Lincoln Highway fans can help send birthday greetings in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birth 200 years ago. According to an AP article sent by Jan Shupert-Arick, the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is asking people to send cards to Lincoln for his 200th birthday on Feb. 12. The 16th president even has an official USPS address: Abraham Lincoln, Old State Capitol, 1 Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield, Illinois, 62701-1512.
Commission chairwoman Marilyn Kushak says she hopes birthday greetings pour in from around the world to Lincoln’s hometown, where he moved after growing up in southern Indiana. She recommends that people make the cards by hand. The cards it receives may be used for displays or publicity.
Chicago Breaking News reports that Canadian National Railway has won federal approval to purchase a line that would loop freight trains around Chicago, a bypass that may cause massive traffic problems in some suburban communities, including many on the Lincoln Highway. CNR says the deal will boost the Chicago-area economy by $60 million a year, creating hundreds of jobs and easing train gridlock.
The project will shift freight traffic away from the city by looping it in a 198-mile arc through the suburbs by using the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway. CNR is set to pay $300 million to U.S. Steel for that railway, $100 million to upgrade the line, and another $60 million to help communities deal with the traffic impact. The transportation board will require CNR to pay most of the cost of constructing two highway-rail grade separation projects, tens of millions of dollars more than originally estimated. One overpass or underpass would be at Ogden Avenue (US 34) in Aurora and the other at Lincoln Highway (US 30) in Lynwood. CNR also reached agreements to minimize the impact in the Lincoln Highway towns of Joliet and Chicago Heights in Illinois, and Dyer and Schererville in Indiana.
The map above, from the LHA’s Driving Maps CD, shows the route looping south of Chicago, from Dyer, Indiana, on the east end through Chicago Heights, Joliet, Plainfield, and Aurora.
The 2nd Annual Iowa Lincoln Highway Motor Tour has been set for August 28-30, 2009. Featured stops along the west-to-east tour will include Desoto Bend, Carroll, Jefferson, Boone, Nevada, Marshalltown, Tama, Youngville, Cedar Rapids, Mechanicsville, Lowden, and Clinton.
ABOVE: George Preston’s station, Belle Plaine. Photo from the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association site, by Bryan Osberg, Urbandale, Iowa.
The tour is open to any make and model car, though a good many classics show up too. Registration is $20 per vehicle for Iowa LHA members or $30 per vehicle for non-members (includes a 1-year membership to the Iowa LHA) Click HERE for the registation form. For more information, contact Iowa LH Road Run coordinator Jeff LaFollette at jefflaf@peoplepc.com/.
This Christmas display, in Marshalltown, Iowa (along the Lincoln Highway) is built annually by Eric Rodemeyer at his home (611 South 7th Avenue) using 14,500 lights, controlled by 96 computer channels, 7 songs in a loop. He also builds a display on the courthouse grounds for the Noon Optimist Club that will play through December 31, 2007 from 5:30 pm – 9 pm Weekdays and till.10:30pm Fri-Sun.
The song is “Christmas Eve Sarajevo”by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The basis, especially after a one-minute intro, is the song “Carol of the Bells,” one of my favorite songs, though I prefer it with voices, like this one from an album called Christmas with Monique Danielle, used at a site south of the LH in Lindon, Utah.
The 1886 home of Col. and Mrs. Cody, a long-time Lincoln Highway stop in North Platte, Nebraska, is decorated for an 1880s Christmas. Nightly events include period reenactors, caroling, roasting chestnuts, horse-drawn carriage rides, hot cider, holiday music, the armed services honor tree, and Santa Claus. The 1887 horse barn, log cabin, and other outbuildings are decorated with exterior Christmas lights. The mansion has 18 lighted and decorated trees inside, while the barn has a large lighted and decorated tree, where visitors may make their own ornament to hang.
At Buffalo Bill State Park / Scouts Rest Ranch, 2921 Scouts Rest Ranch Road. Tonight is the last evening so hit the road now! “Christmas at the Cody’s” runs from 5:30-8 p.m.
Jan Shupert-Arick sent a photo from Lincoln Highway members in Churubusco, Indiana, that shows one of their new Historic LH signs. This one is placed on an entrance sign to “Turtle Town.”
