Lincoln Highway: The Great American Road Trip

The book, “The Lincoln Highway, Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate” chronicles a grand road trip still available to the intrepid traveler. Authored by Michael Wallis, who also wrote “Route 66: Lost and Found” , this second highway travel log includes descriptive captions as well as beautiful photographs taken by photographer, Michael S. Williamson, who as a photographer for the “Washington Post,” won a Pulitzer Prize for “And the Children After Them” and another for war photographs in Kosovo.

As a native of Mishawaka, Indiana, I always believed the Lincoln Highway was not only the name of the main route straight through our city, but was the “Lincoln Highway.” The facts are it was, but is no longer. The book clarifies the distinctions, for which I am grateful.

It seems the road through Mishawaka was a part of the original Lincoln Highway. In 1928, the highway was realigned to take out some kinks in order to make it straighter and twenty miles shorter coast to coast. The highway left the original path in Fort Wayne, Indiana and merged again in Valparaiso, Indiana. Thus, Mishawaka was no longer a “Lincoln Highway” city.

In Columbus, Nebraska, the Lincoln Highway (U. S. 30) is again the main route through town. I’m now living the second half of my life near the Lincoln Highway, but three states away from my hometown in Indiana.

In an early 1830s platform speech, Abraham Lincoln said, “The poorest and most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads...” More than eighty years later, Carl Fisher, a prominent Indiana business leader and founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, conceived the idea of connecting a “hard-surfaced, improved highway” from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He called his brainchild “The Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway.” Henry Joy, president of Packard Motor Car Company, proposed that the highway serve as a memorial to the nation’s beloved Abraham Lincoln.

In July 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association was officially organized. The route was made public in September and was dedicated on October 31, 1913. From Times Square to the Golden Gate Bridge the road was to traverse thirteen states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. Just three years later, in 1916, 100,000 travelers made their way to LaPorte, Indiana, for the dedication and nation-wide celebration.

Wallis states, “The Lincoln is a route for travelers, not for tourists. Tourists flock to the franchise eateries and the chain motels… Travelers, on the other hand, are more apt to enjoy a cruise on the Lincoln Highway... These travelers have come to learn that the interstates, the turnpikes, the super slabs are straight roads… It (Lincoln Highway) is a crooked path ― curving and bent, sometimes even warped ― but it is also a road that reflects the glorious diversity, the multifaceted heritage, indeed the exceptional genius of what America was and what it promises to be.”

It’s of little matter if you are or are not a “Lincoln Highway” aficionado, the book contains a delightful wealth of information and history about each state along the “sparkling ribbon of roadway that threw open the plains to curious travelers…”

The highway enters Nebraska at the Blair Bridge, and heads west through Fremont, Ames, North Bend, Rogers, Schuyler, and Columbus. Despite our current problems, the author notes that in Nebraska, the Memorial Stadium home games has sold out since 1962, and reminds us: “Yet, there is life after football.”

He also reminds us that Charles Lindbergh learned to fly in Nebraska; “Buffalo Bill” organized the first Wild West show in Columbus; a native Cornhusker invented the strobe light, and the nationwide 911 emergency system originated in Nebraska. Warren Buffett, the late President Gerald Ford, Al Capone’s brother who became an outstanding law enforcement officer, Malcolm X, and talk-show hosts Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson were all Nebraska residents. Eskimo Pies, Swanson TV dinners, the Reuben sandwich, and Kool-Aid are all Nebraskan-invented treats. Photos for our state include the Corner Café in North Bend and Kracl & Sons GARAGE in Rogers. Glur’s Tavern, Duster’s, Gottberg Brew Pub and other places in Columbus are referenced. You will be delighted to read the twenty pages of Nebraska found in “Lincoln Highway: The Great American Road Trip.” Enjoy!