You can follow along with the two teams of women who are retracing the path of pioneer motorist Alice Ramsey. Both are mostly taking the Lincoln Highway across the Midwest.
The better-known trip, by Emily Anderson, can be followed in photos on Flickr. Here’s a sample photo from Snook’s Dream Cars and Auto Museum, Bowling Green, Ohio:
You also can follow their blog at aliceramsey.org; here’s a portion of the most recent update:
Greetings from Ogllala, NE! We made it here yesterday at around 4pm. Unfortunately, our 200 mile day in the Maxwell (Babbs) was cut short because the dreaded noise returned. The day started out so well — the Maxwell, the Spyker and the Rambler were rolling down the road at 8am. Our first rolling stop was over the original Lincoln Highway bricks in Shelton, NE that we learned about in South Bend, IN. We were excited to see Bob and Lennie [Stubblefield] again (3rd time! South Bend, IN Grand Island, NE & Shelton, NE). This time Lennie ran out to the car to hand us some SUPER cold water! Thank you both for all of your hospitality and energy! It really keeps us going!
Unfortunately the car broke down again at the end of yesterday:
How many times can we put a patch on the same problem? What are we missing? Where is the closest specialty shop? Are we driving tomorrow? ………………………
You can also join this Alice Ramsey Yahoo group about women who are driving pre-1916 cars this summer for the commemoration, notably Dana McNair and Dorothy Grace. It also has many interesting photos such as this before they departed Vassar College, and the next one in DeKalb, Illinois:
Here’s their latest post, documenting from Kearney to Ogallala, Nebraska:
We started out (after tent camping in the thunderstorms) at the AAA office for some more maps. When Dana & I returned to the parking lot, a woman said, “I’ve aged well – I’m Alice Ramsey.” Alice White Ramsey was at AAA because she & her husband are heading to Alaska shortly. She had seen a newspaper article about the trip. When I looked toward the Model T – there were blue T shirts everywhere – Central Elementary kids had swarmed Dan, and were excited to honk the horn. Candi, one adult with them, had said they recently went to the Hastings Museum and were curious about the cars there. The kids moved on to the Cadillac horn, then the dogs.
The women’s club building and the canal were cool in Kearney.
In Lexington NE, we visited with Rick from the Early Cadillac Website – from Dana’s posts re: a hubcap for the 1909 — the saran wrap/ziplock is still working. He inherited a 1906 Cadillac project when his stepfather died. He also has few of his own cars in his building.
Things were going well in North Platte, so we headed on to Ogallala. We are in the next time zone now.
Mosquitos were bad — right next to South Platte River, but a swimming pool at the hotel.
PBS producer Rick Sebak received the first Gregory M. Franzwa award that recognizes the individual or group who does the most for the Lincoln Highway Association. Franzwa was a founder, past president, and long-time journal editor of the association.
Sebak’s 2008 program, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway, greatly increased membership and interest in the road. Mindy Crawford sent the photo above showing Sebak with LHA secretary Sue Jacobson and president Bob Dieterich. Here’s a teaser to Sebak’s PBS program:
The 2009 Lincoln Highway conference was a lot of fun — so much so that I couldn’t keep up with this blog! Tuesday evening found us at dinner with special guest Emily Anderson, who along with copilot Christie Catania is retracing Alice Ramsey’s pioneering 1909 trip. That’s them below along with dad Richard Anderson, who built the car from parts.
But that’s not the only Alice Ramsey trip re-creation!
Dana McNair alerted me that she and Dorothy Grace are also driving much of the Lincoln Highway in commemoration of Alice Ramsey’s 1909 trip. Dorothy is driving a 1913 Model T and Dana is driving a 1909 Cadillac.
We stopped for the best chocolate cake in the world at Niland’s Cafe in Colo, Iowa, and got to put our cars in the gas station for photos. We stood at the confluence of the Jefferson and Lincoln highways. How cool is that!
Friday morning found them eating breakfast in Missouri Valley, Iowa, when they saw Emily drive by! You can follow their journey at aliceramsey-theroadtrip.blogspot.com/.
UPDATE
Dana just sent this update from Nebraska:
We are so enjoying this trip. We are definitely driving without fanfare. We are just having fun, stopping to visit folks who have been kind enough to offer us lodging or a visit. Camping or fixing cars along the way, sometimes under trees by the side of the road, sometimes in truck stops, it all depends on the autos and whether they are having a good day or not. We have met some great folks, and as it is so low key it is very intimate. We have a lot of new friends in cafes and truck stops.