Why “Turtle Town”? The Chamber of Commerce has the story here.
Ken Ruffner wrote me with a question regarding an image in my book The Lincoln Highway: Pennsylvania Travelers Guide. It’s the historic photo on page 153 (1st ed., 1996) of the Horseshoe Curve above McConnellsburg, Pa.
I had said the view is looking west to McConnellsburg, with the new road on the right. Ken wrote, “but then the road on the right is lower than the one on the left when in fact it really is higher on the hill… this photo doesn’t register with me…. could you please help me out with this so I can let it go… a friend of mine and I left the area with more questions than we started out with.”
Above is an aerial view showing modern US 30 as a straight line and the old LH/US 30 curving up the mountainside. They still join at a prominent horseshoe curve but I wrote in my book that the photo was along the old curvy road, about where the “y” is in “Lincoln Way E.” I had discerned this by walking the old road, but after Ken inspired me to look at the aerial view, I realized the entire curve survives, though only partially driveable. The “lost” remnant is on the west/left side of Old 30/Lincoln Way E – it’s much more visible in the close-up below.
I see where Ken could be confused, but the new curve was broader and hence closer to the drop off. Look below at my proposed routings: red is the original (we’ll call it 1913 for LH reference), purple is the new (1924) curve. The original (red) road/curve that sat higher would have survived the 1924 reshaping, as seen in the historic photo, but was erased when the current road split the horseshoe about 1970.
The topo maps show the evolution, the first showing the original curve as a sharp turn, the second showing the broader 1930 revision.
The last mystery is the little road south of all this that likewise has a turnoff to the east. I marked it in blue. Is it an earlier alignment? A detour during construction in 1924? Or 1970? Or was there a house there at some point?
Note about exploring the 1924 alignment — the road in my 1992 photo is blocked and walking it may be trespassing now, though perhaps it’s just blocked to stop traffic. When I walked it back then, it was beautiful and thrilling to be discovering an old alignment. What an eerie feeling to stand where thousands of cars once chugged up the mountain.
Fallon, along the Lincolon Highway in western Nevada, is today celebrating its centennial of becoming an incorporated city. According to the Lahontan Valley News, there was no town at the turn of the century until rancher Mike Fallon sold his land to Warren Williams in 1903, who then began selling lots on what is now the west end of town. The eastern part was established on land owned by John Oats.
“Initially, Fallon was a mining town, and in 1919 the city experienced an oil boom. Growing alfalfa has been and is still one of the most stable income for local farmers. Currently, the valley’s 30,000 farming acres produces an average of 5 tons per acre — 70 percent is shipped out of state.” Mert Domonoske, past mayor of Fallon for 16 years, said when he moved to Fallon in 1948, there were about 2,300 residents, and the only road leading out of town was a two-lane highway. Now “The Oasis of Nevada” has 8,000 citizens.
Smiley Kent moved to Fallon in 1950 after marrying Bob Kent in Elko. Her husband grew up in Fallon and has spent his entire life here. The couple first lived in a home in downtown Fallon, and Maine Street was the place in town where people shopped, Kent said there was not much traffic in the 1950s, and businesses were scattered throughout the city. What she first noticed about Fallon was its peacefulness and all the trees on Williams Avenue. She said Center Street also served as the Lincoln Highway and was the road on which people traveled when leaving town. She said the town always pulled together during tough times, and remembers Mom’s Place at Allen Road and Williams Avenue as the last business on the west side of town. “The town keeps going west,” she said. “The town has expanded so much.”
Events run this evening from 6-8 pm starting when the current mayor and council members arrive at Oats Park by horse-drawn Wells Fargo stagecoach. Festivities will includea bonfire, food, drinks, church bells ringing, musical performances, and singing “Happy Birthday” with a big birthday cake. Just bundle up – freezing temps are predicted all day and week.
I’m still reviewing my Lincoln Highway Companion book maps and so was using Google Maps to check out aerial views of the old stone bridge over Poquessing Creek. If you’re ever northeast of Philadelphia, you must go check it out – a turnpike-era bridge in the woods but within sound of wide boulevards and suburban sprawl.
