The front of this postcard says it all – Red Top Diner and Shell Station, Highways 24 & 30 East — City Limits, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Three train tracks can be seen behind, and the diner looks to be a converted railcar. The automobile is a mid-’30s coupe. Can’t imagine this part of the Lincoln Highway being quite so rural now. Could that be Maumee Avenue right behind the station, and E Washington Blvd in the foreground? The setting looks right and a couple business as seen in this Google aerial view at bottom center and right seem to fit the layout
Anyone know more about Red Top? The picture was taken some 70 years ago, so it’s critical to ask those who might remember before all traces and memories of such places disappear forever.
As I prepare to hand to my publisher the images for my next book, Lincoln Highway Companion, I’m left with hundreds that just don’t fit. They’re fine photos, but I have a page count that I can’t exceed and it’s already filled. So here’s the first of the runner-ups.
I’ve photographed this neon sign for at least 15 years. It’s in West Virgina very close to the Pennsylvania border. The sign and entrance face the parking lot – in the rear of the nightclub! The Lincoln Highway opened here in 1928 – I’ve always wondered if it originally came down this side and was later moved to the front side of the building to make the road straighter.
In this other angle I posted on Flickr, you can see that under the Carriage Club neon is lettering for what must be an earlier name, the Half Moon Club. Any West Virginians know more about the club or the road here?
“You ever wake up sometimes maybe around 3 o’clock in the morning, you look up at the ceiling, the blackness – you feel that terrible urge to see it all, to get on the road. To smell the pine trees, watch all the rivers, see all the skies, climb all the hills….”
Jean Shepherd was a humorist known to millions through books, radio, and live shows, but is best known to modern audiences for co-writing and narrating (as grown-up Ralphie) the 1983 film A Christmas Story. He also had a very popular TV show: Jean Shepherd’s America, produced by WGBH (PBS) Boston, aired 13 shows in 1971 and 13 in 1985. (They’re available on DVD, or learn more here.) This clip, from the last show of the 1971 season, is the final segment and end credits. Jean and his crew are snowbound in Wyoming at Holding’s Little America motel and truck stop, along the Lincoln Highway and I-80. During the 4-minute video, he talks, in his measured prose, about life on the road, and the American urge to keep moving.
More than 50 officials, friends, and members of the Wiggin Family and Lincoln Highway Association braved chilly temperatures to dedicate a marker that honors both the Lincoln Highway and Wiggin’s Trading Post that opened there in 1924. The ceremony was held Saturday, December 8, 2007, at 15600 S. Harlan Road in Lathrop, California.
Above: At the Lathrop marker dedication, from left to right: Bob Dieterich, James Lin, Gary Kinst, Paul Gilger, Norm Root. Lloyd Johnson, Mike Kaelin, and Carolyn Lignos. The plaques read: (top) Lathrop Sunrise Rotary; (middle) America’s First Coast to Coast Road Established 1913; (bottom) 1924-1967 Site of Original Wiggin’s Trading Post Serving Travelers Along The Lincoln Highway.
Francis Wiggin’s Granddaughters, Janet and Patti, presented photos to master of ceremonies John Serpa (SEE BELOW), a member of LHA and the Lathrop Sunrise Rotary Club. Marine Corps League Detachment #109 from Modesto presented the colors, and Boy Scout Troup #425 from Lathrop led the singing of the National Anthem and the unveiling of the monument.
A Marine Corps League Certificate of Appreciation for Loyalty and Patriotism was presented by John Treantos, Commandant of #109, to Mr. Dalwinder Dhoot for flying the American flag continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 14 years at Joe’s Travel Plaza. Dhoot and family own the new Best Western Hotel at the site, and graciously allowed the Rotary to erect the marker. Mr. Dhoot then invited all guests to join the grand opening festivities for the 3-floor, 81-room hotel and provided complimentary food and beverages.Speakers included:Kristy Sayles, Mayor of Lathrop.Norm Root, President, California Chapter of the LHA (SEE BELOW).
Thanks also go to:Gabe Young, cement and engraving of stone monument.Brian Green, Signarama of Tracy.Stephen Dresser, President, Lathrop Sunrise Rotary.Dolores Delgado, Chief of Police, City of Lathrop.Charles Edwards, Boy Scout Troup #425 Leader.Richard Wiggins, Grandson of Francis Wiggins.Mary Kennedy, President, Lathrop Chamber of Commerce.And I again thank Gary Kinst for helping with info and images for this report.
A marker was dedicated Saturday, December 8, along South Harlan Road at Thomsen Street in Lathrop, California, to commemorate the Lincoln Highway and a family business that once occupied the corner. Francis Wiggin opened Wiggin’s Trading Post along the Lincoln Highway south of Stockton in 1924. He carried Gilmore Gasoline, then in 1932, began selling “Indian Head” Gasoline, which he had patented. He also sold Indian souvenirs, learned from his days working with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.
Francis Wiggin’s son Francis Porter Wiggin II and his wife Ruth had seven children: Frank, Paul (b. 1934), Richard (b. 1936), Tom (b. 1940), Janet (b. 1946), Don, and Patti (b. 1955). Above, Wiggin’s grandchildren Janet and Tom ride a play horse/burro in 1949. Near the pumps might be one of their brothers.
