A Flickr user named Bill posts photos of road trips taken on his the Honda ST1100 named “SilverSTreak.” He recently documented his wonderful cross-country journey along much of the 1913 alignment of the Lincoln Highway at www.flickr.com/photos/silverstreakst/3915870529/.
A monument for Lincoln Highway “father and founder” Carl Fisher will be dedicated this Saturday, October 3, 2009, at Fisher Pass in central Utah. Family member Jerry Fisher, who wrote The Pacesetter biography of Carl, will sign books afterwards. The site of the monument is at a crest on UT route 199 between Clover and Terra, Utah.
Guiding force Rollin Southwell writes:
Its been a long haul and we have lost a few of our committee members that gave their time and first $1000.00 for this project. They are the late Thomas A See and the late Norma Berns. But with the help,support and donations we are ready. A great big thank you goes to Stephen Ehninger of EFT Architects, Jerry Timmins, Jack Mason, Kenn Gillette with UDOT-Region 2, American Road Magazine, National Lincoln Highway Assoc. and State Chapters.
Fisher Pass was part of a plan by the Lincoln Highway Association to shorten the route across the Great Salt Desert. Using what was then calledJohnson Pass and building a road across the great Salt Flat (Goodyear Cutoff) would shorten the distance between Salt Lake City, Ut and Ely, NV by some 50 miles. Though the Cutoff was never compleed, Fisher Pass was finished. The State of Utah received Fisher money with interest, but the agreement was never completed as it was to include a monument to Fisher. The RG Southwell Foundation has led the charge in recent years to finally complete the task. Learn more at fisherpass.com/.
The Chambersburg Public Opinion reports that Pennnsylvania’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor appears to be one of the casualties of Pennsylvania’s budget battle.
Funding for the historical organization currently isn’t on any recent version of the Commonwealth’s budget, according to Kristin Poerschke, office manager for the Heritage Corridor in Ligioner. Should the organization not be funded with state dollars it would leave them looking at fundraising as its primary source of income potentially.
The Heritage Corridor was started in April 1995 and is one of 12 special “Heritage Areas” in the state devoted to promoting Pennsylvania’s Heritage. The corridor is composed of about 200 miles of U.S. 30, starting in Adams County and traveling west to Westmoreland County….
In previous years, Heritage Areas were funded through the state, with $1.95 million being divided among the dozen organizations. Should the budget pass without funding for the Heritage Areas, the Heritage Corridor will find itself in unfamiliar territory….
The organization will look to raise funding by holding events rather than soliciting donations, she said. The corridor will host an “An Affair with Lincoln” in Ligonier in December that will include arts, crafts, music and an Abraham Lincoln impersonator.
Visit the heritage corridor HQ at 215 East Main St, Ligonier, PA, or go to www.lhhc.org/.
Tomorrow, September 26, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, will hold its 4th annual Lincoln Highway Festival from 9-4. The Mt. Vernon-Lisbon Sun reports that more than 30 artists will display their works on First Street. Note on the screen shot below that the newspaper also has an opinion poll about a U.S. Route 30 bypass.
What sets this festival apart is the quality of the work, said Katrina Garner, a member of the Mount Vernon Area Arts Council, which sponsors the event….
A special part of the event this year is a silent auction organized by the Mount Vernon Masonic Lodge and the arts council to benefit Galen Lacey, who has been involved with the event in the past and faced a heart transplant this past year (see story on this page)….
While most of the festival action is in the booths on First Street, art by Hugh Lifson, Benesh and Garner will also be displayed at Tatyana’s Kitchen at 224 First St. W. The three artists, along with artist Sue Coleman, get together every so often to do plein air painting, Garner noted.
Cornell College students will also be involved in the event and will be selling a calendar that features their works.
Tony Plaut, a Cornell art professor, will exhibit his interactive sculpture, “The Typer Piper.” It uses organ flutes, an old manual typewriter, a bike pump and a car tire so users may create their own musical scores.
Festival favorite Paul Imholte, known as the Stringman, will be returning. He’ll stroll the festival playing everything from guitar to banjo to dulcimer.
The Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition’s first Interpretive Gazebo was dedicated on Sunday, September 20, in Creston, Illinois. Diane Rossiter, director of the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, says 15 more gazebos are being constructed across the state in the Illinois Lincoln Highway Corridor: “With the approval of an FHWA Implementation Grant and a Transportation Enhancement Grant, the gazebos are being developed in cooperation with the City of Dixon, Wendler Engineering of Dixon, Horizon Displays of DeKalb, Sebastian Construction of Brookfield and – last, but not least – with the continued support of our community partners.”
The project is expected to be completed by the end of October, perfect time to take a cruise through Illinois. For more information, visit www.drivelincolnhighway.com/.
An avalanche of work has made me fall way behind posting updates, but here’s something you’ll enjoy on YouTube – a clip of “Fording the Lincoln Highway,” the silent film made by Ford Motor Company about the 10-millionth Model T’s promotional tour from New York to San Francisco on the Lincoln Highway in 1924:
Colo, Iowa, city clerk Scott Berka wrote to say the Colo Development Group has decided to close the much-loved Niland’s Cafe. Friday was its last day open.
Berka wrote, “We will still rent the motel rooms through the development group office (641) 377-2238. We are studying possible alternative uses for the cafe. One suggestion has been to make it available for meetings and special events. We would also be receptive to the right party leasing the facility and keeping it as a cafe.”
When United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001, it radically changed the small town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Today, access roads to the temporary memorial branch off from the Lincoln Highway, not too far west of where the Ship Hotel stood, which itself burned a month later. Families of the 40 passengers and crew who perished there on 9/11 have been traveling west by motorcycle for the past two weeks, often on the Lincoln Highway, to complete the trip their loved ones were making to California. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Their trip is the same, from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco International Airport, and it will end this morning shortly after 11 a.m. – when Flight 93 was to have landed. The only difference: Joey traveled by plane and his family will arrive astride rumbling Harley-Davidsons….
After they get to the airport, the riders will go to the Dudley Perkins Harley-Davidson dealership in South San Francisco. This afternoon, they will ride to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, where a concrete pillar marks the end of the Lincoln Highway, the transcontinental road that passes near the site in Shanksville….
The end of a long road, the end of a long trip.
Above image from http://www.sfgate.com/. Read more aof the article HERE.
Walking Across America is “supporting education with a virtual walk from San Francisco to New York City” by following the Lincoln Highway. Check out the blog at lincolnhighway.wordpress.com starting with today’s “departure” from the Western Terminus marker.
The blogger, Kyla, is a copy editor from California’s Central Valley:
For a few months, I’ve been watching several of my friends and co-workers go out into the world, making a difference and having adventures at the same time. I’d love to join them, but at the moment I can’t afford any adventures. So I decided to make my own!
I’ve always wanted to walk across the United States, and with the Lincoln Highway going from San Francisco through my hometown, Galt, all the way to New York City, that seemed like the perfect route to start with. I’m not really going to be able to walk it, but I thought a “virtual” road trip would be almost as fun and just as educational!
What I’m going to do:
1. Walk at least seven miles a week (that’s a mile a day) and hopefully more (and maybe get a little fitter in the process).
2. Write a little about each “stop” on the highway as I reach it, and, if I can find people to help me out with this step, post photos.
3. Raise money to help kids in low-income schools learn about American history, geography and literature.
If you live along the route and want to send one or two photos of your town or the highway itself, I’d love to post them here (with credit, of course!). Just send them to kyla(dot)cathey(at)gmail.com.
And if you can find it in your heart to donate a few dollars to help buy books and supplies for low-income schools, I’ve started a challenge on DonorsChoose.org/.
The Alice09 Yahoo group has 20 new photos from the centennial re-enactment of Alice Ramsey’s pioneering drive across the U.S. Visit groups.yahoo.com to sign up. There were at least two such trips this summer; this one found Dorothy Grace and Dana McNair driving much of the Lincoln Highway in commemoration of Alice Ramsey’s 1909 trip, Dorothy in a 1915 Model T and Dana driving a 1909 Cadillac.
Dorothy just posted the photos in the “July 3-6” album, such as these below: Ruth, Nevada, and the California state line.
Learn more at aliceramsey-theroadtrip.blogspot.com/ where you can also read all about their daily adventures on the road.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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