LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The 34th annual Lincoln Highway Bridge Festival in Tama, Iowa, starts Friday and features Merriam’s Midway Shows, bands, kids activities, and the Festival Parade on Saturday morning. The celebration is named for the 1915 concrete bridge built on East 5th Street that has been preserved and is still used.
Read more in today’s Tama Toledo News for times and more details. (Sorry, my link posting is down):
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Singer/composer Cecelia “Cece” Otto will celebrate the Lincoln Highway’s centennial this summer with concerts in every state along the coast-to-coast road. An American Songline: A Musical Journey Along the Lincoln Highway is a “singing travelogue” that will serenade communities with songs popular during the highway’s heyday.
Cece wants these performances to be free so she is asking for donations to help defray some of her costs. Visit her Kickstarter campaign at www.kickstarter.com/projects/614045560/an-american-songline> to make a donation. Whether you donate or not, at least check out her project, one of the most creative celebrations of the Lincoln Highway’s centennial.
“I will travel through 14 states, following the original 1913 route of the Lincoln Highway. I’ll be singing a mix of operetta, light classical, and vaudeville songs that were performed in concert halls and recitals along the road throughout the 1910s, ’20s and ’30s. And I’ll be staying with people along the way and getting to know them and their communities.”
An American Songline kicks off mid-April in New York City. Cece will then travel from New Jersey to California, where the journey ends in Lincoln Park, the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway. To learn more about American Songline, visit americansongline.net or its page on Facebook.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Nebraska Lincoln Highway Scenic and Historic Byway Association has published a Centennial Travel Guide to promote attractions along the Lincoln Highway. Nebraska’s portion of the coast-to-coast road 450 miles, makes it the state’s longest byway. Print versions are available or see it instantly online HERE.
Sarah Focke, LH byway president, says “The centennial of the Lincoln Highway in 2013 will mean increased tourism…. This will help them visit all the hidden treasures located along the way.”
The guide includes historical information about the highway and key byway attractions and historical sites, maps to find lodging, meals and entertainment and a schedule of activities along the way.
Copies of the travel guide are available in the 36 communities across the byway, or for more information, visit
http://www.lincolnhighwaynebraskabyway.com.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Village of Lynwood, Illinois, sports the newest mural in the Illinois Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor’s series that spans the 179-mile Illinois byway corridor. Lynwood marks the eastern terminus to the Illinois portion of the Lincoln Highway. The mural wasinstalled October 10, 2012, at 21490 East Lincoln Highway, on Lynwood’s Senior/Youth Center building.
ILHC works with artist Jay Allen (above, installing the mural), owner of ShawCraft Sign Company; every mural is a hand painted, unique work of art. Upon completion, the series will be one of the largest works of public art in the country. This mural depicts Carl G. Fisher, the “Father of the Lincoln Highway” and elements of his life that helped turn his dream of the first transcontinental highway into a reality.
For more information on the Illinois Lincoln Highway, places to see and things to do, stories of the highway’s significance and history, or to download an Illinois Lincoln Highway Visitor Guide, visit drivelincolnhighway.com. To see the mural larger, visit my Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/28162312417/.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
I’ve been meaning for more than half a year to post about an impressive, engaging, and informative blog. Grover Cleveland, via his ”Camera and Pencil in the Mountains,” has been regaling us with detailed trips along “The Lincoln Highway in Basin and Range, ” that is, across Utah and Nevada. sierratraveler.wordpress.com
The latest trips cover Fish Springs, the John Thomas Ranch, and what Grover calls Black Point, above, a few miles west of Fish Springs. I really appreciated the link to the 1859 report of Captain James Simpson, who explored the major wagon and Pony Express route throughout Nevada.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The 8th Annual Buy-Way Yard Sale along the Lincoln Highway starts this Thursday and runs through Saturday, Aug. 11. Started in Ohio, it has grown to include West Virginia and parts of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa’s Lincoln Highway communities.
