When Lincoln Highway Association pioneer Gregory Franzwa took ill, President Bob Dieterich wanted to honor him before he died. He says, “We didn’t make it in time, but my wife and I drove over to Utah last week to give this to Kathy [along with Jesse Petersen].” The photo below shows Jess and Bob giving the proclamation to Kathy (after all the tears stopped).
The proclamation establishes an annual “Gregory M. Franzwa Award” to be given to the organization or individual doing the most to promote the Association. Click HERE to see the full text. Also, a fund has been established in Greg’s name to be used for preservation projects. Contributions can be sent to Jesse Petersen, P.O. Box 1075, Tooele, UT 84074.
The fifth annual Lincoln Highway BUY-WAY Yard Sale is being planned for August 6, 7, and 8, 2009. Sales will stretch from Chester, West Virginia, across the Ohio River through Ohio and on into Indiana and Illinois.
Ohio, the originator and most active promoter, announced that although the “Lincoln Highway Historic Byway” designated by ODOT is the 1928 route across the state, there are several earlier alignments that will also have sales and will celebrate the history of the road, almost doubling the 241 miles of sales across the state. Last year there were an estimated 750 sales.
For the past two years, a Travelers Guide with maps and info on sales and activities has been distributed free along the corridor. Executive Director Mike Hocker encourages churches, restaurants, or any organization to participate and take an ad. Call him at (419) 468-6773 for details before May 15 or visit www.historicbyway.com/.
Sunday’s Cedar Rapids Gazette ran a story about the Lincoln Cafe, along the Lincoln Highway in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Owner and chef Matt Steigerwald won the Cochon 555 competition held in Des Moines on April 19. Below is the story and a photo of the place by PBS producer Rick Sebak.
Cochon is French for pig, so 5 competing chefs prepared a Heritage Pig for judging and public tasting. Steigerwald was the only chef not from Des Moines. The chefs prepared the pigs in their own restaurants and transported them to the competition—for Steigerwald, a 2-hour drive. Some of the items Steigerwald made were pozole (a Mexican soup made with pork and hominy), a pork belly confit, biscuits made with lard, head cheese and Carolina pork barbecue.
Steigerwald took home a bottle of Templeton Rye and a trophy that declared him the “Prince of Porc.” The competition is traveling nationally and will be in Chicago next on May 24. For more information go to www.amusecochon.com/.
By now, you’ve read here about the recreation of Alice Ramsey’s pioneering drive in 1909, making her the first woman to drive across the U.S. Most of her route west of Ligonier, Indiana, would become the Lincoln Highway four years later.
This summer, Emily Anderson, 38, of Seattle, will retrace Alice’s trip in an identical 1909 Maxwell, thanks to her father Richard’s expert efforts to create one from parts. The Cedar Rapids Gazette has a nice article about local efforts to welcome the Maxwell when it arrives there June 18, 2009. The writer gives a nod to Gregory Franzwa’s reprinting of Alice’s memoir of the trip.
The trip launches June 9 from Broadway in New York City. Read more at aliceramsey.org including how they’re test driving it for 1,000 miles before the big trip.
There’s no breaking news today and I’ve been working nonstop since noon Wednesday to finish my book on the Ship Hotel. It’s getting there but still rough in the Noah’s Ark chapter and the deadline looms hours away.
Former LHA president Jan Shupert-Arick has been giving presentations and signings for her new book and postcard set, The Lincoln Highway Across Indiana. She researched this photographic history of the LH through Indiana by acessing private collections, historical societies, museums, and libraries in Indiana and Michigan. She reports, “It’s been fun so far!”
Look for Jan at these locations:
Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne), Sunday April 26, 2 p.m.
Studebaker Drivers Club Zone Meet (South Bend), Sat-Sun May 1-2
Center for History (South Bend), Friday May 8
The History Center (Fort Wayne), Saturday May 9, 2 p.m.
For more information, call (260) 471-5670.
Jan is a native of northern Indiana and her family has roots in the state’s automotive history. She is a past president of the Lincoln Highway Association and past director of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association. She serves on the northern Regional Council for Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. Her book covers both the original route across northern Indiana and the 1926 mid-state realignment.
