Archive for the ‘highways’ Category
May 13, 2010
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.
Tags:bus tour of highway, Gettysburg, highway history, Jean Bonnet Tavern, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, Schellsburg PA
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
May 12, 2010
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/.
Tags:Lincoln Highway, old roads, Rand McNally atlas, road atlas, Route 66, vintage highways
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
May 10, 2010
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.
Tags:1921 trip, antique cars, highway history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, vintage photos
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | 3 Comments »
May 7, 2010
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.
Tags:highway history, historic highway, Illinois, Lincoln Highway, murals, tourism
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May 6, 2010
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.
Tags:2-lane travel, Belle Plaine IA, cafe, highway history, IA restaurants, Lincoln Highway, Mount Vernon IA, Road trip, roadside
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, signs, travel | 1 Comment »
May 3, 2010
Here’s another nice article from The Canton Repository about the efforts of Brian Cassler to preserve a bit of the Lincoln Highway. As part of earning his Eagle Scout badge, Cassler cleaned and organized more than 2,000 bricks from Canton that will be used to recreate a portion of the Lincoln Highway at the Great Platte River Road Archway in Kearney, Nebraska. The archway will host the 2013 centennial conference of the Lincoln Highway Association.
“In 2007, when they (Canton) tore up Tusc (Tuscarawas Street), they found a couple thousand (original) bricks,” said the 14-year-old. “They gave them to the Eastern Lincoln Highway Association to do whatever they wanted to do with them.
“I found out about how the Great Platte River Road Archway wanted to recreate a portion of the Lincoln Highway, so I contacted them.”
Tags:archway museum, brick roadway, Eagle Scout project, highway hisory, historic highway, Kearney NE, Lincoln Highway, Nebraska
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, road surface, transportation | Leave a Comment »
April 30, 2010
The Bridger Valley Pioneer reported today on a public WYDOT meeting held April 27 at the Fort Bridger State Museum regarding an 80-year-old Lincoln Highway bridge that is becoming a danger.
The Blacks Fork Bridge on County Road 221, north of Fort Bridger, or the Lincoln Highway Bridge, is structurally unsound and can’t be brought up to safety standards without being removed and replaced….
Julie Francis, WYDOT archeologist, said the bridge was a concrete T-girder bridge built in 1921 under Federal Aid Project 17. The bridge was typical of bridges built at that period. The bridge included two spans so it was 160 feet long and 18.4 feet wide. She said there were also 3.5 miles of Lincoln Highway roadwork completed as part of the same project. She said the construction of the present bridge replaced a timber trestle bridge.
Tags:Fort Bridger WY, highway history, historic bridge, Lincoln Highway, WY
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, road surface, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
April 28, 2010
Lincoln Highway fans may be aware that ephemera expert and historian Russell Rein also loves tracking down good stops for pork tenderloin sandwiches. The newest post from a blog called Des Loines (devoted exclusively to tenderloin sandwiches) reviews the food and ambiance of the Dairy Mart along the Lincoln in Glidden, Iowa (east of Carroll), easily spotted by the big rooster by the side of the road.
The Dairy Mart is a well-maintained and classic-looking ice-cream stand beside the Lincoln Highway. The tenderloin is homemade, but not really anything special. This place is worth stopping in for the Ice-Cream or other menu items.
And…
The owner takes good care of this place to keep it looking like a classic Lincoln Highway stop for food and ice-cream. The inside is a little cramped with smaller tables and seats, but that is just how authentic roadside places are.
Dairy Mart is at 325 E 9th St./US 30.
Posted in highways | 3 Comments »
April 19, 2010
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Louis’ Restaurant, an old-style diner overlooking the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco, is facing an interesting dilemma. The popular restaurant is west of the Lincoln Highway terminus but has been passed for 73 years by those finishing their cross-country adventure by continuing on to the Cliff House or the ocean itself. The business is run by the descendants of founder Louis Hontalas, but a 1998 congressional edict requires the landowner, the National Park Service, to put out for bid concessions with revenues of more than $500,000. The Hontalas family will have to bid against other people and corporations for the right to keep their own restaurant.
The origins of the place go back to Valentine’s Day 1937, when Tom’s grandfather and grandmother, Helen Hontalas, opened the restaurant on Point Lobos Avenue. They were Greek immigrants struggling to make it during the Great Depression.
Louis’ was a tiny place then, built out of what had once been a covered wooden walkway leading from a streetcar barn to the famous Sutro Baths. The land at that time was owned by the nephew of Adolph Sutro….
In 1948, the adjacent streetcar barn burned down, severely damaging the restaurant. Louis and Helen rebuilt the cafe….
Louis died in 1972, and one year later the land was incorporated into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Louis’ son, Jim, remodeled the place in 1974 even though there was no guarantee that the lease would be renewed….
Whoever leases the place will also have to build a second exit, make the restaurant fire- safe and do other renovations to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The work will ultimately cost at least $500,000, Hontalas said.
Tags:highway history, Lincoln Highway, National Park Service food, restaurant history, San Francisco
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, roadside | 1 Comment »
April 16, 2010
A colorful roadside attraction along the Lincoln Highway in western California is finally being demolished after closing in 2007.
The Lodi News-Sentinel reports that Pollardville, “once home to staged gunfights, Vaudeville plays and juicy fried chicken, was systematically demolished Tuesday morning.” The site included a ghost town that featured the set of the 1957 film “The Big Country,” with actors portraying bank robbers and sheriffs, the Pollardville Palace Showboat Dinner Theater, and the Chicken Kitchen, formerly the Polynesian-themed Islander Restaurant from Stockton.
The odors from the machine’s diesel engine served as a sharp contrast to the former aromas of mashed potatoes and comfort food Pollardville’s restaurants were once known for. The creaking of the structures collapsing was balanced by the sound of the cars quickly zipping past on Highway 99
Only hint of good news?? The company that handled the demolition said the 50-foot Pollardville sign will remain until someone buys the property and decides what to do with it.
Tags:big sign, Calif roadside, ghost town attraction, highway history, Lincoln Highway, Pollardville CA, Polynesian restaurant, Road trip, roadside attraction
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, signs | 3 Comments »
Jean Bonnet Tavern along the Lincoln Highway west of Bedford.
Lincoln Highway News 