent a couple photos and a story:
In June 1921 my grandparents along with their fathers and my mother, age 3, left Alameda, CA, and followed the Lincoln Highway as far East as Ohio before turning off to Zanesville, Washington DC, and Mt Vernon. Turning north they went to New York City and followed the Hudson to Canada, crossing back into the U.S. at Niagara Falls. They then visited family in Cincinnati and then rejoined the Lincoln as far as Denver, turned south to Colorado Springs and over the Rockies to the Colorado River, then Salt Lake and home. 9,000 miles in 3 months, made about 15 miles to a gallon. I have about 100 photos from the trip.
Mike wondered about the locations of these two photos. Can anyone identify the desert shot by the mountain range? Click images to see them larger!
The second is readily recognized by LH fans but I won’t say in case you like to guess.
The next four Lincoln Highway Interpretive Murals in Illinois will be on display at ShawCraft Signs, 7727 Burden Road, Machesney Park TODAY from noon to 5:00 p.m.
Recently a mural was installed in Dixon to tell the story of the 1919 Military Convoy as it traveled cross-country, including a young Dwight Eisenhower. The mural tells the story of the convoy stopping in downtown Dixon to lunch on the courthouse lawn. You can view a cool slideshow created by Jay Allen of Shawcraft to see the mural come to life.
The four murals in production will be installed along the Illinois Lincoln Highway National Scenic Byway in northern Illinois. The murals are going up in 40 communities, and so far include Rochelle, Creston, DeKalb, Aurora, Joliet, Cortland, Genoa, Oregon, and Dixon.
The one set for New Lenox focuses on a 1920s dance hall moved to make way for the highway in 1924. University Park’s will tell the story of the Van Buren sisters who in 1916 became the first women to “solo” the highway on their Indian motorcycles.
Two stories tell two different tales of Lincoln Cafes located along the Lincoln Highway in Iowa.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that “Matt Steigerwald, owner and chef of the Lincoln Cafe in Mount Vernon, has retained his title as the Midwest region’s ‘Prince of Porc’ after winning the Cochon 555 competition for the second straight year…. Cochon means ‘pig’ in French. The competition features five chefs, five pigs and five winemakers in 10 cities. The chefs are challenged to use a whole pig to create a series of dishes.”
As the murder trial continues for the owner of the Lincoln Cafe in Belle Plaine, Iowa, LHA director Van Becker reports that the well known restaurant still sits idle and nothing inside has been touched for months.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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