Posts Tagged ‘auto history’

Ligonier talk, signing, & drive-ins: Sat, June 27

June 26, 2009

On June 27th, your blogger here, Brian Butko, will present a program on the Lincoln Highway at Ligonier Valley Library, Ligonier, PA, which is also hosting a drive-in theater exhibit. The program starts at 11 am followed by discussion and a book signing that benefits the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. Below is the Van-Del Drive-in, along the LH between Van Wert and Delphos, Ohio.

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The library is on the Ligonier “diamond,” or square, at 120 W. Main Street / the Lincoln Highway. After the presentation I’ll be signing my latest book, Lincoln Highway Companion.

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The book signing complements the exhibit, Movies, Motors, & Memories: Pennsylvania’s Drive-In Theaters, which includes photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia. Above is exhibit curator Jennifer Sopko at the drive-in I grew up attending, the former Woodland Drive-In, West Mifflin, PA.

Some of the items include a huge c. 1950 carbon-arc projector, speakers, signs, photographs, artwork, and notebooks containing copies of drive-in ads and memorabilia. Visitors can see the display in the Pennsylvania Room Mondays through Thursdays from 10 am-8:30 pm, and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am-5 pm through July 7, 2009. For more information log onto the Ligonier Valley Library’s website at http://www.ligonierlibrary.org/.

Updates on the 2 Alice Ramsey trip retracings

June 25, 2009

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:

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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:

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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.

Indiana Lincoln Highway book cover ready

November 24, 2008

The cover to The Lincoln Highway across Indiana has been released, showing a classic view of one of the Lincoln Highway’s cast-iron state line markers—this one at the Illinois border. The book was written by Jan Shupert Arick for the state’s LHA chapter. It will retail for $21.99 when published in Spring 2009.

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L Hwy Garage in Valpo "most modern" in 1934

May 15, 2008

LHA president Jan Shupert-Arick sent along a note that her friend Terry Goldsworthy found an interesting article on newspaperachive.com. The story called the Lincoln Highway Garage in Valparaiso, Indiana, the most modern station in 1934 by Motor Service, a monthly industry journal. (The news story itself is from an issue of the Vidette Messenger of Valparaiso.) Why? “It was realized that the automotive service of the future would not go to the screw driver and pliers mechanics, but would go to the shops where equipment for repairing the car was used as systrematicallyt as machinery is used where cars are built.” The article then lists all the modern marvels of the garage. Click the image below to see a larger scan of the article:

Carl Fisher grave site to be on LHA 09 tour

March 25, 2008

LHA president Jan Shupert-Arick sent along this photo of Crown Hill Cemetery, the final resting place of Lincoln Highway founder Carl Fisher. It’s on West 38th Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dedicated June 1, 1864, Crown Hill’s 555 acres makes it the third largest non-government cemetery in the country. It will be a tour stop during the LHA’s 2009 conference, headquartered in South Bend.

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Fisher is listed on their Noted Persons page, though there’s no mention of the Lincoln or Dixie highways that he conceived and nurtured:

Carl Fisher, 1874-1934, Section 13, Lot 42.
Co-Founder of Indianapolis Motor Speedway; developer of Miami Beach, Florida.

Also in the overall list is his infant son by wife Jane.

Another auto-related burial is Edward “Cannonball” Baker, winner of the first race at the Speedway and a racer in the first Indy 500.