LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A Des Moines, Iowa, TV station picked up on the story of the 1959 film showing US 30 in Iowa. WHO-TV channel 13 filed a report centered on the complex of gas, food, and lodging at Niland’s Corner in Colo, Iowa, which is seen in a screen shot in my report of the film. Scott Berka, Colo City Clerk, who is instrumental in keeping the buildings going, is briefly interviewed at the Colo Motel, a Lincoln Highway classic!
View the video HERE. Note it starts with a brief advertisement.
YOU WILL LOVE this video of central Iowa’s US 30, filmed in 1959 to show congestion and the need for road improvements. Highway Relocations was created by the Iowa State Highway Commission (ISHC), now IDOT, to show the downside of gas stations, rest stops, and the skinny two-lanes they populate. Filming started just east of State Center at the junction of Iowa 64 (now Iowa 330) and US 30 (the Lincoln Highway) and continued west along US 30 through State Center, Colo, Nevada, and Ames, ending just west of Boone. The film is 16 minutes long and covers 55 miles. {Note: Please read the comments for more info on the cars and the year it was filmed.]
Amazingly, most of it was filmed by a camerman perched atop a ladder connected to a car and extending approximately 22 feet in the air above the roadway! The camera, on a 1958 Ford Ranch Wagon, followed and filmed a 1958 Plymouth Fury. “The unidentified cameraman had the precarious task of trying to hold the camera steady and stay on the ladder, notably without a safety harness or other protective device.”
“As part of the Iowa DOT’s effort to preserve and archive its historical resources, the original Highway Relocations 16mm film was recently professionally cleaned and restored to its original film quality.”
A historical marker for the Lincoln & Dixie highways will be dedicated on Saturday, October 2, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. EDT at the southwest corner of Washington and Michigan streets in South Bend, Indiana. All are invited to join a reception and program immediately following at the American Trust Place – Blue Gallery, 101 N. Michigan St. The marker notes the significance of the Lincoln Highway (Washington St.) and Dixie Highway (Michigan St.) intersecting at this corner.
Please RSVP to Joyce Chambers (574) 272-5374 by September 27. Parking is available on the street or behind the American Trust Place. Enter through Woodward Court on Colfax Street between Michigan and Main Streets
This marker is made possible through the Indiana Historical Bureau in collaboration with the GFWC/IFC Progress Club of South Bend, Indiana Lincoln Highway Association, and the City of South Bend.
PBS producer Rick Sebak passes on a reminder of a one-a year opportunity September 15-18, 2010. From a release: “Call it a hunch, but you’ve long suspected that when it’s really on the line, you could race a motorized bar stool across some salt flats faster than anyone. And soon, you’ll have your chance to prove it. Once a year, the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association puts on a crazy drag race between old VW vans, go-karts and, if you insist, regular old race cars.” Read more online at the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association and check out photos of past events.
“Traveling the Lincoln Highway” will be presented tonight at the Plainfield Public Library by Dave Clark, known to Route 66 fans for his Windy City tours and books. “Travel back in time as you take a virtual tour of the first automobile trail marked from coast-to-coast. The story of the Lincoln Highway combines nostalgia and history highlighting modern sites in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.” A display on the Lincoln Highway is set upon on the library’s main floor. The library is at 15025 S. Illinois St. Plainfield, (815) 436-6639 or www.plainfield.lib.il.us/.
Al Pfingstl sent an update on the Edison Tower in Edison, New Jersey, the site of the inventor’s Menlo Park laboratory. It’s part of the 36-acre Edison State Park, which is also being rejuvenated to include a newly constructed museum (replacing a tiny one from 1947) and outdoor interpretive exhibits.
The building contractor has begun interior demolition. The old baseboard electrical heaters, some of which were almost falling off the wall, are being replaced. The original 1940s Men’s and Ladies’ rooms, neither of which met modern requirements for handicapped accessibility, are being gutted. By redesigning the restroom entrance location, architect Alice Deupree with the Jersey City firm of LWDMR & Associates PC, has combined the two original restrooms into one accessible unisex restroom. The existing floor is being removed for replacement with new flooring material.
However, an even newer update on the web site notes the uncovering of asbestos.
