The retracing of the 1919 military convoy route made headlines at it crossed the U.S. the past month. The tour commemorated the 90th anniversary of the first transcontinental U.S. Army motor transport convoy, most of it along the Lincoln Highway. Some of the participants also posted updates. Marilyn Boots reported on her travels with Dennis in “Jezebel,” a Vietnam-era jeep that he restored.
Dennis is a former Army captain who served with the combat engineers, with one tour of duty in Vietnam. Their blog is bootsadventure.blogspot.com/ (also the source for these photos). He was maintenance officer for the convoy so his Jeep brought up the rear of the convoy. Marilyn was “chase lead,” responsible for seeing that civilian vehicles carrying family members of convoy participants stay on schedule.
Here is a comment from June 16, just a couple days after the launch:
Wow! The journey had been incredible so far and extremely busy. I just thought I could blog every evening! We’ve start with breakfasts at 6:30 and have not reached our hotel rooms until after 10 each night. Today is our first rest day, so I want to share some highlights. We are so filled up with memories already that we could stop now and be content.
And the end:
WE MADE IT!!! We all arrived safe and with NO BREAKDOWNS about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Western Terminus of the Lincoln Highway on the edge of San Francisco, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Golden Gate Bridge to the east…. We have never been so grateful for police escorts! There were 32 motorcycle policemen helping us through the enormous amount of traffic over the Bay Bridge and through the hills of San Francisco…. Again, we were cheered on by waving crowds and lots of picture taking as we made the final climb to our destination.
The Mountain View Inn, a historic and beloved hotel located between the Lincoln Highway and Route 30 east of Greensburg, Pa., closed in January but now has a buyer and a potential sales agreement.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, First Commonwealth Bank, owner of the historic inn, is in preliminary talks with a private group that has shown interest but there’s no guarantee it would reopen as a hotel.
This occurred a day after the Westmoreland Cultural Trust outlined its own plan to buy the facility and lease it to area colleges to operate as a hotel and convention center.
The inn opened in 1924 and the Booher family bought it in 1940. Descendants Vance and Vicki Booher began experiencing financial problems in 2001 and closed it earlier this year.
After much back and forth debate, Stackpole Books has finalized the cover to my next book, The Ship Hotel: A Grand View Along the Lincoln Highway. It shows the Ship in the early 50s, when crowds were still coming despite the lure of the parallel Pa. Turnpike. I was hoping for more nautical touches but I’m thrilled they chose to feature this beautiful view from good friend Cy Hosmer.
The Grand View Ship Hotel was once the best-known attraction along the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway. It’s burning in 2001 broke hearts far and wide. Today all that remains are a few scattered scorched remnants below the 1920s wall (see my brief clip below). My book traces the history starting with a roadside stand that served early travelers stopping for the grand view. I got to design the inside, which will feature lots of cool photos printed large. Look for the book in Spring 2010!
An 82-year-old Ohio business will close at the end of summer. The Review of East Liverpool, Ohio, reports that Pearl China, located on Dresden Avenue, a bypass of the Lincoln Highway, is closing due to the owners’ retirement. The photo below shows its location along Dresden/old US 30, with 4-lane US 30 behind it — from the paper, by David M. Grimes.
After some 82 years of being part of the East Liverpool community … owners Patti and Terry Peterson of Calcutta will turn to the next chapter after their lives with the pottery and gift outlet store. Patti has been part of the store some 45 years when she began helping her mother in the early 60s while Terry will say goodbye some 35 years later when he first began his employment at the highway location. Pearl China Gifts is running a 15-percent off sale for the remaining selection of their inventory. The property is being advertised through Howard Hanna Real Estate Service and, according to their records, the nearly 10,000-foot building, with 2.8 acres of land is being sold for approximately $150,000.
A follow-up feature profiled Patti Peterson and her family’s involvement “with the ‘Pearl’ of the Lincoln Highway.”
