The online Lincoln Highway map now includes RV campgrounds!

Soon it will be time to hit the road for some camping adventures. Now you can find out where the best campgrounds are using our Lincoln Highway interactive map.

You can see the new “RV campgrounds” button that you “click” to bring up the campground icons in the map below.

Once the button is clicked, the RV campground icons will show across the country. This is a work in progress, so as we discover more quality campsites, we can add them to the map. Check out the map below to see what clicking the button does.

The default view for the map shows the entire country. To see more detail, zoom in using the “+” button at the lower right. You can continue to zoom in until the street names become visible, as seen in the screengrab below. Here we see the Fallen Leaf Campground just south of Lake Tahoe, California.

Don’t forget that you can also toggle the map to a satellite view by clicking the “satellite” button, shown with the map below and the red arrow. Pretty cool!

Now that our cartographer Paul Gilger has added the RV Campgrounds to our expanding list of features, we will be presenting a “how to use our map” tutorial shortly. We’ll let you know here when it’s available for viewing.

Start planning that Lincoln Highway camping adventure today!

Rockslide at Echo Summit, and our Lincoln Highway Map

Photo of the rock slide from Cal Trans.

There was a rock slide at Echo Summit, along the southern or Pioneer Route of the Lincoln Highway. The rock slide occurred on a section of Highway 50 built after the route over the summit was re-routed from Johnson’s Pass in the 1930s.

Using our interactive Lincoln Highway map, we have zoomed in to see California and the state’s two routes below. The Northern or Scenic Route crossed The Sierra at Donner Pass, while the southern or Pioneer Route crosses the Sierra at Echo Summit. The red arrow points out the site of the rock slide.

Let’s zoom in on the map for a closer look. We can see the blue line, which represents the original 1913 Lincoln Highway. Lake Tahoe is to the north, while the rock slide at Echo Summit is shown with the second arrow.

Now let’s zoom in even further and using the “Layers” drop-down at the upper right and toggle to the satellite view. Below is the map with an even closer view and toggled to the satellite feature. Here we can see the historic Johnson’s Pass on the old Lincoln Highway. The current route over Echo Summit has Highway 50 making a loop around Johnson’s Pass, thus avoiding some very steep climbs and tight turns.

Johnson’s Pass on the Lincoln Highway is still drivable once the snow melts. During the winter, Johnson’s Pass Road is snowbound. Now and then, when something happens on the current Highway 50, people are still re-routed over the old pass.

In the photograph below, we see the summit at Johnson’s Pass. That’s the Alpine Club building straight ahead, with a Lincoln Highway sign attached to the building. You can also see the snow blocked route down towards Lake Tahoe. To enable a street view from our map, drag the “street view icon” to a spot on the map and drop it. The street view will materialize like in the photo below.

The Lincoln Highway interactive map shows the entire route of the Lincoln Highway across the country. You can zoom in on any area and start exploring from the comfort of your home, or while driving along the old highway.

1916 Packard with Lincoln Highway Motometer.

Join Jay Leno and Donald Osborne as they tool around in a classic 1916 Packard. What initially caught my eye was the Lincoln Highway logo embedded in the car, “Motometer.” The Motometer was a gauge to let the driver know the temperature in the radiator. I’m not sure why these Packards had Motometers with the LH Logo embedded in them. Perhaps the new and modern feeling the Lincoln Highway represented went with the feeling one would have driving this fine automobile with such beautiful and contemporary gauges.

Lincoln Highway Travelers Guide

Pictured here is an excerpt from a small guide that was published in 1914 advising potential Transcontinental Tourists on The Lincoln Highway, of hints and suggestions for making the trip. Here is a page from the little booklet concerning provisions that should be taken along for the journey. I find it fascinating to see what folks had to bring with them before the advent of plastics.

Love the “gauntlet gloves,” which look so cool. How about the specific brand “Ingersoll” watch, and the pair of “yellow” and “white goggles”? Don’t forget a package of “bachelor buttons,” which I assume are not the flowers, but replacement buttons?

The next paragraph recommends what types of food to pack along including, “Slab Best Bacon,” “10 lbs Potatoes,” and of course, “surgeons plaster” for sealing those tin cans. As mentioned in the pamphlet, these provisions are to be kept with the car at “all times, west of Omaha Neb.”

There is more to the book, which I’ll cover in the next post. This booklet comes to you when you join The Lincoln Highway Association.

California Chapter online meeting on Sat 4/3

Spring 2021 California Chapter Meeting
Saturday, April 3, 2021
Sign in starts: 12:30 PM (US Pacific Time)
Meeting starts: 1:00 PM (US Pacific Time)
Open to the public

The California Chapter of the LHA will have our spring meeting online via Zoom. Chapter members without access to a computer or smartphone are welcome to join us, but will need to ask family or friends to view the meeting on their computer or smartphone.

The meeting will begin at 1:00 PM. The host will be chapter president Joel Windmiller and chapter secretary Paulette Johnston, with Jimmy Lin providing Zoom tech support.

