Category: General

Tom Lewis, author of Divided Highways, argues that we should learn the lessons from the story of how Eisenhower created and funded the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and apply them towards Obama’s economic stimulus program.

[Eisenhower] knew firsthand the need for better roads. As a young lieutenant colonel, he traveled in 1919 over the Lincoln Highway in the Army’s first transcontinental caravan, a journey that lasted 62 days and sometimes required oxen to pull the trucks through mires of mud.

Tom Lewis, Eisenhower’s roads to prosperity, Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2008

Rick Sebak’s latest documentary, “A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway,” premiered on PBS on October 29. If you missed it, your local PBS station will probably show it again sometime this weekend — be sure to check your local listings. (For example, KQED in San Francisco is showing it tonight at 6 PM and Wednesday at 2 AM.) You also buy it online at Shop PBS.

It made it onto the “must see” list of many newspapers. Here is some of the more notable press coverage:

• PBS motors along Lincoln Highway, South Bend (IN) Tribune, October 25, 2008
• One street, so many names, Courier News (Bridgewater, NJ), October 26, 2008
• Tuned In: In search of the Lincoln Highway, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 26, 2008
• Sebak chronicles quintessential cross-country trip, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 28, 2008
• Soundtrack stands out in Route 30 travelogue, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 28, 2008
• Beehive State is part of this ‘Ride Along’, Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), October 28, 2008
• A Chance to Tour the Lincoln Highway, Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 28, 2008

And here’s a teaser:

 

A plaque in Oregon commemorates the Jefferson Davis Highway, which was announced just one year after the Lincoln Highway.

• Rock by the side of the road, The Mail Tribune (Medford, Ore.), July 6, 2008

I’m happy to introduce a new format for the News and Events section: a weblog or “blog.” A blog is essentially a journal, with the entries typically listed in chronological order. Thanks to WordPress, we’ve gained some new features. On the right-hand side, you can browse through old entries by using the calendar, search the blog, or filter entries by category. You can also leave comments for each entry by clicking “Leave a comment” in the header of each entry.

Currently, I’m backfilling the blog with Russell Rein’s previous newsletters. I’m not quite done yet, so meanwhile, you can access them at

https://lincolnhighwayassoc.org/news_old/

Once I’ve finished the migration, this link will go away.

Enjoy the new News section!

John & Lenore Weiss have a new books out about a triangle road trip in Illinois covering Route 66, the Lincoln Highway and the Dixie Highway. More information is at their website:
http://www.il66authority.com/
Read a review at Route66News.com.

Michaels Wallis and Williamson’s new book on the Lincoln Highway, and their cross country book tour generated a lot of publicity this summer.

• IL LHA Director Kay Shelton has a web site about the book
• a review at the Route 66 News blog
• Checkout the tour blog with many photos
• From the Wall Street Journal
• From KCBS all news radio in San Francisco
• From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• From LATimes.com
• From the New York Post’s Required Reading column
• From the Fort Wayne Observed blog with a video
• From the Deseret Morning News
• from the New York Times – The Virtues of Avoiding Interstates by Phil Patton
• From the HuntingtonNews.net
• Wallis also was featured on the Comedy Channel’s Colbert Report. You can watch the video here.
  [May require a highspeed web connection]

Lots of sites listed September 10, 1913 as the opening of the Lincoln Highway with inaccurate text such as, “1913 – The Lincoln Highway opened, becoming the first paved coast-to-coast highway in the United States. It is now known as U.S. 30″  Oh well……