Archive for the ‘Lincoln Highway’ Category
January 14, 2010
Various local editions of Suburban Chicago News are telling of work today about noon to mount a new Lincoln Highway mural in Aurora, Illinois. The 200-square-foot mural, spearheaded by the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, depicts the city nearly a century ago, when the Lincoln Highway was the premier transcontinental trail.
Coalition Associate Director Diane Rossiter explains, “Each mural is painted on what’s called di-bond – a vinyl clad aluminum product — so if a building is remodeled or torn down, we could take it down without losing it.” The mural is on the north wall of the La Quinta de Los Reyes restaurant, 50 N. Broadway. Click HERE to see the image below larger.
The project has been in the works for years, according to Sue Vos, head of the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau…. Each mural costs roughly $10,000, but the cities and towns receiving them are asked to contribute very little, Vos said. Aurora was responsible for finding a building owner willing to host the mural and for installing the brackets to hang it. The image of a streetscape lit by electric street lamps was chosen by Vos, her staff and the Aurora Historical Society.
Aurora was the first community in Illinois to install electric streetlights in the early days of last century, which led to its official nickname: the City of Lights.
Visit drivelincolnhighway.com for more information on the Lincoln Highway Coalition and the murals.
NOTE: A nice UPDATE ran the day after.
Tags:Aurora IL, highway history, historic highway, Illinois history, Lincoln Highway, mural dedication, Road trip, travel, two-lane roads
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, signs, transportation | 1 Comment »
January 12, 2010
Dave Chase posted a short story about the Lincoln Highway through Mt. Vernon, Iowa, on his blog 42N, which details life around the 42N latitude. His photo shows the Union Pacific tracks on the west end of town that are crossed by a bridge that carries the Lincoln Highway.
Dave took his photo from the original 1915 LH bridge. He has a link to bridgehunter.com that features images of that arched span, including the photo below by our friend J.R. Manning (you may have seen him on the road in his yellow Model A). His 2007 view is looking north from a preserved brick stretch to the rehabbed bridge, now for pedestrians only.
Tags:1915, brick roadway, historic highways, Iowa, Lincoln Highwawy, Mt. Vernon IA, old roads, restored bridge
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
January 8, 2010
Much of the country is suffering from cold and snow, which means much of the Lincoln Highway is impassable. An Iowa TV station reports, “Deputies had to shut down part of old Lincoln Highway for a short time between Ames and Nevada.” A road worker added, “The road’s plugged up!” And once the road is cleared, it covers over right away so some trucks are not even attempting the job for safety.
My web site has selected weather updates along the Lincoln Highway at www.brianbutko.com/lh.gr.weather.html/. As you can see, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa are below zero in addition to being snowed in.
Tags:2-lane travel, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, snow storm, snowy 2-lane travel, travel, winter driving
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January 7, 2010
The 2010 Illinois Lincoln Highway Visitor Guide from the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition is now available around the state or by mail. New features include a page about the completed interpretive gazebo project, a half page for the current interpretive mural project, and an easier-to-use map of the highway with icons for gazebos, murals and exhibits. Another change moved accommodation listings from each community to their own section.
Fill out the form here to get yours: www.drivelincolnhighway.com/visitorsguide.html or view and download a complete copy at www.drivelincolnhighway.com/LH2010guide.pdf/.
Tags:free guide, historic highway, Illinois, Lincoln Highway, road trip ideas, travel, vacation, visitors guide
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, Road trip, travel | 1 Comment »
January 6, 2010
Updating yesterday’s story on Brian Cassler’s efforts to deliver bricks to Nebraska, dad Jim sent this photo and info on where they came from:
The bricks were uncovered in the summer of 2007 when Tuscarawas Street (the Lincoln Hwy through downtown Canton, Ohio) was unearthed as a part of a street renovation project. Former LHA president Bob Lichty asked the city to save them to be used for a future project. When the Archway requested bricks, we were able to fill their request.
The bricks will be used for a recreated stretch of the transcontinental road at the Great Platte River Road Archway that spans I-80 near Kearney in central Nebraska. Cleaning the bricks and arranging their transport was an Eagle Scout project for Brian Cassler. Jim operates the Lincoln Highway Trading Post.
Tags:archway museum, highway history, history, I-80, Lincoln Highway, Nebraska, Ohio, preservation, roadway reproduction, transporting bricks
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, museum, Road trip, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
January 5, 2010
An Eagle Scout project for Brian Cassler will be a gift for Lincoln Highway fans forever. The Kearney Hub reports that Cassler’s efforts will result in a recreated stretch of the transcontinental road at the Great Platte River Road Archway that spans I-80 in central Nebraska. The Kearney paper has 25 photos online, as seen in the screen capture below.