“If you are looking for it, it’s out there somewhere waiting for you to buy at a bargain price,” says Mike Hocker, executive director for Ohio’s Lincoln Highway Historic Byway. “This three-day BUY-WAY Yard Sale has not only introduced people from all over the country to the history of America’s first coast-to-coast paved roads, but it also provides an economic boost to the communities that participate, and it serves the thrifty side of all of us who find that bargain.” Visit www.historicbyway.com for more info.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The 15th annual Lincoln Highway Festival and Car Show is set for this Sunday in Shelton, Nebraska, which bills itself as the “Lincoln Hi-way Capital” of the state. As reported in the Grand Island Independent, festivities include a car show, antique tractor display, live music, and a photo contest on display at the Lincoln Highway Center. The festival is sponsored by the Shelton Historical Society.
Lunch served at the American Legion Hall will include sloppy joes, Polish dogs, chips, drinks, and pie. The United Methodist Men will be serving homemade ice cream at the north end of Main Street. Organizer Cyndy Ryan said a new addition to this year’s festival will be an antique tractor drive from Shelton to Gibbon and back.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The most revolutionary event for the Lincoln Highway since it was founded 99 years ago is now available — free, detailed, online maps of the Lincoln Highway!
The LHA Mapping Committee (myself and 2 dozen others) has worked for a decade to map all generations of the Lincoln Highway, from the obscure Proclamation Route to the equally-rare city feeders. Mapping software expert (and committee chair) Paul Gilger has done a stunning job, spending hundreds of hours to apply our info to DeLorme and now Google Maps. The maps are now available to the public for free. Click www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map to see for yourself this stunning resource detailing exactly where the LH went from coast-to-coast. Here are some samples that you should be able to easily identify.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Today launches the 20th annual Lincoln HIghway Association conference, located in Canton, Ohio. The Ohio chapters of the national Lincoln Highway Association along with the official Ohio Lincoln Highway Historic Byway are hosting some 200 visitors at the McKinley Grand Hotel for a week of lectures, seminars, day-long road trips, banquets and other evening activities. The theme — Pathways and Presidents — celebrates the Lincoln Highway.
The annual conference is held each year somewhere along the corridor from New York to San Francisco. In 2011, Lake Tahoe dazzled attendees with local culture and history, and two years ago Dixon, Ill., hosted the week-long conference.
Organizer Jim Cassler said there will be tours focusing on Ohio’s Amish Country, a train trip on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway and a trip to the Packard Museum in Warren honoring Lincoln Highway co-founder Henry Joy, then president of Packard Motors. Presidential activities will include Canton’s McKinley and the First Ladies Museum, while a trip to Marion will highlight Warren Harding’s involvement in the early highway.
For details and developing registration information, go to www.lincoln highwayassoc.org or www.historicbyway.com.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
As the former Serro’s Diner moves closer to being back in service, the diner’s first waitress got to visit the restoration project. The Serro family opened the brand new 1938 O’Mahony-brand diner in Irwin, Pa., as a Lincoln Highway bypass was being built around the town for the coming Pennsylvania Turnpike terminus. The diner will soon be part of a museum complex being built by the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor between Greensburg and Ligonier.
A story in the Tribune-Review (including the two images here by Eric Schmadel) reported how 95-year-old Jenny Baloh recently visited the diner where she began waitressing in 1938. As one of the 10 Serro siblings, she was THE first waitress:
My brothers (Louis and Joseph) bought the dining car when I was a teenager. I told them I didn’t know a thing about waitressing. They said, “You’ll learn.”
The diner was rescued from likely demolition in 1992 when I had the pleasure of arranging for its purchase and move by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, now the Heinz History Center. With no practical place to display the diner, it was given to the LHHC. After almost 2 years of work, the diner is almost ready for it’s new home, a soon-to-be-constructed addition at the Lincoln Highway Experience Museum along Route 30 East, across from the Kingston Bridge.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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