Here’s an educational film (well, somewhat) from perhaps the late 1940s showing the impact and follies of early autos. The short film begins and ends with old-car fans driving early autos in period dress along US 50 (often the same as the Lincoln Highway) and US 395 in Nevada. Much of the rest shows early clips of how they could be a challenge to operate. The disruption they brought to city streets is quite a contrast to today’s “good ol days” view — though it is comical to watch a crowd of kids chase one of the newfangled contraptions.
Archive for the ‘transportation’ Category
Early Autos film, sometimes comic, inc/ US 50 NV
February 13, 2008Sacramento PBS to run LH segment – Wed 7pm
February 12, 2008Sacramento’s KVIE-TV/channel 6 (PBS) occasionally runs a show called “Street Signs” that explores the history behind local street names. This week’s episode will include a segment on the Lincoln Highway. In the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto area it will be broadcast on channel 6 at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, February 13. It may show in other areas too – check local listings.
California LHA director Bob Dieterich says, “Norm Root and myself were interviewed and I spent two days with the producer and a cameraman filming sights along the highway in the Sacramento, Auburn, Davis, and Galt areas. If one watches closely they may see a glimpse of the map from the top of your blog.”
The above photo (courtesy of KVIE-TV) shows Bob on a short segment of the Lincoln hidden in bushes beside Taylor Road/US 40 in Penryn between Sacramento and Auburn.
Film – Recreating Alice Ramsey's 1909 drive
February 2, 2008Summer 2009 will be the centennial of the first woman to drive across America, Alice Ramsey. In honor of that groundbreaking event, Emily Anderson and a co-pilot will leave New York City on June 9, 2009, for San Francisco. They’ll follow the same route over 41 days in the same type car as Alice used (a 1909 Maxwell, restored by Emily’s dad), with celebrations along the way. Here’s a 4-minute trailer about the next Alice’s Drive.
2008 LHA conference info online at two sites
January 31, 2008Fans of historic roads will want to attend the 2008 Lincoln Highway Association conference in Evanston, Wyoming, this June. Conference coordinator Shelly Horne has begun posting info at www.lincolnhighwayconference2008.com about the area and what attendees will see. He will add more in the coming weeks.
Conference registration and art show information can be found at:
www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/conference/2008
Here is the basic information:
Lincoln Highway Association 16th Annual Conference
“Rails, Trails, and Highway Tales”
Best Western Dunmar Inn, 1601 Harrison Drive, Evanston, WY
Tuesday, June 17 — Welcome Dinner buffet
Wednesday, June 18 — West Tour to Echo Canyon
Thursday, June 19 — Seminars; Awards Banquet
Friday, June 20 — East Tour to Ft. Bridger and Granger; BBQ dinner in tent
Saturday, June 21 — Mountain Man Breakfast at roundhouse, rides on UPRR turntable; annual business meeting
South Bend touts improvements to Lincoln Way
January 30, 2008A press release from South Bend, Indiana, describes the city’s participation in Commercial Corridor Façade Improvement and Residential Enhancement matching grant programs, which aim to enhance neighborhoods and business districts through joint public and private investment. A portion of the Lincoln Highway there is benefitting from these efforts.
Gene’s Camera Store on Lincoln Way West is seen as a shining example of the commercial corridor improvements. From a press release:
Owned and operated by Mr. Jack St. Pierre since 1981, Gene’s Camera Store has recently undergone façade improvements with the help of a grant from the City’s Commercial Corridor Façade Improvement Matching Grant Program. Mr. St. Pierre made visual improvements to the west wall of his business and constructed a new parking lot in the vacant space next to the store. The parking lot, complete with lighting and landscaping, allows customers to park safely next to the store and enter through the new west door. The improvements were made possible by a City grant of $20,000, which Mr. St. Pierre matched with a private investment of $42,605.
The Lincoln Way West Steering Committee and its subcommittees (Land Use, Marketing and Safety) were formed in 1999 as part of Mayor Stephen J. Luecke’s Commercial Corridor Initiative; a Neighbors subcommittee was formed in 2003.
“In the last year, on Lincoln Way West alone, eight businesses were able to enhance the facades of their stores,” said Mayor Luecke. “Through the cooperation of local business leaders and the City of South Bend, over $140,000 was invested in this commercial corridor on which we stand. Helping these small businesses to revitalize the arteries of South Bend is imperative to the future success of our city.”
LH Around Chicago book due in March ’08
January 29, 2008The Lincoln Highway Around Chicago by Cynthia L. Ogorek will be published this March 17 as part of Arcadia Books’ Images of America series. The 128-page paperback book will have more than 200 illustrations from Geneva, Illinois, south and eastward to just over the Indiana line at Schererville so that the famous Ideal Section could be included. Early history is augmented by preservation efforts of today.