She hopes that this work will serve to honor Abraham Lincoln’s legacy in this the bicentennial year of his birth as well as Indiana’s automotive and road building heritage: “My intent is that this book will serve as a lasting reminder of Indiana’s leadership in building the nation’s first coast-to-coast auto road. I hope that it will reflect the spirit of Indiana that embraced the road as a patriotic effort to improve commerce by building good roads to move goods and to provide a road for private citizens.”
PBS producer Rick Sebak, whose A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway debuted in October, dazzled attendees to the Frick Art & Historical Center’s Model T Jubillee weekend with tales of road trips near and far. Here he is recalling a trip he almost drove from South America:
A number of Model Ts were on display and can be seen through Sunday May 3 as part of ARevolution on Wheels: The Model T at 100. The Frick has borrowed four vintage autos to supplement the 1914 Model T Touring car already in its collection: a 1909 Model T Touring Car, a 1917 Model T Runabout, a 1925 Model T Depot Hack, and a 1926 Model T Coupe.
Here, a display of Model T parts and ephemera sits in front of the 1909 model:
And here is the 1917 Runabout outfitted as a fire chief’s car:
They also have a freshly restored 1908 Buick:
Visit the Frick’s Car & Carriage Museum at 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, www.frickart.org, (412) 371-0600.
The Car and Carriage Museum at the Frick Art & Historical Center is hosting a weekend-long Model T Jubilee. The celebration and activities on Saturday and Sunday celebrate the exhibit “A Revolution on Wheels: The Model T at 100,” which opened in October to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Model T. The exhibit, which contains five Model T Fords ranging from 1909 to 1926, will close on May 3. The museum is along the Lincoln Highway in the Point Breeze section of Pittsburgh, Pa.
ABOVE: Model T Fords at the Frick’s Car and Carriage Museum. Photo by Pytlik Design Associates.
Saturday will feature kid activities. The highlight on Sunday is a lecture at 1:30 p.m. by WQED-TV’s Rick Sebak discussing his most recent PBS television program, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway. (If you haven’t heard it for a while, have a listen to the excellent song that accompanied the video, Goin all the Way on the Lincoln Highway composed and performed by Buddy Nutt.)
The Model T Jubilee is free; Sebak’s talk is $10, $8 for members. The Frick is at 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, www.frickart.org, (412) 371-0600.
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor has announced that the first of the Roadside Giants student sculptures has been installed along the Lincoln Highway west of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The Roadside Giants program encourages students from vocational and technical schools along the Lincoln Highway (US 30 in PA) to design and create sculptures that will line the road. They are named for the larger-than-life buildings and statues that are used to attract travelers to stop and spend some time and money, documented in such esteemed books as Roadside Giants — yes, written by me and my wife Sarah.
The first Giant, from the Eastern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center, is a replica 1940s Bennett Gas Pump at the future site of the Lincoln Highway Experience, a welcome center and attraction in Ligonier Township. It’s at the intersection of US 30W and Route 259, near the Idlewild Park entrance. Ligonier Livingalso wrote a story about it.
Four other schools will also soon install giants:
• Somerset County Career & Technology Center designed a vintage Bicycle Built for Two
• Bedford County Technical Center students created an oversized quarter including a profile of Washington
• Franklin County Career & Technology Center built a replica 1921 Selden Apple Truck like the ones used to haul produce at Chambersburg’s orchards.
• Central Westmoreland Career & Technology Center wanted to design a Lincoln Highway-era figure, so they chose a Packard Car with Driver.
“I love art and education,” said Olga Herbert, Executive Director of the LHHC. The Roadside Giants of the Lincoln Highway project combined the two, and involved the community. It will create another great photo op for all Lincoln Highway road trips this summer.”
The Veterans Memorial Bridge linking Columbia with Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, may soon be getting a facelift. The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reports that on April 30, 3 pm, at the Columbia Borough building, the nonprofit Lancaster-York Heritage Region will unveil plans for the renovation of the bridge and ask for public input.
Plans call for a three-phase project. In the first phase, workers would replace the “cobra” streetlights put in during the 1970s with reproductions of the original art deco lights used when the bridge first opened to traffic in September 1930….
