4th Annual Iowa Lincoln Highway Motor Tour: August 26-28

This guest post was written by Jeff LaFollette, Iowa state director of the Lincoln Highway Association.

Spring is beginning and there will soon be warmer temperatures, and with that come the sound of classic cars rolling on the open road like the ones that will be cruising on the 4th Annual Iowa Lincoln Highway Association Motor Tour scheduled for August 26–28, 2011.

The motor tour, which is sponsored by the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association, is asking everyone to “Come Join Us ‘4’ A Fun Time”. This year’s tour begins with a pre-tour event on Thursday, August 25 in Council Bluffs and will end in Clinton County on Sunday, August 28. The historic route travels nearly 330 miles across Iowa going through the communities of Council Bluffs, Denison, Carroll, Jefferson, Boone, Ames, Marshalltown, Tama, Cedar Rapids, and Clinton.

The idea of the Lincoln Highway came from the mind of Carl Fisher, the man also responsible for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Miami Beach. With help from fellow industrialists Frank Seiberling and Henry Joy, an improved, hard-surfaced road was envisioned that would stretch almost 3400 miles from coast to coast, New York to San Francisco, over the shortest practical route. The Lincoln Highway Association was created in 1913 to promote the road using private and corporate donations. The idea was embraced by an enthusiastic public, and many other named roads across the country followed.

The Iowa tour kicks off on Friday, August 26 in the Council Bluffs area, with stops in Denison, Carroll, Jefferson, Grand Junction and Boone, where the tour will stay overnight.

On Saturday, August 27, the tour departs from Boone, and stops at Ames, Colo, LeGrand, Tama, Belle Plaine, and Youngville before overnighting in Cedar Rapids. The tour offers a group get-together dinner at the Hotel at Kirkwood, on the campus of Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, a facility where students learn their trade in hotel and restaurant management. The dinner will be prepared by student chefs.

On the final day, Sunday, August 28, the tour departs from Cedar Rapids and continues east to Mount Vernon, Lisbon, Clarence, Wheatland, and will end either in DeWitt or Clinton.

The tour will travel as much of the original Lincoln Highway route as possible. This is a “classic car friendly” tour: although some of the original route is gravel, the tour will not be traveling on those long gravel sections. There will be only a couple of short sections, less than half a mile to get to a stop or two. Otherwise the tour will be on all paved routes. All vehicles, including cars and motorcycles from the classics to the present, are welcome to participate.