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/.
Archive for the ‘Lincoln Highway’ Category
Lincoln Highway, vintage roads in 2011 atlas
May 12, 2010Lincoln Highway pics from a 1921 road trip
May 10, 2010Mike 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.
Preview next 4 Lincoln Highway murals in Illinois
May 7, 2010The 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.
Iowa's Lincoln Cafes go opposite ways
May 6, 2010Two 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.
Cassler's Lincoln Hwy bricks again make the news
May 3, 2010Here’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.”
Fort Bridger's Lincoln Highway bridge doomed
April 30, 2010The 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.
San Fran diner in family 73 years facing changes
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.
Pollardville roadside attraction demolished in CA
April 16, 2010A 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.
Ship Hotel / Lincoln Highway book reviewed
April 13, 2010Still trying to catch up, and here’s one exciting reason I’m behind — my new book on the Ship Hotel is out and I’ve arranged some signings. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just published a very nice feature review about the book and of the Ship itself.
Mural for Army's Transcontinental Motor Convoy
April 7, 2010Here’s a story from Sauk Valley Newspapers (Dixon-Sterling, IL), April 6, 2010:
DIXON – The City Council on Monday approved two lease agreements for painting a mural that will be at Galena and River roads. The mural, part of a series of Lincoln Highway Association projects, will re-create members of the first Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy lunching on the lawn of the Old Lee County Courthouse.
“That’s going to be a really nice mural,” Mayor Jim Burke said.
He appointed a three-person committee 6 months ago to work with the Lincoln Highway Association.
One lease agreement calls for the mural to be painted on the Pattie Hummel Photography and Dixon Tourism building at 106 W. River St. The other is for use of adjacent property on Galena Avenue during the mural’s painting.
“We want it up by the Fourth of July, and even June,” Burke said, adding that Lincoln Highway Association members will be in Dixon June 22-26 for their national conference.
In July 1919, the Army convoy made a historic cross-country trek from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. It stopped in Dixon for lunches made by residents, according to the Dixon Telegraph’s archives of July 22, 1919.
Lincoln Highway News 