Sometimes is does get a little discouraging to be confused with the Emily Anderson trip and we do hate to disappoint people but what we are doing does count in it’s own way and the purpose has always been just to drive the drive and have fun together. So, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your writing back to us, truly it makes us feel good about our trip that at least someone is keeping track of us besides our mothers.
I spent Monday driving across Ohio and Indiana, heading to the annual Lincoln Highway Assn. conference in South Bend. I followed many old stretches of the LH and took many photos — so many that the 6 hour trip took me 14 hours. my camera is overloaded, its batteries are dead, and my head is kinda hurting but it was a great time, I got great photos, and met some very nice people. Here are some photos from the trip.
LHA director Jerry Peppers was at the launch on Tuesday of the 100th Anniversary Commemorative ride of Alice Huyler Ramsey’s historic 1909 cross country drive. He writes:
The team got underway at approximately 9:00 am in front of 1930 Broadway (67th Street across from Lincoln Center and about 1-1/4 mile north of the Eastern Terminus in Times Square). Unfortunately a thunderstorm had just passed through and it was still raining.
I did get to talk to Emily Anderson, the driver, and Christie Catanie, the navigator, and they are of course excited about their trip. They are looking forward to being at the LHA annual conference in South Bend next week. Even the gloomy day and the thought of driving an open car (the canvas top was put up but there are no side windows so the vehicle is essentially open), and the reporters and cameras in their faces did not seem to dampen their spirits.
The first photo shows Emily at the wheel (note the right hand drive) and Christie in the passenger seat as the car was pulling away from the curb. The second shows Emily being interviewed with her mother in the foreground (holding flowers).
The 1909 Maxwell is magnificently restored. When they stepped to the front to hand crank it to get it started and the engine sputtered to life, it was amazing even though it ran with so much valve clatter it sounded like some of the diesel trucks going by it on Broadway!
Below is a photo from their trip eastward to NYC. LHA president Bob Dieterich snapped Kathy Franzwa in the restored Maxwell in front of her house in Tooele, Utah. Her late husband Gregory Franzwa ublished the book Alice’s Drive, which reprints her tale of the trip plus he added his modern-day sleuthing of her route.
Alice Ramsey’s story was once well-known: on June 9, 1909, she and three female companions set off from NYC in a new, dark green Maxwell DA. She reached the Pacific 59 days later, becoming the first woman to drive coast-to-coast.
Alice’s Drive: Republishing Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron
by Alice Ramsey, Annotation and “Chasing Alice” by Gregory M. Franzwa
Patrice Press, 265 pp, 161 illustrations, 108 notes, index, softcover
ISBN 1-880397-56-0
$19.95 plus $4.95 s/h direct from Franzwa’s Patrice Press.
TheCanton Repository reports that a classic 9-unit motel along the Lincoln Highway in eastern Ohio is for sale. Fans will recognize it as being at the eastern end of the famous brick stretch of Baywood Street.
Palmantier’s Motel, opened 1947, was purchased four years ago by Scott Segeti, “lured to these parts by the beauty of nearby farm fields, grazing cattle, grassy meadows, chirping birds, fresh air and an opportunity to be his own boss.” Now Segeti is trying to sell the motel, swimming pool, two houses, and 3.25 acres for $425,000.
“I thought it was a gift from God,” he said.
He bought it on land contract from longtime owner Carolyn Koontz in 2005. He immediately digitized the motel’s old phone system. He hard-wired room fire alarms. He touched up units here and there. He moved into one four-bedroom house on the land and rented out the other.
Four years later, Segeti isn’t sure he can make it work.
The bad economy has squeezed the motel. Even for $50 a night, sometimes not a single room is rented. Its airy one- and two-bed country decor units remain empty. Most guests these days are building contractors who follow jobs into the area, stay for a few weeks and move on….
“It would be the ideal business for a retired couple,” Segeti said. “This place still has the ambiance of the 1950s. From a time when the whole world moved at a much slower pace.”
A DVD written and produced with the Indiana State curriculum for 3th and 4th grades features the Lincoln Highway. “The Lincoln Highway Story” was produced by Ed Chamberlin and narrated by Bruce Chamberlin with guest appearances by Dr. Patrick Furlong, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, South Bend, IN and Jan Shupert-Arick, author and past president of the Lincoln Highway Association.
