Posts Tagged ‘Road trip’
November 29, 2007
One of my favorite stops along the Lincoln Highway is Fort Cody Trading Post in North Platte, Nebraska. Since moving closer to I-80, it’s now a few blocks south of US 30 through town, though the original LH actually followed the Gothenburg Stairstep that came into town from the south on Locust (now Jeffers) Street, so Fort Cody actually overlooks the 1913 LH.
The Henline family has operated numerous businesses along the Lincoln Highway and elsewhere, so they are preparing a booklet detailing their history. Leigh Henline told me, “We are having a company make us a 24 page souvenir book to sell. We are hoping it will be ready in February. It will tell a little bit about the history of Fort Cody, a bit on the Sioux Trading Post and Buffalo Bill Trading Post. Some on the museum, LOTS on the little Buffalo Bill Wild West show (he took hundreds of photos!), and some on the Muffler Man! We are very excited about all this. This guy is also doing a bunch of photo magnets for us on the little Wild West show, due any day.”
Teen-aged Chuck Henline points to the new Muffler Man Indian in the 1970s.
Here are the places the family has operated along the Lincoln Highway:
• Sioux Trading Post, Ogallala, 1952-1969.
• Buffalo Bill Trading Post, US 30 W, North Platte, 1950-1954.
• Fort Cody, US 30 W, North Platte, 1963-1969.
• Present Fort Cody, I-80 Hwy 83, North Platte, 1968 to present.
Chuck Henline crafted an animated display of their Sioux Trading Post.
The family also operated the Wigwam in Atlanta, Nebraska, and the Seminole Trading Post and Indian Village near Miami. They have some photos displayed on their office walls:
I’ll be writing more about their roadside adventures soon, and will post an update when their booklet is published.
Tags:cody, fort, history, Miami, Nebraska, north platte, Road trip, souvenirs
Posted in highways, history, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 3 Comments »
November 25, 2007
Like the Mystery Photos we sometimes run on weekends, there are likewise lots of postcards that we wonder “whatever happened to that place?” This beautiful linen card from the Curt Teich Company pictures the Country Club Motor Lodge and Coffee Shop, 2665 Parley’s Way, Salt Lake City, Utah. It advertised 55 “strictly modern units” and “Sun Porch and Modern Coffee Shop for Convenience of Guests.” It’s named for The Country Club across the road, one of the West’s oldest courses (founded 1899) and still an elegant, private 18-hole course. Today, housing separates the two just west of the tangle of ramps where I-80, I-215, and UT 186 meet.
This card, postmarked Aug 4, 1949, was sent by a child:
“We got here right today We will be back to Sacramento California soon We are haveing a nice trip so good-by and I will see you soon from Mary Jean”
What’s left at the site today? The phone number is now a private residence. A Yahoo aerial view shows it still there, but you can buy for a condo at the Country Club Ridge subdivision at the same address. Price for #310 is $649,000 for 2,065 sq ft, built 2007. Are we a year too late…?
Tags:Country Club, highway, lodging, motel, Road trip, roadside, Salt Lake City, travel, Utah
Posted in highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | 2 Comments »
November 24, 2007
The Iowa Lincoln Highway Association is organizing its first-ever River to River Motor Tour across Iowa for August 8-10, 2008. All cars are invited, and classic car owners can rest easy that no gravel alignments will be on the official route. Participants can join or leave the tour at any point.
Above: The newly wiidened bridge between Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1924. (Univ of Michigan, Special Collections Library, lhc2218)
Starting in Clinton, highlights will include:
• Site of the Lyons-Fulton Bridge in Clinton
• Walk on the abandoned Lincoln Highway west of Lowden
• Restored Youngville Café in Benton County
• World-famous Lincoln Highway Bridge in Tama
• State Center, the “rose capital of Iowa”
• Tour restored Reed/Niland corners in Colo
• Lincoln Highway Clubhouse in Jefferson
• Drive on the brick Lincoln Highway in Woodbine
• Hitchcock Nature Center near Honey Creek
Registration is $20 per vehicle for Iowa LHA members or $30 per vehicle for non-members that registers that person for a one year membership to the Iowa LHA. For more information, visit the Iowa LHA website or contact coordinator LHA Iowa director Jeff LaFollette, who has previously chaired motor tours along Route 66 in Illinois, at jefflaf@peoplepc.com or (563) 349-3047.