The second phase would concentrate on the “travel plazas” at either end of the bridge, including upgrades such as new landscaping and pedestrian improvements such as traffic islands or “roundabouts” like those found in Gettysburg and Abbotstown.
The project’s final phase would involve “under-lighting” the bridge’s reinforced concrete arches. “This last phase would be aimed at travelers going across the nearby Route 30 bridge,” Pinkerton said.
I am also quoted in the article, in varying degrees of accuracy.
The Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, a wetland mecca along the Lincoln Highway in western Utah, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The refuge was established in 1959 by the Migratory Bird Commission and is managed as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The celebration will take place May 9-10, 2009. Billed as a weekend of Wildlife, Wildlands, and History, participants will accompany instructors in the field for natural history classes in any of three sessions (two on Saturday, one Sunday). Topics will include land birds, aquatic birds, aquatic botany, area geology, refuge archeology, and most notably, a class titled Fish Springs the Crossroads which looks at the many important pioneer trails that passed through the refuge.
ABOVE: Refuge manager and LHA membership coordinator Jay Banta was photographed by PBS producer Rick Sebak as the crew filmed for last year’s Lincoln Highway program.
Refuge manager Jay Banta says that class will cover “the Jackass Mail, the Pony Express, the Central Overland Stage, the Transcontinental Telegraph, the Lincoln Highway, and maybe even a bit of the CCC history as they built most of the country roads in our part of the world.” Classes are limited to 20 students and require pre-registration, available online, by email, or by phone — see below.
Camping will be allowed on the refuge Friday May 8 and Saturday May 9. There will be a group potluck dinner on Saturday with a “Campfire” program by manager Banta and some surprise guests!
The refuge is 135 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Commuting time is approximately 3.5 hours from SLC, with half of that distance being gravel roads.
For more information check the Special Events at http://fishsprings.fws.gov or e-mail fishsprings@fws.gov or call the refuge from 7 am to 4:30 pm, M–F. (435) 831-5353 x2
It’s always a surprise — and a relief — when a book you’ve been working on for years finally arrives in finished form. Today I was finally able to hold and look through a completed Lincoln Highway Companion, sent on ahead by the printer. Ahh, the smell of fresh ink and new paper!!
Like my last book, Roadside Attractions, this one incorporates written contributions from dozens of friends and fellow old road enthusiasts; it’s an honor to include their roadside recommendations.
No matter whether others like your book or not, you know every image, every fact, every comma had to be chosen, tracked down, and approved. It’s like your child — you love it no matter what. I filmed a little video preview of Lincoln Highway Companion for YouTube that you can play here too.
Attendees to this summer’s Lincoln Highway Association conference in South Bend, Indiana, won’t be very far from Elkhart, just to the east along the Lincoln Highway. Online news site msnbc has launched The Elkhart Project, a long-term interactive blog to provide perspective on the national recession. The site has a variety of features on the town that learned that “heavy dependence on a single industry – in this case RVs – is a double-edged sword: It provides a comfortable ride in the boom years but a rough journey when the good times stop rolling.”
The Iowa Lincoln Highway Association will gather in Carroll this Saturday, April 11, for a business meeting, lunch, and short tour. Location is the Club House Bar & Grill, 529 N. Main St./US 30, aka the Lincoln Highway. Coffee and pastries will be available at 9 am. The meeting starts at 9:30; topics will include the next motor tour across the state and the LH Heritage Byway project. Lunch follows there, then the group will tour the Santa Maria Winery a block away in the former Wittrock Auto building. That’s the building below — it was still in operation when I visited in 2004, with Mike Wittrock at the 1931 double canopy station.
With Spring travel not yet here and snow surprising many of us, there’s not much news from the road, but my editor just sent some good news – a few honest-to-goodness samples of my Lincoln Highway Companion book have arrived! These go out to booksellers that want a look before ordering, and perhaps reviewers. I’m hoping to see one too — he says “Looks great!!!” but I’ll still be anxious till I see it myself. Here’s a photo from it of the Frazer Diner that Stackpole Books posted on Facebook. Click it to see it a bit larger.
Over the weekend I added a wonderful image to my Ship Hotel book – a photo taken from the mountainside looking down on the Grand View Point Hotel, about 1930 just before it was remade into the Ship. In the distance, along the Lincoln Highway / US 30 is a billboard — this is about 17 miles east of Bedford, Pennsylvania. It’s pretty small in the photo but I was wondering what it said so I enlarged it – what do you think? I’ll post it regular and darkened.