I kept scrolling east towards the NJ border and recognized a couple places I’d been years ago – the US 1 North Drive-In Theater and the original railroad crossing at Fallsington, used by the Lincoln Hghway through 1920. In fact, the entire LH from the Philadelphia line (which the Poquessing Creek Bridge crosses) to Morrisville (at the NJ line) is filled with interesting reroutings, made all the more challenging to discern because so many of the changes were made so many years ago.
The long-closed drive-in amazingly survives but nature is overtaking it. The old crossing can be found by locating the two skinny roads leading to the tracks; I’ve marked the location of the bridge. Both are noted on the map below — click to enlarge it.
More than a half-year after moving and losing track of just about everything, I’m down to the last few boxes to open, and there in one of them was The Lincoln Highway around Chicago by Cynthia Ogorek. The 128-page book was published by Arcadia earlier this year — my review was to be a preview when I started this post in March! Since then many reviews have appeared favorably recapping the highlights. My best compliment about it is that it is unlike other LH books; it is not just a retelling of existing information, it is a grand amalgamation of numerous sources, some familiar to LH fans, others dug out from local archives. The introduction and captions bespeak of a solid familiarity with local history and geography. Although a few images from the LHA collection may be familiar to fans, nearly every page brings new and interesting vintage views.
Chapter 1 explores the original route and the people behind its improvement. Chapter 2 is all about the Ideal Section. Chapter 3 highlights roadside businesses, including some great gas station shots. Chapter 4 looks at the connection to the many electric interurban lines that served Chicago. (One of my favorite photos is found here — an aerial view of snowbound motorists astride the Park Forest neighborhood of Lincolnwoods, with an impending development across the road. It is also the source of the photo below that shows the Lincoln Theater in Chicago Heights, a 1960s shopping center in Matteson, and the fabulous Northgate Shopping Center Sign near Aurora — and I’m glad to report that Cynthia says this has been designated a local landmark.) Chapter 5 examines the inevitable bypasses. Chapter 6 reviews recent events, from restoration of the Ideal Section monument to Art Schweitzer’s efforts to document and salvage part part os that section; from Lincoln Highway Lady Lyn Protteau visiting the area to Mad Mac’s March across Illinois.
All of Arcadia Books leave me wanting more — more text, better quality on many photos, a break from the monotonous crammed design — but some authors rise above that to present well-researched, insightful books. This is one of them. $19.95 or $14.95 from Amazon.
Looking through my computer files today I found this postcard scan of Weaver’s Motel along the Lincoln Highway on the east side of Greensburg, Pa.
When I began researching the highway in Pennsylvania two decades ago a few remnants of this motel remained. Judging by Google Street View, what looks like the main building of the tourist court still survives but that’s it.
Reviewing the Iowa chapter in my forthcoming Lincoln Highway Companion, I often compare my maps to extreme close-ups of the LHA’s excellent CD-based maps based on the DeLorme system. My book has a photo from just east of Grand Junction, Iowa, where 4 bridges cross Beaver Creek. However, I noticed the LHA maps only show 3 roads/bridges there, despite a notation of “4 Bridges.”
So I checked with Bob and Joyce Ausberger, who made the ultimate effort to save the original tiny concrete bridge there by purchasing it and the land around it! They confirmed that the original LH needs to be shown crossing it. “There is still the remains of the road grade. You need to be standing at the right location to see it. It was never more than a graded dirt road, but it’s there. Right now it is covered with brome grass so it probably wouldn’t show up on the DeLorme maps.”
You can see all 4 in the Google Maps aerial view — from top: original LH, railroad, old LH, and US 30. (And note how lucky we are – the aerial views go low-res just a few yards to the west!)
On a sample of the DeLorme map, I’ve drawn in by hand a bright blue line where the original route should be, and a black circle where the bridge is. I’m guessing at where it joins the revised LH/222nd St on the west end but maybe readers can help confirm that.
The author is me, and my part is probably less than a minute long, but if that justifies a Lincoln Highway connection to mention this book, that’s OK. World War II Radio Heroes is the fascinating story of dozens of 60-year-old letters discovered by author Lisa Spahr. They were sent to her family by total strangers to inform her great-grandmother that her son had been captured and was being held as a POW. How did they know?