Built in 1937, the Edison Tower now suffers from crumbling concrete and was named by Preservation New Jersey as one of New Jersey’s Ten Most Endangered historic resources. Since 2006, over $3 million has been raised towards the Tower restoration and a new museum. One side of the park fronts the Lincoln Highway/NJ 27 but the tower and museum are accessed via Christie Street. Learn more about them at www.menloparkmuseum.org (source of the image below).
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor is sponsoring a one-day bus trip along the Lincoln Highway from Greensburg to Everett, Pa., (and back) on Monday, October 11, 2010. The “ultimate road trip” will be guided by Lou DeRose, the ultimate Lincoln Highway fan, and Olga Herbert, the Executive Director of the LHHC. Both know this route inside and out and will share little-known facts about this country’s first coast-to-coast route.
In addition to photo ops at four Roadside Giants and four Lincoln Highway murals, bus guests will be treated to a lunch buffet at the Omni Bedford Springs Resort followed by a private tour. The day begins with a private guided tour of the historic Compass Inn in Laughlintown led by Innkeeper Jim Koontz.
After lunch they’ll head to Everett for a photo op of another Roadside Giant followed by visits to Bedford’s art deco Dunkle’s Gulf Station and the 1927 Coffee Pot. Dinner is at the historic Jean Bonnet Tavern with time to browse the Cabin Gift Shoppe.
Departure is from either Greensburg’s Hempfield Square or Latrobe 30 Shopping Plaza.
Make your reservation TODAY at www.LHHC.org where you can pay online or call (724) 238-9030. The travel package ($115 per person) includes the guided tours of Compass Inn and Bedford Springs, lunch at Bedford Springs, dinner at Jean Bonnet Tavern, and a photo memento. Sorry, no refunds.
A 2-day Lincoln Highway course is being offered in this fall by the Continuing Education division at HACC-Gettysburg Campus.
“Lincoln Highway: Past and Present” will run Wednesday, Sept. 28, 6-9 pm, and Saturday, Oct. 2, 8 am–6 pm. Cost is $65 and deadline to register is Sept. 22.
For 200 years, Americans had been fascinated by the thought of practical, coast-to-coast travel. The first successful attempt was the Lincoln Highway, a patchwork of trails, roads, and main streets, which would have a dramatic impact on this country. Students will examine the history, development and decline of the highway and its impact on everyday life. The class includes a field trip along the Lincoln Highway as far east as Coatesville.
For more information, call the continuing education office at HACC-Gettysburg Campus at 717-338-1010 or visit www.hacc.edu/.
The Iowa Lincoln Highway Association’s Third Annual Motor Tour of the Lincoln Highway across Iowa is about to launch. This year’s tour is themed as “From the Wide River to the Loess Hills” because it begins with a pre-tour event on Thursday August 26 at the Wide River Winery in Clinton and concludes on Sunday August 29 at the Loess Hills Winery in Crescent, Iowa. The route travels nearly 330 miles across Iowa. If you’d like to see some of the antique cars participating, or meet some of the entrants, chec the schedule at lincolnhighwayassoc.org/iowa/tour/2010/itinerary.pdf/.
Van and Bev Becker alert us that the historic Grant Wood window damaged in the 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids has been restored and reinstalled along a route of the Lincoln Highway. It is in its original location in the Veterans Memorial Building and facing 2nd Avenue, which was the Lincoln Highway from 1916–1928. Restoration has taken two years and as Van says, it is a significant step in recovery from what is being called the 500-year flood. Attendees of the 2006 LHA conference in Cedar Rapids will recall the window. Wood, who lived in the city, is best known for his painting American Gothic.
Eeastern Iowa News (source of the image above) reported that “200 people gathered on the Second Avenue Bridge to welcome back the famous window at the Veterans Memorial Building. The window, dulled by the years and further damaged in the June 2008 flood, was rededicated with Fourth of July speeches that celebrated patriotism and service .”
John Watts, co-owner of the Glass Heritage company in Davenport that spent the past year restoring the 24-by-20-foot window, said… ‘It is the first and only Grant Wood stained glass window. Everyone kept that in the back of their minds while working on it.’ Watts’ workers cleaned each of the window’s 8,000-plus pieces, painstakingly restoring color where needed. Cracks were soldered or glued and then reassembled in 58 panels.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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