Tags:antique cars, bridge, classic cars, Iowa, rally, Road trip, roadside, tour, travel
Posted in food, highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
November 24, 2007
Leigh and Chuck Henline of Fort Cody Trading Post in North Platte, Nebraska, stopped at the Covered Wagon west of Kearney on their Thanksgiving trip to snap a few photos of the Covered Wagon, previously reported on here. Note the office now has a second story. Here’s a closeup of the wagon, still awaiting restoration:
Or click below for a 2-photo panorama of the site. Note the houses rising behind it on what was once the 1733 Ranch:
Tags:attractions, Covered Wagon, Kearney, Nebraska, oxen, Road trip, roadside, Route 30
Posted in highways, history, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 4 Comments »
November 21, 2007
Gianofer Fields of Chicago Public Radio is heading west, soon to pick up the Lincoln Highway. Her first stop was in Burlington, Iowa, checking out Snake Alley, aka the World’s Crookedest Street. As she says, “I haven’t even made it to the Lincoln Highway and I’m already having a great time. With about 2000 miles to go on this trip, I’d better pace myself.” Read the first day’s journal (Monday, Nov. 26) or listen to it at the Chicago Public Radio site.
Tags:Burlington, Chicago, highway, Iowa, Road trip, roadside, travel
Posted in highways, history, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
November 21, 2007
Ron Warnick’s Route 66 News has an interesting story about the “Joliet Kicks on 66” campaign. That Illinois city is promoting sites along the famous Chicago-to-LA road as explained in a news story. The Kicks web site offers lots of places and things to see, including 5 good-looking, very detailed replica gas pumps. Here’s a snap of the page showing the pump at the intersection of 66 and the Lincoln Highway:
Road buffs know there’s another crossing of the two historic highways. To the west, a later alignment of 66 ran through Plainfield where 66 actually shares the road with the LH. Banners there celebrate the pairing.
Lincoln Highway fans also know that the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in Pennsylvania established a fantastic Pump Parade a few years ago. Along the 200-mile corridor from Irwin to Gettysburg are 22 fiberglass replica 1940s pumps, though differing from these in that they were decorated by artists. Here’s one at Schatzer’s Market, a fruit and produce stand west of Chambersburg:
Tags:Chambersburg, gas pump, highways, history, IL, Joliet, PA, Plainfield, Road trip, roadside, Route 66, travel, vacation
Posted in highways, history, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
November 20, 2007
Chesterfields Restaurant, a popular dining choice in North Huntingdon Twp., Pennsylvania, closed recently to make way for a Walgreens drug store and a Starbucks. The Lincoln Highway landmark just west of Irwin (now across from Norwin Shopping Center) opened as the El Dorado in 1934, then for years was the Ben Gross Supper Club, famed for its dinner theater. It had been Chesterfields since 1986, and was one of the last of the region’s legendary dinner spots. According to The Daily News [McKeesport, Oct. 23], with the current owner’s husband passed on and their two sons not interested in a labor-intensive business, they sold to Walnut Capital brokerage firm for $1.5 million. The restaurant was host to many local banquets, celebrations, and Rotary meetings, and until recently had 87 employees. Also likely to be demolished is the adjacent Kirk Haight Auto Sales, best known in years past for having a car atop a pole. See a short video of Chesterfields final day at WPXI.
1934: Signs advertised spaghetti, steak, chicken, beer, and dancing to an orchestra.
2007: You can still see the roadhouse and to its left, a one-story building with gable windows.
According to a Tribune-Review article, the 3.6 acre plan needed a variance or it would not have been allowed under the shopping center code, so 58 parking spaces will serve where 87 would otherwise be required for that size development. Also, the township asked for an electronic community bulletin board along the Lincoln Highway across from the intersection with Lincoln Way (a road deceptively named in the 1920s to divert LH traffic through the Mon Valley). An Eckerd Pharmacy already sits across the road at that intersection.
According to Walnut Capital’s site, the developer also bought and is demolishing the 1964 Colonial Revival headquarters of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County on the Lincoln Highway to the east in Hempfield (west of Greensburg) for a Walgreens and other retail. (That 16.1 acre site went for $6 million.) In a nod to the road, it will be known as Lincoln Place. Click here for images of that development.
Tags:Chesterfields, highway, history, Irwin, PA, restaurant, Road trip, roadhouse, Starbucks, travel, Walgreens
Posted in highways, history, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
November 19, 2007
Two new online resources will ease your search for classic diners along the Lincoln Highway or anywhere.
Above: Earle Hersman at the grill at Jacki and Earle’s Steel Trolley Diner in Lisbon, Ohio, a 1955 O’Mahony-brand diner. Traveling all day across Ohio, there is no bigger thrill than pulling into town, seeing the lights on 24 hours a day, and knowing you can get breakfast, dinner, dessert, or just some coffee for the miles ahead.