Lisa explains:
Short-wave radio had held all of the answers. POWs were allowed to state their names and hometowns on the radio, and sometimes relay a short message to their families. Scores of Americans, listening to the German propaganda from so far away, heard my grandfather’s information, and took it upon themselves to write to my great-grandmother. All of these dear people wanted to give my great-grandmother a measure of comfort to know her son was alive.
Lisa’s tale of trying to track down the letter writers is part of the journey, and after I began talking to her about it, she asked if I would read one of the letters for the audio version. We also thought my son Andrew would be perfect to read for Flavius Jankauskas, who is seen on the cover with his Howard 430 radio. He was 16 when he sent Lisa’s family a note and is one of those Lisa was able to locate.
A couple interesting notes: that’s Lisa’s grandparents also pictured on the cover — her grandfather did return safely. And although you might think that cell phones, e-mail, and texting would put a damper on ham radio, there are more than 600,000 operators in the U.S., up from just 51,000 at the dawn of WWII.
The audio book is professionally produced with 3 CDs and bonus tracks. The text is read by Lisa along with 30-some letter readers. The book is available on Amazon or from the author’s site for $15.95 or instantly downloadable as PDF for $19.95. The audio book in a limited run of 400 is $29.95 or can be paired with the book for $40.
Postcard expert Russell Rein picked up a 1930s postcard that shows a station near Asbury Park, New Jersey, that’s very similar to the well-known Dunkle’s Gulf along the Lincoln Highway in Bedford, Pennsylvania. Dunkle’s is a popular stop and an extremely rare survivor from that era — and they still pump gas!
Though it’s known that others were made in this c. 1930 style, no others are known to have survived. By the look of the Google satellite view, the one in New Jersey is gone too.
Dave Zollinger, aka Spiny Norman, has been expanding his Goshen Lincoln Highway blog so much that it’s already spawned a sequel at www.indianaslincolnhighway.blogspot.com called “Indiana’s Lincoln Highway.”
It’s already got some great stories, like a visit to the well-known Magic Wand drive-in restaurant in Churubusco, and the start of a cross-state tour at the Ohio line.
The Rawlins Daily Times reported on a controversial wind farm planned near Hanna, a small town along the beautifully rural Medicine Bow loop of the Lincoln Highway in east-central, Wyoming. The story was then examined by CBS-4 in Denver:
The Medicine Bow Conservation District and the Hanna Historical Society asked Horizon Wind Energy not to harm natural or cultural resources when building its 154-turbine wind project.
Ken Besel, representing both the conservation district and the historical society, asked Horizon to avoid the historic Carbon Cemetery, sage grouse strutting grounds, archaeological sites, elk habitat and other places of significance in the proposed project area.
Nate Sandvig of Horizon said the project area is located between Hanna and Elk Mountain and south of U.S. Highway 30 in the Simpson Ridge area….
Hanna historian Nancy Anderson asked if Horizon would avoid the remaining traces of the original Lincoln Highway, which runs through the project area, usually near U.S. 30.
Sandvig wasn’t aware of the historic highway, but said he would find out more about it. He promised to avoid traces of the original Transcontinental Railroad built in the same general area as the highway.
With Wintry weather hitting much of the country, here’s a newsreel from more than a half-century ago reminding us of the dangers atop infamous Donner Pass. The Lincoln Highway crossed the Sierra Nevadas here starting in 1913. The 222 passengers aboard the “City of San Francisco” were stranded for days in up to 20 feet of snow. This newsreel, with dramatic music and narration, details their rescue. The pass is of course named for a party of overland emigrants who were trapped by early snows.
Jan Morrison writes from Austin, Nevada, that she closed her Main Street Shops that sold coffee, ice cream, and gifts, “another victim of the recession. Traffic on our stretch of US 50/the Lincoln Highway is down 40-50%. There is a possibility someone may lease it, but I won’t know until the spring.”
There is at least some positive news:
At the corner of Main (US 50) and Virginia, across from the hardware store, a new town plaza will be built featuring a rest stop with public bathrooms, picnic tables, and a gathering space. It should be completed for summer.