Peterson’s bond with the store started with her father when he performed duties as a young boy in the early 1930s. Just several years after George and Dennis Singer opened up the pottery store, Peterson’s father, Shirl Vincent, would stop by the shop in the morning on his way to school, set up items, clean and sweep the rooms before continuing onto the schoolhouse.
In 1960, the last pottery production site of Pearl China was closed by Peterson’s father [Shirl] and the business switched to a retail outlet.
But in 1976, the Singer brothers retired and the young boy that once swept the floors became the official owner of the shop after he and his wife bought the store. They reached out to Peterson and her husband and once again the family was back together working under the roof of Pearl China….
In 1983, just seven years after purchasing the store, Peterson’s father unexpectantly passed away and her mother began to lose interest in the business. In 1986, Peterson and her husband bought the store and continued the establishment….
A small segment of Lincoln Highway on the northeast border of Philadelphia is due for change next summer; whether that will affect an 18th century stone arch bridge remains to be seen. Here’s a scene and a video walk along the road and bridge by Rick Sebak when filming his PBS special, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway.
Plans to fix up Benjamin Rush State Park, parallel to Roosevelt Boulevard/the Lincoln Highway, have languished for decades due to a city-state dispute about the improvements. But according to Philly.com, John W. Norbeck, director of the Bureau of State Parks, last week said he and City Councilman Brian O’Neill reached “an agreement in principle” during a June 30 meeting.
The parks director said last week that the state will proceed as planned to put out bids early next year and for work to commence by June 2010…. The design stipulates that Burling Avenue, a beat-up old city road that cuts through the park from Roosevelt Boulevard’s outer northbound lanes, will be removed and filled in along with another street [Byberry-Bensalem Road, aka the old Lincoln Highway] that can be seen only on maps.
Striking Burling Avenue and Byberry-Bensalem Road from the city’s street map had been a sticking point for years. O’Neill had maintained that city law bars building on a city street unless the street has been “vacated” by ordinance. Later, city zoning matters further complicated things….
When City Council reconvenes in the fall, the councilman said, he will introduce legislation that would erase the streets from city maps and also change the city’s passive recreation ordinance to accommodate the state’s plans for Rush.
The Bridger Valley Pioneerreported on last Wednesday’s dedication of the restored Black and Orange Cabins in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The motel along the Lincoln Highway dates to the 1930s. Many Lincoln Highway fans visited the unrestored cabins at the 2008 LHA Evanston conference. The cabins, with carports, were an extension of the Rocheford Hotel in an attempt to serve travelers who wanted less formal accommodations. The event coincided with the passing through of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association’s re-enactment of the 1919 military convoy.
Randy Wagner, who provided the photos above, wrote, “The ribbon-cutting coincided with the arrival of the Military Convoy and some 250 folks attended. The contractor told me he was able to use abour 90 percent of the original building material. The registration office is a complete reconstruction as it was destroyed by fire some 20 years ago. They are not available to rent although a couple have been furnished (bed, dresser, chair, stove and not much else) and are open for inspection. More will be furnished as period furniture becomes available. The state doesn’t want to compete with the two small motels that struggle to stay in business in Fort Bridger.”
LHA director for Wyoming Shelly Horne reports on the day that MVPA leader “Terry Shellswell had invited some of us to join the convoy in Green River. When we got there he offered Joe Cox (a local LHA member) a ride with a retired Air Force Colonel in his jeep (above) and invited me to ride with him in his jeep with he and his wife at the head of the column. He asked my wife, Deann, to lead a small column down the interstate that was not able to travel the old road. We followed the LH from Green River to Little America, then picked it up again in Granger to Fort Bridger with a rest stop at Church Butte.” He spoke briefly at the Blakc and Orange Cabins “before the ribbon cutting (which appropriately was a tree branch cutting). The convoy was fed Buffalo Burgers and we were gone again. We picked up the LH east of Eagle Rock a few miles. As we were heading up the grade past Eagle Rock, I looked back at the convoy. It was strung out for several miles and was quite a sight.”
