Lincoln Highway News

The Bridger Valley Pioneer reported on last Wednesday’s dedication of the restored Black and Orange Cabins in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The motel along the Lincoln Highway dates to the 1930s. Many Lincoln Highway fans visited the unrestored cabins at the 2008 LHA Evanston conference. The cabins, with carports, were an extension of the Rocheford Hotel in an attempt to serve travelers who wanted less formal accommodations. The event coincided with the passing through of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association’s re-enactment of the 1919 military convoy.

Randy Wagner, who provided the photos above, wrote, “The ribbon-cutting coincided with the arrival of the Military Convoy and some 250 folks attended. The contractor told me he was able to use abour 90 percent of the original building material.  The registration office is a complete reconstruction as it was destroyed by fire some 20 years ago. They are not available to rent although a couple have been furnished (bed, dresser, chair, stove and not much else) and are open for inspection.  More will be furnished as period furniture becomes available. The state doesn’t want to compete with the two small motels that struggle to stay in business in Fort Bridger.”

LHA director for Wyoming Shelly Horne reports on the day that MVPA leader “Terry Shellswell had invited some of us to join the convoy in Green River. When we got there he offered Joe Cox (a local LHA member) a ride with a retired Air Force Colonel in his jeep (above) and invited me to ride with him in his jeep with he and his wife at the head of the column. He asked my wife, Deann, to lead a small column down the interstate that was not able to travel the old road. We followed the LH from Green River to Little America, then picked it up again in Granger to Fort Bridger with a rest stop at Church Butte.” He spoke briefly at the Blakc and Orange Cabins “before the ribbon cutting (which appropriately was a tree branch cutting).  The convoy was fed Buffalo Burgers and we were gone again.  We picked up the LH east of Eagle Rock a few miles.  As we were heading up the grade past Eagle Rock, I looked back at the convoy.  It was strung out for several miles and was quite a sight.”