UPDATE: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports the 30 signs will be placed along the route by mid-June. Clikc the image to read more and see a photo of the unveiling.
Lincoln Highway route markers will be dedicated this morning in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at 11:30 a.m. Mayor Henry will dedicate the new markers at the Lincoln Highway Bridge — Harrison Street at the St. Mary’s River. The markers will allow motorists to follow the historic corridor through the city. Call (260) 427-1127 for details.
Click the map above to see it larger. Note that the exact original route can no longer be followed in parts, such as east of town near the cloverleaf.
Three Somerset County Technology Center students who designed and built a giant “Bicycle Built for Two” sculpture saw their creation installed on May 6, 2009, at the Second Time Around shop along the Lincoln Highway/US 30 near Jennerstown, Pennsylvania. The steel and iron sculpture — 17 feet high, 22 feet wide, and weighs 1,800 pounds — depicts a man and a woman on an antique bicycle. The project took eight months, including the design time. It is the second of five pieces of art to be installed as part of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor’s “Roadside Giants of the Lincoln Highway” project.
The [Somerset] Daily American writes that The Sprout Fund of the Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections initiative paid for the project.
“I love art and education,” said Olga Herbert, executive director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. “The Roadside Giants of the Lincoln Highway project combined the two and involved the community.” Highland Tank and Manufacturing Co. assembled the sculpture and transported it to the site. Weyand Sign Co. installed it.
The sculpture sits on land belonging to Georgia and Vic Sheftic at the Second Time Around shop just west of the intersection of Route 219, near the shop’s beloved praying mantis — a giant itself!
The Roadside Giants were envisioned by Olga Herbert, executive director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. The sculptures were developed to draw attention to the historic roadway and provide a learning experience for high school students.
Set to be installed within a month is an oversized quarter with George Washington’s profile near the Down River Golf course east of Everett, a replica of a 1921 apple truck in Franklin County, and a Packard car in central Westmoreland County. A 1940s gas pump was installed in April in Ligonier Township.
I managed to catch pink eye – ouch – so can’t type much but thought Lincoln Highway fans might be interested in seeing how ABC News weekend anchors are traveling Route 66 west (unexplainedly skipping Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas). Kate Snow and her sister drive the first two segments in a 1958 Ford Fairlane hardtop convertible (seen here at the former U-Drop Inn Cafe, Shamrock, Texas). Read the story HERE.
NOTE: ABC has disabled embedding. Below is the first segment from another source.
Here are the ABC links, including the second video: ONE and TWO.
The final two segments will feature the two male anchors heading further west.
Photographers Eric Mencher and his wife Kass have been photographing the Lincoln Highway since 1997. Eric is staff photographer at The Philadelphia Inquirer. They began with Pennsylvania and last year completed the entire length from coast to coast. They’ve just begun another two-week trip that will take them from Wyoming into Utah and Nevada.
You can follow their adventures at lincolnhighwayseen.blogspot.com which Eric will update every day or so. The first entry doesn’t have much yet, only four images shot from their room at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Last year he posted a handful of photos from their trip through Wyoming and Nebraska. You can find them, along with other photos mixed in, at: thisurbanlife.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html/.
An article in the Quad City Times reports that a Lincoln Highway marker was unearthed during sewer work in DeWitt, Iowa. It is one of a couple thousand concrete posts planted in 1928 with help from the Boy Scouts that marked the route, but most have gone missing.
I checked with Van Becker, LH expert in Iowa, who told me that Iowa LHA state director Jeff LaFollette was contacted by Matt Proctor, DeWitt Director of Public Works. Proctor provided the above photo of the marker after a power wash. Matt wrote, “It was knocked over in the 300 block of 11th Street (old Rt 30, north side). Before I could get there, the contractor and inspector pulled the [brass Lincoln head] off. I raced there and saved the concrete marker. I am going to get it cleaned up.” From the article:
City Administrator Steve Lindner said the city plans to have the marker restored and placed along 11th Street, the Lincoln Highway route through DeWitt…. The marker was sitting on a hand truck in the middle of the City Council chambers during Monday night’s regular meeting.
Van Becker adds:
Once it is restored and placed I will get a photo and GPS location. With this addition, I now have documented the existence and location of 94 (YES, 94) known 1928 LH markers in Iowa. This is a Left Turn marker [and] there was only one marker placed on 11th Street, and, it was a Left Turn marker. Probably safe to say it is number 972. Old number 972 was originally placed “100 yds E of 5th Ave. & 11th St” in DeWitt as instructed by Gael Hoag, Field Secretary of the Lincoln Highway Assn.