Since starting Roadside magazine in the early 1990s, Randy Garbin has published maps to locate and identify diners, those factory-made restaurants with a counter that so many of us love. Then he compiled the info into a bound volume organized by state. Now that amazing database is available on the web at no charge: Diner Finder Online. Visitors to roadsideonline.com will find the feature in the tabs to the right and need just do a simple free registration to gain access. Once there, you click on a US state, and go to a list alphabetized by name, with city identified and an occasional picture. (Once you’re registered, you can access the site directly at http://www.dinerfinderonline.com) Fellow researchers and food lovers have already contributed dozens of updates and corrections, making it the premiere guide to some 1875 diners. The print version is still available too.
Randy told me, “You could say that this project started back in 1986 when I first became ‘diner-aware.’ I vowed then to find and eat in every diner in the country, and this is part of that effort. It remains a work in progress and I continue to receive dozens of updates and photos from readers every week.” Here’s an example of what happens when you click the entry for the Steel Trolley Diner, 140 E Lincoln Way, Lisbon, Ohio:
Another new source for diner info is Larry Cultrera’s Diner Hotline blog, which I’m proud to say was inspired by my move to blogging. Larry has written the Diner Hotline column for the Society for Commercial Archeology’s magazine (which I design) since 1988. He took his first diner photo in November 1980, then the following July started a Diner Log. He’s up to 806 diners but seems to know every diner’s story and owners, past and present. Check it out at http://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/. The heartbreaking image at his page top shows the former Rosedale Diner of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, which appeared in 1973 on Daryl Hall and John Oates’ album Abandoned Luncheonette.
Tags:blog, diners, food, guidebook, Lisbon, Ohio, Road trip, travel, vacation
Posted in food, highways, history, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
November 18, 2007
Our friend RoadDog alerts us to a possible threat to the Lincoln Highway in western Wyoming. An article in the Casper Star-Tribune says there’s a good chance the undrivable Lincoln Highway remnant from Green River east to Rock Springs could be revamped into a connector road. Though the two cities are just 12 miles apart, I-80 is the only paved road connecting them, forcing commuters and other locals to compete with a rising tide of trucks brought on by the region’s oil and gas boom.
According to the article, “Two of the three proposed routes would begin at Green River’s east I-80 interchange and then follow the remnants of the old Lincoln Highway—which used to run between the two cities—north of I-80. A third route would start on the city’s south side and run south of the interstate, hooking up with U.S. Highway 191…. [U]nofficial cost projections to build an approximately 12-mile-long road have been estimated at about $2 million per mile, or around $24 million total. Officials expect the project to take a decade or longer to complete.”
Most dismaying for those concerned about preserving the LH’s roadscape, local leaders hope the new road will bring housing, business, and industry. Green River officials especially say the city has been hemmed in by Castle Rock and I-80 to the north, and steep undevelopable land to the south.
UPDATE 12/31/07: “Locals will help choose route” in the Caspar Star-Tribune.
Tags:development, growth, highway, I-80, Road trip, threat, travel, Wyoming
Posted in highways, history, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 2 Comments »
November 15, 2007
The famous Haines Shoe House in south-central Pennsylvania got a fresh look through the efforts of Hampton Hotels’ Save-A-Landmark program. Built in 1948, the 3-story stucco shoe and its fence were painted at no charge of materials or labor. Carleen and Ronald Farabaugh have owned the house since 2003, giving tours and selling ice cream, and occasionally staying overnight. Carleen told me there’s always work to be done but they are thrilled with what the company’s 15 volunteers accomplished: “The Shoe House was desperately in need of a facelift. Hampton’s generosity should help to preserve the Shoe House for years to come so everyone can enjoy it.” She adds that all revenue is put into its restoration.
The house was built as a promotional gimmick for Mahlon Haines to advertise his chain of shoe stores—he’d loan the shoe (actually, a work boot) free to honeymooners and retirees who lived in a town that had a Haines Shoe Store. The house was set back a bit from the Lincoln Highway, but a Route 30 bypass now runs just outside its windows.
Chris Epting, author of numerous books on roadside landmarks, was there as spokesman for the Save-A-Landmark program doing TV and radio spots: “This was another wonderful opportunity to be a part of helping to restore a vital roadside landmark. This program continues to succeed on levels that are unprecedented for these kinds of efforts, and I’m very proud to be working with Hampton Inn as we move forward to the next landmark.” Also attending was Kyle Weaver of Stackpole Books, editor of my books and working with Epting on a forthcoming Stackpole title, The Birthplace Book. The photos seen here were graciously loaned by Kyle.
Hampton donated $20,000 in supplies for the Shoe redo, and organized a collecting effort for Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes shoes for people affected by natural disasters.
Hampton Hotels’ Save-A-Landmark program has helped preserve more than 30 American architectural oddities since 2000. The Shoe has it’s own Hampton page, and an article about the event ran in the York Daily Record.
Tags:attraction, Hallam, Hellam, house, PA, restoration, Road trip, roadside, shoe, travel
Posted in highways, history, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
Lincoln Highway News 