Here’s a story from Sauk Valley Newspapers (Dixon-Sterling, IL), April 6, 2010:
DIXON – The City Council on Monday approved two lease agreements for painting a mural that will be at Galena and River roads. The mural, part of a series of Lincoln Highway Association projects, will re-create members of the first Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy lunching on the lawn of the Old Lee County Courthouse.
“That’s going to be a really nice mural,” Mayor Jim Burke said.
He appointed a three-person committee 6 months ago to work with the Lincoln Highway Association.
One lease agreement calls for the mural to be painted on the Pattie Hummel Photography and Dixon Tourism building at 106 W. River St. The other is for use of adjacent property on Galena Avenue during the mural’s painting.
“We want it up by the Fourth of July, and even June,” Burke said, adding that Lincoln Highway Association members will be in Dixon June 22-26 for their national conference.
In July 1919, the Army convoy made a historic cross-country trek from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. It stopped in Dixon for lunches made by residents, according to the Dixon Telegraph’s archives of July 22, 1919.
The Salt Lake Tribuneran a feature story (and the photo below) about the retirement of Jay Banta as manager of Fish Springs National Wilflife Refuge, an oasis along the Lincoln Highway in dusty central Utah. Banta, long-time LHA member and membership director, has managed the preserve for the past 19 years. He’s also become an authority on fabled rancher and auto-service provider John Thomas, who pulled motorists from quagmires a century ago.
Jay Banta, known for his long beard, strong opinions and passion for all things wild, is calling it a career this week, exactly to the day he came to the most remote national wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states as its manager. How far off the beaten track is Fish Springs? Consider that the only way to reach the refuge is on a dirt road along a path that once served as the route for the Pony Express, the first transcontinental telegraph and the Lincoln Highway. The dirt roads are so bad that Banta always purchased lifetime warranties on tires, shocks and mufflers.
After working at Fish Springs as a seasonal employee in 1981 and 1982, Banta dreamed of coming back to the 17,992-acre oasis in the desert. It was established as a refuge in 1959 to provide habitat for migrating and wintering birds. “I think some people are possessed by this place,” he said. “I was possessed.”…
Banta has built a new house in Torrey where he plans to retire. He has part-time work lined up, including working as a barista to support his coffee habit.
A family posted their home video of a road trip in Utah, crossing Fisher Pass on the Lincoln Highway while on their way to Simpson Spring. This was one of the shortcuts sanctioned by the LHA. They even stop briefly at the new monument to Carl Fisher. UPDATE: Sorry, the video has been tagged private.
With Spring weather arriving, don’t forget that the 2010 Lincoln Highway Driving Maps CDs are now available through the Lincoln Highway Trading Post.
LHA mapping committee director Paul Gilger notes that, although you can view the 2010 map files with earlier versions of DeLorme, it is best to view the new maps with the new 2010 DeLorme program, as DeLorme adjusted a significant number of new vector points. The 2010 CDs and DeLorme program are available through the LH Trading Post, and purchases in part support the LHA: http://www.lhtp.com/Store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=137
There are many improvements to the maps this year, including the three Chicago Feeder Routes. Paul says, “A big thank you goes to Jan Shupert-Arick and Fred Sachtleben who sent me a full-size scan of a wonderful 1921 Rand McNally Auto Trails Map of the entire Chicago area. The map has 34 auto trails mapped out, and has the LH routes clearly marked.”
Here’s a partial list of some of the map improvements and additions for 2010: New York: new Eastern Terminus sign at Times Square. New Jersey: confirmation of 49th Street from JFK East to JFK West. Pennsylvania: addition of all 70+ Pennsylvania Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor murals, exhibits and roadside giants sculptures. Washington DC Loop: possible alternate route through Bel Air now shown, Zero Milestone added in White House Ellipse. Ohio: adjustments made to 1918 alignments through Canton, Mansfield & Lima, new brick monument locations added. Indiana: adjustments of routes through Ft Wayne, Eastern Feeder Route to Chicago (from Dyer) added. Illinois: Southern Feeder Route to Chicago (from Chicago Heights), and Western Feeder Route to Chicago (from Geneva) added, Lincoln statue added at Chicago Heights. Nebraska: new LH historic marker locations added. Wyoming: Matthew Shepard memorial added at Laramie next to the LH, previously unknown 1913 alignment added east of Evanston. Utah: nine new map updates due to further research by Jess Petersen, new Fisher Pass Monument added. Nevada: alignment corrections made through Sparks and Reno. California: previously unknown 1913 alignment added near Auburn. U.S.: Locations of businesses and tourist spots featured in the PBS documentary A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway added.
Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition unveiled two more of the 40 Interpretive Murals being installed along the Illinois Lincoln Highway National Scenic Byway and its corridor. The two are in Cortland and Genoa, the latter never on the route but nonetheless being recognized as being within the highway’s corridor of influence. Both murals feature “The Good Roads Movement.”
The Cortland mural, at 55 West Lincoln Highway, showcases dirt and gravel roads evolving into concrete. The Genoa mural, at 232 West Main Street, depicts road dragging contests. According to ILHC:
After receiving a National Scenic Byway Grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and an Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Bureau of Tourism, Attraction Development (TAP) Grant, ILHC worked with our vendor, Jay Allen of ShawCraft Signs, to make this project come to life.
Each of the 40 communities is asked to designate representatives to work with ILHC on this project, as well as secure a building site for the mural, research stories and images linking their community to Lincoln Highway and agree to provide maintenance and preservation of the mural. Each mural is valued at $10,000. Upon completion of this project, a print piece will be created highlighting each interpretive mural and gazebo (16 of them from a recently completed project) with a map and small description of each.
You can view images of the progress HERE and HERE as slideshows or individually.
Author Lee Whiteley will present “Old Trails of Northern Colorado: From Foot Paths to Interstate” at 7 p.m. tonight, March 8, at the Loveland Museum/Gallery, 503 N. Lincoln Ave., Loveland, Colorado. The slide show, sponsored by the Loveland Historical Society, will revisit the Trappers’ Trail, Cherokee Trail, Overland Trail, several auto trails, and the Lincoln Highway’s controversial routing through the state. The program is open to the public; donations are accepted. Call Sharon Danhauer at (970) 290-0169 for details.
Whiteley and his wife Jane are experts on the auto trails through Colorado, including the Llncoln Highway; they wrote the book below to coincide with the LHA conference there in 2007.
About 200 people are expected to participate in the Lincoln Highway Bridge Festival 5K Run/Walk in Tama, Iowa, on Saturday, May 15, 2010. The run is part of the annual bridge festival May 13–15 that will include a carnival, ice cream social, street dance, pancake breakfast, and parade. The small concrete span that’s the focus of events is the most famous bridge along the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, with its side rails cast to spell out “Lincoln Highway.”
The run starts at 8 am. For more information, contact Amy Ridout at ridout@iowatelecom.net or (641) 484-3984. For more about the festival, visit www.tamatoledo.com/calendar.html/.
Gary Kinst will give a presentation tomorrow night about the Lincoln Highway, particularly the original 1913 route from Sacramento to San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America will be given Tuesday, Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m. at the Livermore Public Library in Livermore, CA. Borrowing its title from Drake Hokanson’s landmark book about the road, the talk will include both present-day and vintage photos. Kinst is the editor of the Lincoln Highway Association California Chapter’s newsletter The Traveler, and is a member of the Livermore Heritage Guild and Tracy Westside Pioneers.
Another treat is in store at the Livermore Library two weeks later when Bill Roe presents The Lincoln Highway by Bicycle on Feb. 23, 7:00p.m. In 1999, Roe took two months to bike the Linoln Highway, some 3,000 miles through 13 states. Bill will share his trials, tribulations and triumphs as he climbs the Sierras, battles the elements, and encounters locals along the way.
Livermore Public Library
1188 S. Livermore Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
(925) 373-5500
At Atomic Antiques, Mark Stevens posts “neat stuff from the 20th century.” He recently posted these two cool Lincoln Highway images. Visit his page (scrolling down a bit) to see the photos larger and read a bit about them. Feel free to comment too.
Before visiting his site, can you identify the location of the first and the purpose behind the second?
Various local editions of Suburban Chicago News are telling of work today about noon to mount a new Lincoln Highway mural in Aurora, Illinois. The 200-square-foot mural, spearheaded by the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, depicts the city nearly a century ago, when the Lincoln Highway was the premier transcontinental trail.
Coalition Associate Director Diane Rossiter explains, “Each mural is painted on what’s called di-bond – a vinyl clad aluminum product — so if a building is remodeled or torn down, we could take it down without losing it.” The mural is on the north wall of the La Quinta de Los Reyes restaurant, 50 N. Broadway. Click HERE to see the image below larger.
The project has been in the works for years, according to Sue Vos, head of the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau…. Each mural costs roughly $10,000, but the cities and towns receiving them are asked to contribute very little, Vos said. Aurora was responsible for finding a building owner willing to host the mural and for installing the brackets to hang it. The image of a streetscape lit by electric street lamps was chosen by Vos, her staff and the Aurora Historical Society.
Aurora was the first community in Illinois to install electric streetlights in the early days of last century, which led to its official nickname: the City of Lights.
Visit drivelincolnhighway.com for more information on the Lincoln Highway Coalition and the murals.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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