Vehicles old and new rolled into town Saturday as part of thecross-country Lincoln Highway 100th anniversary tour.
They rode in from New York City to traverse the nation’s first coast-to-coast highway. The visitors were here as part of the Lincoln Highway Association’s centennial celebration tour. This centennial tour began Saturday in New York City and is proceeding west, while another tour began Sunday in San Francisco and is heading east. The two groups will meet Sunday for a celebration in Kearney, Neb.
The borough paid homage to the highway on June 22 from 9:30-10:30 a.m., when the historical society shared waves and well wishes with the caravan as it passed through town. The group, whicc served lemonade for attendees, had Lincoln Highway flags used for cheering on the drivers led society member Tyreen Reuter.
The Lincoln Highway, begun in 1913, was the first U.S. transcontinental highway. It was the idea of Indianapolis Motor Speedway founder Carl Fisher. With help from industrialists Frank Seiberling, president of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., and Henry B. Joy, president of Packard Motor Co., Fisher envisioned an improved road, stretching 3,380 miles from New York City to San Francisco. Fisher established the Lincoln Highway Association on July 1, 1913, to both promote the road and fund the project, according to the association.
270 people traveling in 140 vehicles, from 28 U.S. states and from Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Norway and Russia.
Travel the original alignments of the Lincoln Highway covering many miles of two-lane history, four-lane progress, and even gravel scenic beauty. Travel from America’s urban centers, through pastoral farm lands, over breathtaking mountains and rolling prairies.
Travelers from the East start at Times Square, the heart of America’s most vibrant city. Travel through ivy-covered college towns such as Princeton, New Jersey, and the Amish country of Pennsylvania. From Pittsburgh’s steel and beer brewing industrial history, you will travel through Ohio’s diverse agricultural and commercial mix. Indiana takes you through more Amish farm land, South Bend’s Notre Dame and automotive history and on to Illinois. From Illinois you will travel to Iowa’s farmland across the Mississippi River into the prairies of Nebraska and on to the Centennial celebration in Kearney at the Great Platte River Arch Museum.
Western travelers enjoy beginning their journey in the urban centers of San Francisco and Oakland, California. After traveling through the state’s agricultural Central Valley you are exposed to the magnificent Sierra Nevada Mountains and Donner Pass before dropping into the deserts of Nevada and the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Climbing the mountains out of Salt Lake City, you will enter the wide open spaces of Wyoming and on to historic Cheyenne for an overnight stop. This is followed by your easterly trek into Nebraska and eventually joining the rest of the travelers from the east for the grand parade of cars into Kearney on opening day.