Tours of St. Augustine Church can now be arranged. We prefer groups because there are only two of to give tours, and we have 3-4 jobs each.
There is a new RV park which accommodates the larger rigs with “pull-throughs.” It is the Pony Express RV Park.
There is a new stop at the east entrance of town, where the mountain bike place used to be, the Last Chance Saloon. They offer great pizzas and other dine-in or take-out food. Nice bar also, clean and well-kept. It is run by Bob and Donna Sossa, who have a huge home in the Valley shaped like a castle which is also a B & B.
In spite of the recession, we are all working hard on sprucing up the town, preserving the old buildings, and getting ready for better times!
Also check the Libraries & Museums link at right for the address of the Austin Museum. Jan says they have furnishings from one of the early ranches in the area and a room set up like an old ranch kitchen with a Hoosier, old stove, rockers, and tables.
Jennifer Vogelsong wrote an interesting piece for the York Daily Record/Sunday News about the search for authentic experiences in Gettysburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Much of the public face is found along the Lincoln Highway/US 30 but she finds that the best places are a block or two away or along the back roads. She was inspired by the December issue of National Geographic Traveler that ranked the two destinations among the most important historic places on Earth — and fourth worst when it comes to sustainable tourism, ie how authentically they preserve the past, manage tourism, and withstand development.
At the Mennonite Information Center on US 30, director Jeff Landis advises “If you see a sign with the word “Amish” in it, it probably isn’t.” Still, at The Amish Experience, with billboard ads and an F/X Theater, “employee Ginny Reese said it’s pretty authentic, and an appealing option for visitors who don’t want to drive the back roads for the real thing: ‘They can’t find it or they don’t know where to go and what they’re looking for.’”
Read more of Jennifer’s travels around these two areas and York in her blog Explorer’s Backpack.
Fans of the Goshen Motor Lodge’s vintage sign knew it was a matter of time before the classic 1950s shape would be replaced, The once-exuberant sign along the Lincoln Highwy in northern Indiana declined in recent years, and friends on Flickr reported that new owners planned a purely plastic replacement. Sure enough, as seen below in a photo by Spiny Norman, plastic has replaced neon and vintage plastic atop the original poles.
Unfortunately, buying a plastic sign seems easier and cheaper than maintaining an old one, and to many owners, new conveys better. True, some people might pass by a motel for having an old neon sign, but a well-maintained sign and place will build a good reputation. Below is the sign as I saw it last year.
BTW, Spiny’s Goshen’s Lincoln Highway blog should be an inspiration to towns all along the LH as to how you can document and promote your section of the LH. You’ll find a link to his site added to the right.
The popular Niland’s Cafe in Colo, Iowa, will reopen December 5 and operate three days a week through the winter.
The Nevada Journal revealed the joint plan between the city of Colo, which owns the historic Reed-Niland property, and the Colo Development Group, which manages the property for the city:
Ben Weir, president of the development group, said Missy Bitters, of Colo, will be overseeing the day-to-day operation of the restaurant…. Previously, the city and development group have leased the restaurant to those who have operated it…. Weir said the development group won’t heavily advertise the opening at first, because “we want to allow Missy to get in and get organized … and get her feet wet.”
Bitters said hours of operation will be 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. She said one of the things the restaurant will bring back from the past is the loose meat sandwiches that historic owner John Niland made popular for the restaurant.
Above is Colo city clerk Scott Berka at the Niland’s Cafe counter.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
Now available: Lincoln Highway Companion features detailed maps and places to eat and stay. Click the book to buy it on Amazon.
Click the Greetings book below to purchase the ultimate guide to the history and route of the Lincoln Highway!
Lincoln Highway fans can help send birthday greetings in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birth 200 years ago. According to an AP article sent by Jan Shupert-Arick, the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is asking people to send cards to Lincoln for his 200th birthday on Feb. 12. The 16th president even has an official USPS address: Abraham Lincoln, Old State Capitol, 1 Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield, Illinois, 62701-1512.
At Buffalo Bill State Park / Scouts Rest Ranch, 2921 Scouts Rest Ranch Road. Tonight is the last evening so hit the road now! “Christmas at the Cody’s” runs from 5:30-8 p.m.
