The fifth annual Lincoln Highway Buy-Way, a yard sale that stretches across five states, will be held Thursday–Saturday August 5–7, 2010. The event was launched in Ohio, then expanded to include West Virginia to the east and Indiana and Illinois to the west. This year the sale has grown to include Iowa. “This event has grown to national awareness in just five years,” said Mike Hocker, executive director of Ohio’s byway group, whose mission is economic development. A free Traveler’s Guide includes a map of Ohio’s Lincoln Highway alignments along with listings of many yard sales and community events along the way. Learn about Ohio here or get other state links on the LHA site.
Posts Tagged ‘yard sales’
Lincoln Highway Buy-Way yard sale this weekend
August 2, 2010Ohio Buy-Way yard sale busier than ever
August 15, 2008Mike Hocker, Executive Director of the Ohio Lincoln Highway Historic Byway, reports that excellent weather helped the 3-day Lincoln Highway Buy-Way yard sale across Ohio. He and wife Nance put 671 miles on their car checking on sales and sent back these photos:
There were some 700 vendors last year and without an official count, there were at least that many this year, plus, he says the past three years were hot and humid and last year tornadoes threatened.
West Virginia’s town of Chester, where the Lincoln Highway passes through, had a strongly organized sidewalk sales and adorned their streets with BUY-WAY signs. It is always fun to see a new community come on board!
Van Wert was the poster child this year by having invited the Route 127 (World’s longest) yard sale to extend northward and cross the Lincoln Highway in that town. That community was a buzz of activity from the fairgrounds with a huge flea market and other festival-type activities, to the north-south corridor of Washington Street (Route 127) and then across the Lincoln both east and west with many, many yard sales.
New multiple dealers have found their spot this year, too, setting up shop in highly visible places along the way and offering just about anything a person could need. One dealer reported 95 cars per hour, then got too busy to count. Multiply that traffic across the state and we are accomplishing out mission of bringing dollars to the Lincoln Highway corridor and exposing people to the history of the road!
Also, a few more communities produced and distributed community yard sale maps in addition to our Travelers Guide, helping people to understand the rest of the story; in fact Forest, Ada and Bucyurs went to “community-wide” sales this year, not just the LH corridor.
The Delpho Herald reported sales were brisk: “It wasn’t just local people who were traveling the highways, as Lee said he had spoken to shoppers from at least 12 other states as far away as Florida, Alabama, New Jersey and Wisconsin. There were shoppers from Canada, and Lee said he had spoken to a local retailer who had a customer from China.” Also read about Van Wert here.
Indiana and Illinois also participated and we hope to get reports from those states too.
Next year’s dates will continue to be the second weekend of August: August 6, 7 and 8, 2009.
Free map & guide shows Ohio Buy-Way yard sale
July 22, 2008A free Lincoln Highway BUY-WAY Yard Sale Travelers Guide is being distributed along the different routings of the Lincoln Highway through Ohio. The fourth annual BUY-WAY Yard Sale will take place August 7, 8 and 9. The guide features a map of all Lincoln Highway alignments and towns in Ohio, plus contains listings and ads for more than 50 of the larger group events. Guides can be found at participating businesses such as restaurants, attractions, and convenience stores.
Ohio Lincoln Highway Historic Byway Executive Director Mike Hocker says, “The guide is very helpful since many people are confused about where the Lincoln Highway ran — it did change alignments through the years from 1913 to 1928.”
In the 1920s, much of the old route in Ohio was marked US 30 but modern 4-lane improvements bypass the old towns and alignments. That means Ohio alone has roughly 350 miles of yard sales, community events, and festivals with lots of food, drink, and fun for kids. Last year saw more than 700 individual and organizational sales just in Ohio. Indiana and Illinois are participating too, and West Virginia’s 2.25-mile segment of the highway through Chester is also part of the BUY-WAY sale.
More information and a printable listing of yard sales and locations can be found at http://www.historicbyway.com (updated frequently). To get your guide ahead of time by mail (free for the price of a SASE), visit the travel guide page.
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