Son Francis II joined the business around 1936, and Francis Sr. passed away in 1950. The Trading Post closed in 1967, but grandson Richard operates (but has it for sale) Wiggin’s Trading Post in Chilcoot, California at 94139 Highway 70. Another Wiggin’s Trading Post is said to be in Arizona but the location and owner are not known.
The Lincoln Highway went south from Stockton through Lathrop on what is now Harlan Road on its way to Tracy. I-5 now closely parallels the old road. Information about the ceremony will follow in a separate post. Thanks to Gary Kinst for helping with info and the image.
The Lincoln Highway often followed the course of the Transcontinental Railroad out west, mostly in spirit but sometimes atop it. When the railroad was built through Weber Canyon in eastern Utah in 1868-69, workers planted a “1,000 mile tree” to mark the point 1,000 miles west of their starting point of Omaha, Nebraska. I see references occasionally to the tree, and have noticed a couple stereoview cards online. A few photos were taken too, such as this one as the rails are laid in 1869 from the U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library:
Check out the sign hanging from it!
The Lincoln Highway cut through the canyon some 45 years later, as did I-84 probably 60 years after that. I don’t remember seeing the tree or signs for it, but it is said to still be in Wilhelmina Pass, a mile east of Devils’ Slide. Click on the thumbnail below for a recent view from I-80 (and once there, click the magnifying glass to see the phhoto much larger):
That looks to be the pine tree on the right, next to the white square, which is probably a sign. Surely the tree has been written about by Utah historians or by railroad fans. Can anyone tell us more about it?
This 1940s postcard advertised Wood’s Motel & Cafe – “ultra modern and steam heat” – on US 30 South in East Evanston, Wyoming. Has any part survived to visit during the 2008 LHA conference this June?
Here’s a fun video of downtown DeKalb, Illinois, assembled from thousands of still images, which are themselves a bit distorted in day-glo colors. The view races up and down Lincoln Highway at a stop-action 180 mph to the tune of “High Way” by guitar legend Link Wray (sounding like a faster version of his big hit, Rumble). It’s a jumble of imagery, but anyone familiar with DeKalb will recognize many landmarks – even if seen only for a second.
The Hammer Motel on the Lincoln Highway in Kearney, Nebraska, was famous for its sign topped by a giant hammer and three supporting poles made to look like big nails. Named for the Hammer family, it served travelers for decades before being demolished in 1995 for parking.
Piecing together the story from various sources, John and Nina Hammer were married in 1935, then moved from Omaha to Kearney in 1938. John served in WWII and in 1947 they built the motel along Watson Blvd/24th St/US 30 West. A 1952 listing in the city’s Polk’s Directory also lists Fred and Belle Hammer as owners. Signs show it was a Best Western member, and matchbooks advertise that it was part of the Friendship Inn chain.
The family sold the motel in 1962 and it closed in 1987. The adjacent University of Nebraska at Kearney then acquired it for student housing known as Hammer Hall or Hammer Apartments or just “The Hammer.” School literature described it as “a unique living opportunity for the approximately 50 upperclass residents of this remodeled hotel facility. Each convenience-style apartment has a private entrance, living room and bathroom. A variety of room sizes, laundry and kitchen facilities, front desk services, and ‘front-door’ parking are some of the significant advantages of the facility.” But in 1995, it was razed to create additional campus parking – see blue box below for what I believe is the site.
A 2003 newsletter article explained that the Hammers were longtime supporters of the university, and that a $27,000 gift from son Fred E. Hammer to the University of Nebraska Foundation would landscape the lot. His donation also provided for “benches, tables and columns reminiscent of the columns that marked the entrance to the old Hammer Motel” to make the parking lot “a place for students to gather.” There was also to be a plaque mounted on one of the columns commemorating the motel as a historic Kearney site. “The parking lot will still be functional,” Hammer said, “but now it will be pretty as well.”
Nothing remains of the motel except the basic shape of the site, some postcards, and the parking area now known as Lot 27.
The Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources has produced 20 short educational videos on the Lincoln Highway and posted them on veoh. Each one, typically a half-minute long, looks at a theme by using some facts or stories. The videos mostly use pans of still photos, many from the LHA archives. Click here for the series to start—once you do, they play consecutively, or see them all in outline form here. Here’s a screen capture of the Intro video (with a picture of the LHA’s Henry Joy and Austin Bement stuck in Nebraska):
Unless I’ve missed more of the content, there is no accompanying material on veoh or on the state website to tell how best to use these or what materials were referenced, leaving a gap if they’re for education, and leaving helpful resources uncredited. For example, quotes from Thornton Round about the Rock Springs camp and the sounds while camping at night are likely culled from Gregory Franzwa’s Wyoming book. Or in discussing Navigation, they quote from what is said to be an LHA road guide, but the distinctive “Turn left around the shearing pens” material is actually from a 1913 Packard guide to the road, which is quoted in my Greetings from the Lincoln Highway book.
Here are the episodes:
1) A Brief Introduction – :37
2) What Started It – :38
3) Henry B. Joy – :16
4) The Virginian – :15
5) US Army Convoy – 1:34
6) Rock Springs – 1:07
7) Laramie – :13
8) Road Hazards – :40
9) Plains Hotel – :15
10) Mechanics – :34
11) Wyoming – :42 (though the quote is about western Nebraska)
12) Crash – :29
13) Camp – :16
14) Railroad – :45
15) Church Buttes – :24
16) Navigation – :58
17) Evanston – :23
18) Fences – :50
19) Camping – :17
20) Flat Tire – :19
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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