LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
For years, reports have floated that the Hi-Way Drive-In Theater in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was to close and be replaced by development. Most recently, Target has been the retailer of choice, but the drive-in along the Lincoln Highway has made clear it’s stance: posted on the marquee is “No Target did not buy us.” Top photo by Kristin Poerschke, bottom by me (Brian) on a recent visit.
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.”
The Grand Island Independent ran a nice follow-up to the Lincoln Highway Festival in Shelton, Nebraska, including a walk through of the LH Visitor’s Center there. Following are some parts of their story.
But now as the 80-year-old Nebraska president of the Lincoln Highway Association, Stubblefield is doing more than watching the highway and its traffic — he’s helping preserve the history of its creation.
He helped create the Lincoln Highway Visitor’s Center located at C Street and Highway 30 in Shelton and shares time staffing that center with other volunteers of the Shelton Historical Society. All are just a cell phone away to greet visitors and open the center’s doors at the back of the historic First State Bank building….
Once inside, it’s everything Lincoln Highway.
Pens, postcards, water, letter openers, ashtrays.
There’s Lincoln Highway cigars — just 9 cents in the day — and of course, there’s Burma Shave memorabilia.
“Do you know where Jerome’s Tepee was in Grand Island?” Stubblefield inquired as he pointed to an original black pennant professing the tepee in Grand Island to be in the “center of North America.”
It was right by the big Husker Harvest Days billboard located at Highway 30 and Husker Highway, Stubblefield said, on the north side of the road.
“It was what was called a tourist trap,” he chuckled.
One of the most stunning displays in the visitor’s center is a row of original metal Lincoln Highway mileage markers. They were purchased by the Automobile Club of Southern California and erected along the highway to give travelers an idea of distance to the next stops.
“Brule 1 mile, Big Spring 11 miles,” stated one sign. “Paxton 10 miles, North Platte 43 miles.”
Stubblefield and other members of the association (there are 100 in Nebraska and 1,100 nationwide) have purchased the signs at auctions, antique stores or wherever they are found.
Last year, motorcyclist Chris Hutter took the Lincoln Highway from Pittsburgh to the east edge of Grand Island, Nebraska. This year he’s hitting the LH in Omaha after a visit to the Surf Ball Room in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy Holly played his last concert. From Nebraska he’ll stay on the Lincoln to its Western Terminus in San Francisco. Follow along at hutmo.blogspot.com/. Note that his map gives a LIVE GPS location! Refresh, zoom in, and see how far he’s gone in a half minute!
Above is a stop in Indiana from last year’s trip. Here’s the 2010 itinerary:
Day 1 Pittsburgh to Chicago
Day 2 Chicago to Ames, IA (via Dyersville and Clear Lake)
Day 3 Ames to North Platte, NE 426
Day 4 North Platte to Rawlins, WY 384
Day 5 Rawlins to Salt Lake City, UT 300
Day 6 Salt Lake to Ely, NV 300
Day 7 Ely to Reno, NV 320
Day 8 Reno to San Fran, CA 300
The Travel Guys radio show out of Sacramento featured a special Fourth of July episode along the Lincoln Highway. One of the guys is radio personality Tom Romano, while Mark Hoffmann operates Sports Leisure Vacations, which offers tours of 2-lane roads like Route 66 and now the Lincoln Highway. Your blog host, me, Brian Butko chimes in with a few favorite stops along the Lincoln. Listen HERE. You can also download archived mp3s here.
Olga A. Herbert, Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, just alerted me that Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum in central Pennsylvania has been destroyed by fire. Owner Ed Gotwalt has spent decades amassing his collection of elephant-themed objects joined to a candy and gift store; he also serves on the Corridor board of directors. Olga said it “burned to the ground late last night, including every elephant. He plans to rebuild and be open by September 1.” Although the news is horrible, it’s equally astounding that he’s ready to rebuild and so quickly! The York Distpatch covers it here and the York Daily Record ran a story about Ed vowing to rebuild.
I spent last week preparing for my drive to Illinois, and now this week I’ve been on the road day and night driving and taking pictures. So I’ll quickly share a couple photos: the first a well-known re-themed gas station in Geneva, Illinois, and the second a view of the old road east of DeWitt, Iowa.
First up Tuesday morning, I’ll be giving a PowerPoint presentation to the ILHC at the Ellwood House Museum Visitor Center in DeKalb, should be lots of fun!
I’ll be giving a PowerPoint presentation tonite just a few miles from the site of the S.S. Grand View Ship Hotel, the best-known roadside attraction along the Lincoln Highway until it burned in 2001. Central City is the closet (tiny) town so everyone there worked at, ate at, and celebrated at the Ship — should be lots of fun.
Here are photos of the Ship Hotel’s dining room about 1940 and the outside about 1975. That kid looks like me! But it’s not.
The Somerset Daily American reports that Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor has been selected by the national LHA to receive the Educator of the Year Award at its forthcoming annual conference.
Executive Director Olga Herbert will accept this award on June 25 in Dixon, Ill. The award is a result of the organization’s Roadside Giants of the Lincoln Highway project with five career and technology students and community members from Greensburg, Ligonier, Somerset, Everett and Chambersburg. The award also recognizes the development and distribution of The Lincoln Highway Road Trip Board Game, which reflects the 200-mile corridor and its attractions. The board game was given to 68 middle schools along the highway.
A photo feature by Diane Stoneback for The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., features a couple dozen interesting photos of the Lincoln Highway in central Pennsylvania. Most places, like the Shoe House, get a number of views. And note, when a guy at Dutch Haven holds up a LH book, there are others such as Greetings from the Lincoln Highway that also feature the place famous for its Shoo Fly Pie!
UPDATE: An accompanying article was published on Sunday, June 6.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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Click the Greetings book below to purchase the ultimate guide to the history and route of the Lincoln Highway!
Another fun book! The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway recalls the greatest roadside attraction along the coast-to-coast road.
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