Posts Tagged ‘Lincoln Highway’
April 12, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
LHA director for Indiana Jeff Blair will be walking the Lincoln Highway across the state starting this Thursday, April 14. The walk will start at the Ohio border and for two weeks head west over the 170 miles to Illinois. He is asking for pledges of support or donations that will be split evenly between the Alzheimer’s Association in Indiana and the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association. Follow his blog at www.blairwalk.com or contact him at jeffblair87@gmail.com or (574) 453-3158.
Jeff says he’s looking forward to seeing some of the old buildings, businesses, and Midwest scenery along the original 1913 route and posting photos on his blog:
Also, I want to celebrate my 63rd birthday by walking the 170 mile distance over 2 weeks just to prove I still can. I have driven 2/3 of the coast-to-coast route over the past two years and only the Wyoming to San Francisco drive remains. About 3 years ago I also got interested in Alzheimer’s as my father in law (Leo Radkey) was deteriorating physically and mentally.
Join Jeff at a stop or walk along a while. Here’s a general schedule:
April 14 – OH/IN border to New Haven (11 miles)
April 15 – New Haven to Ft Wayne (11 miles)
April 16 – Ft Wayne to Churubusco (11 miles)
April 17 – Churubusco to Kimmel (15 miles)
April 18 – Kimmel to W. of Ligonier (13 miles)
April 19 – W. of Ligonier to Goshen (13 miles)
April 20 – Goshen to Mishawaka (17 miles)
April 21 – Mishawaka to South Bend (11 miles)
April 22 – South Bend to New Carlisle (11 miles)
April 23 – New Carlisle to La Porte (12 miles)
April 24 – La Porte to Westville (12 miles)
April 25 – Westville to Valparaiso (11 miles)
April 26 – Valparaiso to Schereville (13 miles)
April 27 – Schereville to IN/IL border (10 miles)
Tags:Alzheimer’s Association fund-raising, highway history, highway walking journey, historic highway, Illinois, Indiana, Lincoln Highway, Ohio
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | 2 Comments »
April 5, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Tom Neely, a songwriter and music teacher in the Lincoln Highway town of Dublin, California (just south of San Francisco) has been writing and performing music most of his life. After seeing Rick Sebak’s Lincoln Highway show on PBS, Tom was inspired to write a song about the joys of the open road: “it seemed like an easy metaphor for freedom. The lyrics, to be honest, wrote themselves.” Tom says he and his wife “plan to drive it with our kids some time. We love nothing more than throwing our kids in the back seat and following our noses.”
Listen to Tom’s bluesy tune “Endless Highway” or download an mp3 for free:
www.mp3unsigned.com/Tom_Neely#Endless+Highway
Tags:blues song, highway song, historic highway, Lincoln Highway, music, Road trip
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
March 22, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Plans are underway to create a ‘gateway park” in Plainfield, Illinois, at the crossroads of the Lincoln Highway and Route 66 — now US 30 and SR 159. The Plainfield Patch reports that “Michael Bortell told the Plainfield Village Board Monday that he plans to apply for a $5,000 matching grant from the National Park Service to fund a redevelopment study for the .925-acre site, which is one of the most historic in the village.” A gas station at the triangle-shaped property was removed last year when Illinois 59 was widened. The historically significant Corbin-Bingham-Worst house would become a visitors center with parking and park land. Another house and two garages would be demolished.
Bortell says the project:
would not only celebrate the only place in the country where two of the most famous cross-county roads intersect but would preserve the land on which the village’s first industrial business, the Dillman Foundry, was built in 1848.”
As for the house, it belonged to one of the first families to settle in Plainfield within the first 20 years of the town’s establishment and was home to Plainfield’s second doctor, Oliver J. Corbin.
Bortell admits that part of his motivation is to keep yet another historic house from being torn down, with nothing built in its place.
Note that another crossroads of the two famous highways can be found in Joliet, Illinois.
Photo by Bill and Karen McKibbon from their excellent travel blog billstraveljournal.blogspot.com/.
Tags:highway history, historic highway, Illinois, Lincoln Highway, Plainfield IL, Route 66
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
March 21, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A road project in western Pennsylvania will widen eastbound and westbound lanes along the Lincoln Highway/U.S. Route 30 to create a turning lane. The Tribune Review reports that “a 1-1/2-mile stretch in Hempfield to create a center turning lane is on schedule, with the opening of construction bids in November or December…. The project, which is estimated to cost between $7 million and $12 million, has been targeted since the early 1990s, but has funding available from state and federal sources to move forward.”
The project design covers an area near Walton Tea Room Road, just west of the Toll Route 66 interchange, through Lincoln Heights to the Route 30 intersection with Possum Hollow Road and West Penn Drive, near a West Penn Power building and Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Tags:highway history, historic highway, Lincoln Highway, Pennsylvania, road work
Posted in highways, Lincoln Highway, road surface, Road trip, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
February 15, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Two Lincoln Highway talks are planned this week. Bonnie Heimbach, project director of the Lincoln Highway Coalition, will speak at Kishwaukee Valley Heritage Society’s Brown Bag Luncheon from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011 (at the Water Works Building, 622 Park Ave., Genoa) about the transcontinental road and its impact on Illinois. The luncheon also will feature the LHC’s traveling exhibit of the Lincoln Highway. There is no charge to attend, but donations are welcome. For more information, call (815) 784-5559.