The DVD chronicles the history of the Lincoln Highway. Chapters include: background about the Highway, Carl Fisher’s and Henry Joy’s influence in the development of the Highway, the Lincoln Highway Association and the part it played in promoting the Highway, route determination, the Ideal Section in Indiana, the success of the Highway and the rebirth of the Lincoln Highway Association. This DVD was produced by Chamberlin Video Productions, Mishawaka, IN.
Cost is $10 plus $2.95 for shipping and handling from the Hannah Lindahl Children’s Museum, 1402 S. Main St., Mishawaka, IN 46544, (574) 254-4540, http://www.hlcm.org/.
The Johstown Democratran a story about the recreation of the 1919 U.S. Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy being run by the Military Vehicles Preservation Association. The original trip covered 3,250 miles and took 62 days to complete. The 90th anniversary convoy departs Washington D.C., on Saturday, June 13, and will arrive in San Francisco 26 days later on July 8. Here are some of planned stops on Sunday, June 14:
Drive through McConnellsburg 8:30 am.
Old Bedford Village about 11 am – 2 pm.
Parade through Everett, Bedford, and Schellsburg.
Onto Somerset County and Flight 93 National Memorial.
Stop in Stoystown about 4:30; Main Street will be closed and a brief ceremony is planned at the Hite House.
Arrive at Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg about 6 pm, where there will be a display depicting the historical significance of the 1919 convoy.
NOTE: times are subject to change — and like the original convoy, I think that celebrations and traffic will constantly put them behind schedule.
The centennial recreation of Alice Ramsey’s pioneering trip across the U.S. has already garnered coverage in the LA Times, NY Times, and PR Web. In 1909, Ramsey became the first woman to drive across the U.S., accompanied by three female companions and publicity people from her carmaker, Maxwell. Much of the trip followed what would become the Lincoln Highway four years later.
Emily Anderson (right) is recreating the cross-country trip in a 1909 Maxwell over the same route. Emily and her group leave New York City on Tuesday, June 9, for a five week journey to San Francisco. They launch from 1930 Broadway, near Lincoln Center, at 9 am. For those who wish to visit, they will bring the car over the Queensboro Bridge around 6:30 am and be on Broadway by 7:30. They will stop in Tarrytown, New York, for a quick photo op at the old Maxwell Briscoe Motor Co. plant where Maxwells were built for many years.
Emily will be joined by friend and navigator Christie Catanie of Colorado. Also traveling in separate vehicles will be her dad Richard Anderson, who built the Maxwell from pieces, and his wife Margaret. Also along will be chief mechanic Tim Simonswa and his wife Barb.
You can track the journey at www.aliceramsey.org and click on the map marked “Follow Along.” They hope to visit the LHA conference in South Bend, Indiana, on June 16.
My Lincoln Highway Companion book hit Amazon and bookstore shelves a couple weeks ago. It’s literally a companion to my Greetings … book but also, I hope, a companion to anyone thinking of traveling the road. Reaction has been overwhelmingly kind, like this from LHA president Bob Dieterich:
This book is fantastic! The color maps are clear and easy to read. The photos are excellent. And the contents are superb. The places described in this book are unique and fascinating.
A couple tiny errors have shown up, one being the location of Stosh’s Barber Shop – the description correctly places it in Batavia, Illinois. So why in the photo caption did I write Rochelle?! Don’t know but if we produce a revised or updated edition, I’m ready.
Route 66 News also gave LHC a positive review — read it HERE. Ron Warnick kindly writes that it “truly shines with descriptions of choice motels and restaurants by Butko and a slew of contributors.”
He notes that some locales just don’t have people able to review motels or restaurants, most glaringly in Reno and Sparks, Nevada. This was surprising to me too but shows how the Lincoln Highway is still in the early stages of providing for modern tourists. Route 66 handles this with a volunteer program, Adopt a Hundred, that monitors places for inclusion in the Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide.
For those considering buying it, Lincoln HIghway Companion does include both state maps plus regional maps that cover every mile of the road at 1″ to every seven miles. There are also selected city maps at 1″ = 1 mile.
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 centennial recreation of Alice Ramsey’s pioneering trip across the U.S. has already garnered coverage in the 
My Lincoln Highway Companion book hit 
Lincoln Highway News 