“The original paving bricks are getting pretty rare,” said Ronnie O’Brien, director of education/operations at the archway. “We were going to contract with a brick company to recreate a piece of the Lincoln Highway.” Instead, workers in Canton, Ohio, a city of 78,000, found original bricks in 2008 while reconstructing city streets. Brian Cassler of Canton took on a project of cleaning, organizing and palletizing the [2,200] bricks from the famous highway.
Cassler, along with trucker Tim Wunsch of Fort Morgan, Colo., delivered the load of pavers to the archway Sunday. “The city of Canton donated the bricks to the archway to be used in the display,” O’Brien said. “The bricks had been under other construction, and they were dirty and in a huge pile. They needed to be cleaned up and scraped before they could be hauled here.” Cassler, who took on the project as part of his Eagle Scout requirements, spent several months preparing the bricks. Cassler’s father runs the Lincoln Highway Trading Post in Canton.
Check out highway merchandise at the Lincoln Highway Trading Post online store.
The Omaha World-Herald also ran a feature story about the project.
Tags:archway museum, brick pavers, Canton OH, Eagle Scout project, historic highway, historic preservation, I-80, Kearney NE, Lincoln Highway, preserving brick roadway
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, museum, Road trip, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
January 4, 2010
An article at Inside SU, a news site for Syracuse University, relates the long and interesting story of a statue along the Lincoln Highway. That rendering of Abraham Lincoln along JFK Boulevard in Jersey City was created in 1930 by well-known sculptor James Earl Fraser; his “End of the Trail” portraying an exhausted Indian on a horse was at the time adjacent to the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway in San Francisco.
Lincoln statue photo by Kyle Weaver, from Lincoln Highway Companion.
The article also tells the tale of an identical bronze Lincoln in the courtyard outside Maxwell Hall at Syracuse and how the duplicate came to be.
Tags:Abraham Lincoln, End of the Trail, James Earl Fraser, Jersey City, Lincoln Highway, Lincoln statue, NJ, sculpture, statuary
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, roadside, transportation | Leave a Comment »
January 3, 2010
Van & Bev Becker wrote to say that Belle Plaine, Iowa, hopes to encourage tourism by promoting the Lincoln Highway and its importance to the town. Artists have been commissioned to paint historic scenes on local structures. The Beckers sent the photo below of a mural on the outside of the history museum at the corner of 12th St. & 9th Ave.
A word about the dates 1913 through 1937 that were used in the caption at the bottom of the mural. The 1913 date is of course of the beginning of the Lincoln Highway; however, the 1937 date includes the early years when the Lincoln Highway was designated as US 30. Early highway planners routed travelers miles to the south into the city of Belle Plaine to avoid the steep and muddy “Bohemie Alps.” By the late ’30s, highway building techniques, including cut and fill, allowed the then-Highway 30 to run straight west through the extremely hilly region east of Tama, resulting in Belle Plaine being bypassed. This new route straight through the Bohemie Alps is the road you will drive today if you follow Highway 30 between Cedar Rapids and Tama.
So the mural portrays the 1913 route through the terrain it was, in reality, avoiding.
Tags:antique auto, Belle Plaine IA, highway history mural, Iowa, Lincoln Highway, mural, road history, US 30
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December 30, 2009
The WCF Courier of Eastern Iowa ran a lengthy feature about the impact of a coming US 30 bypass around Tama and Toledo, Iowa. Parts of the current road bypassed the original Lincoln Highway long ago, and even this 4-lane has been under consideration for decades. The 7.5-mile project is set to open next year.
Here are excerpts:
The $24 million expansion is expected to draw manufacturing and other industries that need access to a major highway. Unfortunately, some are concerned traffic-dependent businesses, including restaurants and hotels, could see a drop in customers….
The highway has been important to Tama and Toledo over time. Tama was home to the Lincoln Highway at the turn of the century. When most of the road was rebranded U.S. 30, the thoroughfare maintained its relevance.
Big T’s Maid Rite has been a longtime institution at the intersection of U.S. highways 30 and 63 in Toledo. Cars come and go as travelers stop for coffee and pie. Others want the “mo” – a Maid Rite with onions and mustard.
Manager Brad Crawford expects business to drop off after four-lane opens. There’s less impetus to pull off the highway and grab a bite to eat when cars are travelling at 65 mph, he said.
“Any business is going to be affected by that,” Crawford said. The main hope for businesses, like Big T’s, is that the brand is strong enough to keep people coming back.
Tags:highway bypass, historic highway, Iowa, Lincoln Highway, Maid Rite restaurant, old road being improved, Tama Iowa
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
December 21, 2009
Kristin Poerschke of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor sent some photos of the Mountain View Inn east of Greensburg. The property was bought recently and much of the historic hotel was demolished for a planned shopping plaza. Kristin’s picture might look like the same building as in this vintage postcard but it’s not; the original section was razed and only sections built in the past decade were retained.
Tags:2-lane travel, Greensburg PA, Lincoln Highway, Mountain View Inn, old hotel demolition, Road trip
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 6 Comments »
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