The Ohio Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor issued a press release geared to catch the attention of those planning springtime road trips. Titled Springin’ Along the “Lincoln,” it promotes cruising the Lincoln Highway in Ohio as a fun, close-to-home get-away. Below is a portion.
You may not find the world’s largest ball of twine but you will be able to do some serious antique shopping or visit a museum or two. Travel games can be created around identifying Highway period (1913-1928) buildings, historical monuments, spotting courthouses or locating old road alignments. And there is always plenty of home-style cooking and apple pie eating along the way….
During its 15 years, some “alignments” of the Lincoln Highway were changed to improve travel. Driving these older alignments today reveals charming small communities waiting to be explored. Today these areas may be unknown, but in the early days of the Lincoln Highway, everyone going east or west would pass through them. They were on the nation’s map and known by all who traveled the highway.
The ol’ Lincoln is out there, waiting to share its charm and history. for more information and maps, visit www.historicbyway.com or phone 419-468-6773.
The Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition has just published its 2009 Visitors Guide. The 44-page guide is filled with info on attractions, restaurants, and accommodations along the route and in adjacent towns. You can download a PDF or request one from the website or call toll-free (866) 455-4249. Among their recent work, 17 Interpretive Gazebos will soon appear along the Illinois Lincoln Highway corridor, and 40 more murals will be installed.
Gregory Mathew Franzwa 1926 ~ 2009 Gregory Mathew Franzwa, 83, passed away from cancer at his home in Tooele, Utah, on March 29, 2009. He was born in Carroll, Iowa, on Feb. 27, 1926, to Fred W. and Mabel Henderson Franzwa. He is survived by his wife, Kathy, and his three children: Theodore C. Francois, Hemet, Calif; Christian N. Franzwa, Lynnwood, Wash; and Patrice A. Smith, Bailey, N.C. He also leaves two brothers, Sterling “Rusty,” Glidden, and Frederick A., Rochester, N.Y. His stepmother, Jane Franzwa, lives in Tucson, Arizona. He became a professional musician while a sophomore in Glidden High School, playing trumpet with local dance bands. He joined the U.S. Navy’s V-5 flight training program while awaiting graduation in May 1943, and was called to active duty on October 5, 1943. He was released to inactive duty in August 1946, as a Lt. (JG), in the United States Naval Reserve. Mr. Franzwa attended Iowa State College from September 1946 to May 1947; and the State University of Iowa from February 1948 until receiving a bachelor of journalism degree in August 1950. He moved to St. Louis, MO, in October 1950, and opened his firm, Gregory M. Franzwa Public Relations in 1955, a firm which remained in business until his move to Tucson, Ariz., in 1991. He founded the highly successful Tiger Rag Forever Jazz Band in the early 1960s, and the 1926 Jazz Band, an all-star group, also in St. Louis, in the late 1970s. He joined the Old Pueblo Jazz Band in Tucson and remained its leader until moving to Tooele, Utah in 2005. His first book, “The Old Cathedral”, was published by the St. Louis Archdiocese in 1965. His second, “The Story of Old Ste. Genevieve”, was the first to bear the imprimatur of his firm, The Patrice Press, in 1967. “The Oregon Trail Revisited”, first published in 1967, established Mr. Franzwa’s reputation as a premiere scholar of the history of the covered wagon emigration to the American West. The Patrice Press continued to publish Mr. Franzwa’s works, as well as that of many other scholars. In 1996 the author began his state-by-state series of hardcover books on the Lincoln Highway. The six states west of the Mississippi River are now in print with his 21st book, “The Lincoln Highway: Illinois”, in process. He was the principal founder of the Oregon-California Trails Association in 1982, a group dedicated to the interpretation and preservation of the historic road. 10 years later, in October 1992, he founded the current Lincoln Highway Association, with the same purpose. He married his soulmate, Kathleen A. Colyer on Dec. 23, 2000, after a storybook romance centered on the Oregon Trail. His remains were cremated and scattered over the Oregon Trail. At his request, there will be no services.
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!