Above, the offical LHA Packard visits the. MacMahon memorial brick pillar near Crestline, Ohio. Courtesy Univ. of Michigan, Special Collections Library.
On Saturday, February 19, Bob Lichty, Past President of the Lincoln Highway Association and former board member of Ohio’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, will discuss the Lincoln Highway at The National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio, northwest of Youngstown. His talk will include a brief history of the road, recollections of the 2003 Cross Country tour, and a preview of the LHA centennial tours in 2013.
The presentation, from 11 a.m. to noon, is part of the museum’s Coffee and Donut Seminar Series that coincides with its 1th Annual Antique Motorcycle exhibit, “Motorcycles on Main Street,” which feature a collection of more than 30 significant two wheel machines. They are on display through May 29 alongside 25 beautiful Packard automobiles and memorabilia from the museum’s outstanding collection.
The educational seminars are free and open to the public but you must pre-register. For more information or to registar call the museum at (330) 394-1899.
Tags:brick memorial pillar, highway history, historic highway, Lincoln Highway, Ohio, Packard
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February 11, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
On Saturday, February 12, 2011, noon, an annual ceremony will be held along the Lincoln Highway at the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the entrance of Lincoln Park, Kennedy Boulevard and Belmont Avenue in Jersey City. Lincoln Association VP Michael Ricciardone will host the ceremony, and Past President Dr. Jules Ladenheim will recite a letter or speech of President Lincoln. A local chorale will provide patriotic music, and the ceremony will conclude with a placing of a wreath at the monument. At 6 pm, the Association will host the One Hundred Forty-Sixth Annual Dinner at the Casino in the Park, Lincoln Park, Jersey City.
Tags:Abe Lincoln, highway history, historic highway, Lincoln Highway, New Jersey, roadtrip, statue, travel
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February 8, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Los Angeles Times reports that while planning for a 30-mile bike path along the Nevada shore of Lake Tahoe moves ahead, concerns from local Native Americans may halt the project at Cave Rock, considered a sacred site by the Washoe Tribe. The vintage slide below shows the site before a second tunnel was bored; the Lincoln Highway originally ran around the left side, which overlooks the lake.
The path is to be part of the Nevada Stateline-to-Stateline Bikeway Project, which aims to provide non-auto transportation opportunities that link recreation areas, community centers, transportation facilities, and neighborhoods in the bikeway corridor to expand recreational access and transportation choices for residents and visitors to the Tahoe Basin.
The Native American tribe doesn’t want people traveling around either side of the rock, which has been the target of past lawsuits over rock climbing. Proponents have looked into a route that would take the bikeway down the Old Lincoln Highway route, which roughly detours around Cave Rock on the lake side.
“The tribe is not interested in us using the Old Lincoln Highway,” project manager Karen Mullen told the Carson County Board of Supervisors earlier this week. “They are also not interested in us using the trail system around the other way.”
Project leaders told the board they want to keep the cycling route off U.S. Highway 50 as much as possible for the good of bikers and motorists alike. The path would connect Stateline on the south shore to Crystal Bay in the north.
Tags:bike path, Cave Rock, highway history, historic highway, land dispute, Lincoln Highway, Native American site, Nevada
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
February 7, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The York Dispatch ran a nice story (and the photo below) about the reopening of Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum, a popular Lincoln Highway roadside attractions west of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Seven months after arson destroyed Ed Gotwalt’s business, the museum opened Saturday. State police have no suspects for the blaze that destroyed the museum and its 10,000-piece elephant collection. “I’m very blessed,” Gotwalt said. “I’m very excited. I want to share this with the world.”
The new museum features two elephant sculptures made from salvaged pieces of the destroyed elephant souvenirs. You can visit at 6019 Chambersburg Road/U.S. 30 in Orrtanna, between Chambersburg and Gettysburg, from 10 am – 5 pm daily; admission is FREE. Contributions made to the Tammy Lee Cullison Save the Animal Fund, in memory of Gotwalt’s daughter, will be given to the SPCA in Gettysburg and Chambersburg and an animal sanctuary in Tennessee.
Tags:elephant museum, highway history, historic highway, Lincoln Highway, museum, Pennsylvania, Road trip, roadside, roadside attraction, travel
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, museum, Road trip, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
January 27, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A brochure scanned and online for free download touts a Lincoln Highway water fountain design that was to be placed from coast to coast. Also proposed were cement tourist cabins to be built resembling Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. Both ideas intended to honor the slain President. A map shows the “Reno Branch” of the LH from Reno, Nevada to … Los Angeles!
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24589131M/Lincoln_Highway_Fountain_Society
Tags:Abe Lincoln, California, highway history, historic highway, honoring president, Lincoln Highway, Nevada, President Lincoln, Road trip, water fountains
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, souvenirs, transportation | 1 Comment »
January 14, 2011
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Our friend David Chase has a couple beautiful photos on his 42N blog taken along the original Lincoln Highway in Linn County, Iowa. Travelers can veer off the paved Lincoln Highway onto a gravel road to find an iron bridge and farm buildings. Check out the other barn here, and make sure to click them to see the images in beautiful large format: http://42n.blogspot.com/2011/01/old-and-new-along-original-lincoln.html
Tags:42N blog, barns, highway history, historic highway, Iowa, Lincoln Highway, snowy road
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
Lincoln Highway News 