Price is $19.95 or pre-order from Amazon for $13.59 by clicking here
Updates to Libraries & Museums along the Lincoln
January 27, 2008
I’ve added more sites to the Lincoln Highway Libraries & Museums page; see the link to the right. There are many local and state libraries and museums along the route, such as the Utah Historical Society (click their photo to go to the web site). Since 1980, it has been located in Salt Lake City’s former Rio Grande railroad depot. (The LHA held a reception there during its 1998 conference.) The elaborate station was completed in 1910 at a cost of $750,000 and sold to the city in 1977 for $1, which says a lot about how transportation changed in the intervening 6 decades. The restored depot is 3 blocks south of South Temple St and 4-1/2 blocks west of Main St.
"Motoring" explores Lincoln, other highways
January 24, 2008Our friends John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle have a new book due out any day, Motoring: The Highway Experience in America. It focuses on recreational travel between 1900 and 1960 by examining various aspects of the built environment and how they’ve shape our view of the “open road.” The 288-page, 75-photo publication from University of Georgia Press follows in the steps of 5 similar collaborations from the authors.
Those other books from Jakle and Sculle have likewise covered topics such as motels, fast food, and gas stations but individually. This book looks at those topics plus roadside tourist attractions, freeways and toll roads, truck stops, bus travel, and convenience stores. Sculle told me, “There are 12 chapters in all, several on the highway system’s formation but also chapters on trucking, auto dealerships & garages….” They’ve been working on this book for 3 years, though of course that’s on top of decades of related research.
Another friend and road scholar, Arthur Krim (author of Route 66: Iconography of the American Highway), describes it as “a bit of business history, a pinch of psychology, a dose of technology, and a full account of the architectural forms that created the current freeway suburbia.”
As for the Lincoln Highway, Sculle says it’s in there:
Nothing new factually but it’s placed into the context of the developing highway system when it was built. Then, in concluding remarks, it is referenced regarding the way some people like to relive the past by driving on the old, surviving parts of the Lincoln Highway.
It’s a book about the Road as Americans consume it. It has links to many things written before but less on the people who started and ran the businesses than how Americans thought of their experience, hence, the subtitle: The Highway Experience in America. The chapter on the Tourist’s Roadside helps put things in perspective.
Motoring retails for $34.95 or get it from Amazon for $23.07 by clicking here
California LHA gives sign honoring Nut Tree
January 23, 2008During the California Chapter LHA meeting on January 12 at the new Nut Tree complex on I-80 in Vacaville, Fentons Creamery restaurant was presented with a Historic Lincoln Highway sign by chapter president Norm Root. It will be displayed along with artifacts and photos from one of the best-known attractions in California, The Nut Tree.
Above: Jim Braden, general manager of Fentons Creamery, receives a complimentary Historic LH sign from LHA CA chapter president Norm Root. Photo by Gary Kinst
Fentons traces back to 1894, and has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area at 4226 Piedmont Avenue since 1961. This second location opened here in 2007; it resembles a 1940s ice cream parlor with marble counters and tables, retro booths, and Art Deco lighting.
The Nut Tree was founded in 1921 as a fruit stand under the shade of a walnut tree and grew into a complex of restaurants, gift shops, entertainments, a railroad, and even an airplane runway.
Since The Nut Tree closed in 1996, locals have missed it, so redevelopment plans include nods to the attraction. At the free Nut Tree Family Park, the original Nut Tree train winds through the landscape and past the Harvest Express roller coaster, the I-80 Traffic Jammers bumper cars, California Carousel, and other custom kid rides. Click on the map below to download a large PDF version.
The childhood home of The Nut Tree founder, Harbison House, built 1906-07, has been moved 1,000 feet south to the 3.7 acre family park behind the retail complex. It is being preserved by the Vacaville Museum and will include memorabilia showing the history of the Nut Tree and California. The development also includes lodging, resdiences, offices, and even the Nut Tree Bocce Grove, a two-acre park patterned after the grand public gardens of Europe containing 8 international regulation bocce courts. Visit the Vacaville CVB for more about the Nut Tree development.
Another LHA sign dedication is planned for sometime in the next month at the Summit Garage in Altamont.
Art, photo show to debut at LHA's 08 conference
January 22, 2008The 2008 Lincoln Highway Association conference in Evanston, Wyoming, June 17-21, 2008, will feature a new attraction: the Lincoln Highway Art & Photo Show.
Coordinator Kell Brigan, who is also Secretary/Treasurer of LHA’s California Chapter, says “This exhibition is a chance for artists to share their work with conference-goers who also understand the highway’s appeal, and to meet other Lincoln Highway artists and photographers as well.” Below is a plein air watercolor by Brigan herself showing the Lincoln Highway at Adams & Porter roads in Dixon, California, and the town’s water tower.
Brigan recalls,
While I was working on the painting (about 10:00 AM on a Sunday in the parking lot of a shop that specializes in maintaining & repairing livestock trucks), a fellow came out of a nearby house (next to a great old building from the ’20s), and said, “OK, I give up. Why, of all things, are you painting the Dixon water tower?!” I explained about painting spots along the highway in California. Turns out his mom, who came by later with the family dog, had helped run one of the “Lincoln Highway Garages” on the same spot in the ’30s.
Visit http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/conference/2008/art_show.shtml for more information and an application, which is due by April 10, 2008. Note that this inaugural show is only an exhibition: no judging or prizes.
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