The post numbering was devised by the LHA’s Russell Rein, who transcribed Hoag’s log. Contrary to popular belief, there were not 3,400 concrete posts at about one per mile; Russ counted just 2,436 posts. There were also some 4,000 signs for city streets, which rarely are mentioned (though Russ and his marker counts are in my Greetings from the Lincoln Highway book).
Over the weekend I added a wonderful image to my Ship Hotel book – a photo taken from the mountainside looking down on the Grand View Point Hotel, about 1930 just before it was remade into the Ship. In the distance, along the Lincoln Highway / US 30 is a billboard — this is about 17 miles east of Bedford, Pennsylvania. It’s pretty small in the photo but I was wondering what it said so I enlarged it – what do you think? I’ll post it regular and darkened.
LHA director Mindy Crawford alerts us that the concrete Lincoln Highway marker at Ogontz and E. Market Street in York, Pennsylvania, was hit by a car on February 23. “One of our members has been trying to track down where it went. The only information he could get was from the police and the water company who both said it was laying there when they left! It is, of course, gone now.”
If you have any information, please contact Mindy, who is also Executive Director Preservation Pennsylvania, at mcrawford@preservationpa.org or (717) 880-6275. Also keep watch at regional antique shops and on eBay. The posts, which have a directional arrow on the side, weere planted in 1928 to mark and commemorate the Lincoln Highway.
California LHA newsletter editor Gary Kinst writes with an intriguing story and photo. “Wondering how many Lincoln Highway collectors have come across one of these signs? I would guess that there weren’t more than 13 at anyone time. I discovered this sign at a Gas Bash (petroleum collectors swap meet) in Escalon, California. After returning home I searched the internet for Lincoln Highway State Consul signs and came upon the exact same sign that had been sold at auction in Las Vegas last month.”
The original Lincoln Highway Association used a system of consuls to monitor the road for improvements, problems, etc., at state, county, and local levels. Tell us if you know more about these signs and if you’ve ever seen one.
New York City will erect a temporary marker today denoting the Lincoln Highway’s Eastern Terminus at Times Square in commemoration of Lincoln’s Birthday. The New York Daily News reports:
This morning, City Hall will take the first step toward placing a marker bearing Lincoln’s name in Times Square. Why Times Square? Because 42nd St. and Broadway was the starting point for the first transcontential highway in the U.S., a route that bore the name of the 16th President. Conceived in 1913, the Lincoln Highway predated the Lincoln Memorial in honoring America’s foremost leader. It led drivers west to a Hudson River ferry to Weehawken and then clear across the country, to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. In much of the country, stretches of the Lincoln are revered as Americana. But the mile-long New York portion – the shortest but most-traveled stretch – has been all but forgotten. No more. The city today will erect a temporary “Lincoln Highway” sign as the start of the process for installing a formal testament to Lincoln and to the role Times Square played at the dawn of the automotive age. Well done.
NY LHA director Jerry Peppers said he was surprised to hear about it two days ago: “Although I supplied a form of marker and a form of plaque, I do not know what they intend to post. I am told that Mayor Bloomberg himself will be at the unveiling around 10 AM Thursday, depending on his schedule.” Below is Peppers in Times Square with his own very temporary LH marker.
A brief AP story published a couple hours after the event paraphrased an official: “New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (SAY’-dik-Kahn) said the historic route exemplifies a modern goal: finding innovative transportation solutions.”
Long-distance runner and Lincoln enthusiast Eric Ebinger will launch a run across Ohio on the 200th anniversary of President Lincoln’s birth on February 12. Appropriately, he’ll be following the Lincoln Highway for its 241 miles. Ebinger, of Norwalk, will start at the Indiana state line near Van Wert, and follow the route completed in 1928 for five days. His wife Misty, who grew up in Orrville, is coordinating. “My wife and I are looking forward to meeting the people along this wonderful scenic highway, and perhaps drawing attention to a man whose wisdom and grace guided our nation through its most turbulent period.”
Ebinger will travel sixty miles each of the first two days, completing half the run in two of the five days. “From Van Wert to Mansfield is nice and flat,” Ebinger said, “which should make for comfortable running. That allows three days for the second half, which is filled with hills.” Ebinger has received numerous emails through his website, www.thelincolnrun.com, from runners across the state who plan on joining him for different parts of the run.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
Like this blog? You'll LOVE my books!Lincoln Highway Companion features detailed maps and places to eat and stay. Click the book to buy it on Amazon.
Click the Greetings book below to purchase the ultimate guide to the history and route of the Lincoln Highway!
Another fun book! The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway recalls the greatest roadside attraction along the coast-to-coast road.
And for those who LOVE diners, click the book below to purchase our completely updated guide to the history, geography, and food of Pennsylvania's Diners!
The [Somerset] 
Lincoln Highway News 