The city of Dublin, California is planning to install four Lincoln Highway signs along Dublin Boulevard, which was the Lincoln Highway’s alignment through the city. The cost of buying and installing the signs will be covered by the Dublin Historical Preservation Association.
The city of Folsom, California has dedicated the 1893 Folsom Historic Truss Bridge after Donald Alden, who spearheaded efforts to have the bridge returned to the city after it sat in Siskiyou County from 1931 to 2000. The bridge carried Lincoln Highway traffic until it was bypassed by the adjacent Rainbow Bridge in 1917.
This article was written by Michael Kaelin, recording secretary of the California Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association.
Francis “Frank” H. Duarte passed away on November 22, 2011. He was the last business owner of the iconic Duarte’s Lincoln Highway Garage in Livermore, California.
Frank was born in 1915, the year of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, a magnet destination and banner year for development of the early Lincoln Highway.
Frank had just turned 96, and had returned to Livermore in 2008 from Applegate, where he had retired in 1977. He had owned and managed Duarte’s Garage since his discharge from the Army Air Corps in 1945. Previously, he started working for his father, Frank, at the garage in 1934, later enlisting as an aircraft mechanic in 1939.
Mr. Duarte is survived by 2 nieces, Kathy Erickson of Scottsdale, Arizona and Donna Kosch of Everett, Washington. Services for him on December 14 were private, and Frank was interred at St. Michael Cemetery in Livermore. Donations in his name may be made to the Duarte Garage Museum, now operated by the Livermore Heritage Guild.
Coincidentally, the California Chapter is holding its winter quarter meeting at Duarte’s Garage on January 7, 2012. It will be a joint meeting with the Livermore Heritage Guild after a luncheon at Beebe’s Restaurant at the Livermore Golf Course.
P. Grover Cleveland, a landscape photographer and history and travel buff, is writing about his trip along the 1913 alignment of the Lincoln Highway from Truckee, California to Salt Lake City on his blog, Camera and Pencil in the Mountains. His posts are full of photos, tips, and GPS waypoints.
“TruckeeDave” has two blogs, CorduroyPlanet on Blogger and CorduroyPlanet on Tumblr, where, among other topics, he writes about the Lincoln Highway, especially in California. One of his entries includes a proposal for the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race to have a Lincoln Highway leg in 2013, the highway’s centennial.
Donner Pass, along the Lincoln Highway, is home to two impressive displays of rock art: ancient petroglyphs and modern graffiti.
Norman Root, long-time member of the Lincoln Highway Association, president of the California chapter and past California state director, has passed away. He was also a retired bridge engineer for the California Department of Transportation. Norm will be sorely missed.
Riley’s Corner, the site of a gas station throughout the 1930s along Lincoln Way in Auburn, California, was for years considered the edge of town and the last place to get gasoline for the next 15 miles.
Cecelia Otto writes about her experiences at this year’s Lincoln Highway Association Annual Conference in South Lake Tahoe.
Summer 2011 California Chapter Meeting
Saturday, July 9
12:00 noon
Rockville Grill
4163 Suisun Valley Road (at Rockville Road)
Rockville, CA 94534
(707) 864-4325
Suisun Valley Road and Rockville Road are part of the 1928 Lincoln highway route from Sacramento to San Francisco.
The 2011 Conference Committee is sure to have great stories about the Lake Tahoe conference.
See you there!