Mount Vernon, Iowa, is hosting its first annual Lincoln Highway Open Air Antique Show on July 4, rain or shine. Antiques vendors will set up along Main Street, which is the Lincoln Highway through town. Antique shops, cafés, and other stores also will be open on July 4. Parking and admission are free. Call (319) 210-9935 for more information, or email Kristy SeBlonka at kristy@visitmvl.com/, or visit www.visitmvl.com/. Photo courtesy Rubicon Photo, map from the LHA’s DeLorme map pack.
LHA director Kay Shelton alerted us that, for the couple million people with Hotmail accounts, logging out takes them right to the http://www.msn.com Web site and a few weeks ago the site had a link: “Forget 66: A Better Cross-Country Route” with a short article on the Lincoln Highway. It’s still available HERE.
The story by award-winning author Earl Swift advises “Forget Route 66. This here is our Main Street.” And “With a couple of weeks free, you can still take this curvy, low-speed cruise from end to end and, in the process, gain an understanding of just how big and varied and spectacular this country is.”
Van Becker sent news that two Iowa locations celebrated “96 Years on the Lincoln Highway” on June 13-14 with two amateur radio stations operating for two days from two historic one-stop locations. Above is Bev Becker, WØWDC, LHA life member and experienced amateur radio operator taking her first turn at the mic; following is Van’s report.
The Benton County Amateur Radio Club, KØKBX, put the restored Youngville Cafe on the air operating with three transmitters on the 20, 40 and 80 meter ham bands. This is the second year for this crew and practice sure helped the results! We had 12 operators rotating through one-hour stints at the microphone.
ABOVE: Youngville Cafe, 20 miles west of Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the Lincoln Highway. Inside, an original 1928 LH marker is on display.
The Ames Amateur Radio Club, WØYL, operated from Reed-Nyland Corner in Colo, Iowa. This group experienced a slow start while installing temporary antennas in the rain. This was the first year for this group and they had respectable results and lots of fun. They also had the comfort of a fully-operating cafe for refreshments.
ABOVE: Reed-Nyland gas station, Colo, Iowa, on the Lincoln Highway.
Together, we contacted over 1,000 different stations from coast to coast, quite a few Canadian stations, and even one fellow in Scotland!
The operators had a sheet of “talking points” and LH facts to help enlighten the over-the-air listeners. All the stations contacted will receive an impressive color confirmation certificate upon receipt of their QSL (confirmation) card. Each certificate will be accompanied by a Lincoln Highway Association brochure too.
A dedication of the restored Black and Orange cabins and a reenactment of the 1919 U.S. Army Military Transport transcontinental convoy will be held at Fort Bridger State Historic Site, July 1 at 10 a.m. The cabins are along the Lincoln Highway in western Wyoming. Here are two views from Rick Sebak as the cabins looked last summer.
The Uinta County Heraldquoted Wyoming Lincoln Highway Director Shelly Home that the convoy will arrive in Evanston on July 1, following an overnight stay in Green River and a stop in Fort Bridger for the dedication of the restored Black and Orange Motor Cabins at 10 a.m. Because Uinta County has many miles of old, but drivable, Lincoln Highway, the convoy will follow dirt roads from Granger to Fort Bridger, and over Eagle Rock to Evanston. Admission to the fort will be waived for all attendees.
The recently restored cabins are along the east side of Fort Bridger State Historic Site. They served travelers from 1926 to 1936. Past LHA conferences have visited the decayed remnants.
Sponsored by the Military Vehicle Preservation Assn., the 1919 Military Transport Convoy reenactment celebrates the 90th anniversary of the event. The convoy will make a brief stop at Fort Bridger for the dedication before continuing on to Evanston. Fort Bridger is located at Exit 34 on I-80. Call (307) 782-3842 for more information.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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The recently restored cabins are along the east side of Fort Bridger State Historic Site. They served travelers from 1926 to 1936. Past LHA conferences have visited the decayed remnants.
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