Agenda

  • Officer and Committee reports
  • COVID-19 impact on 2022 chapter activities and in-person meetings
  • Updates on LHA National Conference for 2022 and 2023
  • Online membership and donation
  • Folsom signage
  • Historical Byway update

If you’re interested in joining us, please email chapter president Joel Windmiller at for Zoom meeting instructions.

California Chapter online meeting and officer elections on Sat 1/9

Winter 2021 California Chapter Meeting and Officer Elections
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Sign in starts — 12:30 PM (US Pacific Time)
Meeting starts — 1:00 PM (US Pacific Time)
Open to the public

The California Chapter of the LHA will have our winter meeting and officer elections online via Zoom. Chapter members without access to a computer or smartphone are still welcome to join us, but will need to ask family or friends to view the meeting on their computer or smartphone.

The meeting will begin at 1:00 PM. The host will be chapter president Joel Windmiller and chapter secretary Paulette Johnston.

Agenda

  • Officer and Committee reports
  • Officer elections
  • COVID-19 impact on 2021 chapter activities
  • Updates on LHA National Conference for 2021 and 2022

If you’re interested in joining us, please email chapter president Joel Windmiller at for Zoom meeting instructions.

California Chapter online meeting on Sat 10/10

Fall 2020 California Chapter Meeting
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Sign in — 12:30 PM (US Pacific Time)
Meeting starts — 1:00 PM (US Pacific Time)
Open to the public

The California Chapter of the LHA will have our fall meeting online via Zoom. Chapter members without access to a computer or smartphone are still welcome to join us, but will need to ask family or friends to view the meeting on their computer or smartphone.

The meeting will begin at 1:00 PM. The host will be chapter president Joel Windmiller and chapter secretary Paulette Johnston.

Agenda

  • COVID-19 impact on LHA activities
  • Officer and Committee reports
  • National Conference schedules for Illinois (2021) and California (2022)
  • No presentation is scheduled, but this might change before the meeting
  • Finding a new chapter historian

If you’re interested in joining us, please email chapter president Joel Windmiller at for Zoom meeting instructions.

California Chapter online meeting on Sat 7/11

Summer 2020 California Chapter Meeting
Saturday, July 11, 2020
1:00 PM
Open to the public

The California Chapter of the LHA will have our summer meeting online via Zoom. Chapter members without access to a computer or smartphone are still welcome to join us, but you will need to ask family or friends if you can view the meeting on their computer or smartphone.

The meeting will begin at 1 PM. The host will be chapter president Joel Windmiller and chapter secretary Paulette Johnston.

Agenda

  • Updates on what impact COVID-19 has had on LHA activities at the national and local levels
  • Officer and Committee reports
  • National Conference schedules for Illinois (2021) and California (2022)
  • No presentation is scheduled, but this might change before the meeting

If you’re interested in joining us, please email chapter president Joel Windmiller at for Zoom meeting instructions.

California Chapter meeting and elections on Sat 1/11

Winter 2020 California Chapter Meeting and Officer Elections
Saturday, January 11, 2020
11:00 am–4:00 pm
Open to the public

Smith Flat House
2021 Smith Flat Rd
Placerville, CA 95667
(530) 621-1003
Google Map

Meet and greet • 11:00 am–12:00 noon

Lunch • 12:00 noon–1:00 pm ($10–20 per person)

  • Sandwiches, burgers, pizza, salads, and soups
  • Beer, wine, soda, water


Meeting • 1:00 pm–4:00 pm
$10 per person cash
for room rental fee

  • Officer elections
  • Officer and committee reports
  • Updates:
    • Signage and markers
    • Website


Presentation

  • Trey Pitsenberger: Smith Flat House — Witness to History


History of the Smith Flat House

From the historical plaque on the building (El Dorado County Point of Historical Interest — Eld-007):

A hotel originally built in 1853 with substantial additions including a blacksmith shop in 1863. In the cellar is the famous opening to the Blue Lead Mine. Known early as “3 Mile House” the building has served as a stage coach stop, general merchandise store, hotel, post office and community hall for 135 years. This building is perhaps the best preserved frame structure of its size in the entire Mother Lode. The earliest owner of record was Elihu Meredith who owned hotels in Coloma and on Green Valley Road. According to the Mountain Democrat, this house also served as the voting precinct headquarters from 1854 until after the turn of the century.

The Smith Flat House was the western terminus of California’s first state highway, the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road, which was approved by the state Bureau of Highways in 1895. The Pioneer alignment of the Lincoln Highway traveled past the Smith Flat House in 1913.

California Chapter meeting on Sat 10/5: LOCATION & TIME CHANGED

NEW LOCATION AND TIME

Fall 2019 California Chapter Meeting
Saturday, October 5, 2019
11:30 AM–4:00 PM
Open to the public

Lorenzos Mexican Restaurant
3883 Taylor Rd
Loomis, CA 95650
Google Map

11:30–1:00
Lunch

  • Full menu is available
  • Pay the wait staff directly, as if at a regular restaurant outing


1:00–4:00
Meeting and presentation

  • Presentation
    • Trey Pitsenberger — Adventures in California History: Roseville to Auburn on the old Lincoln Highway
  • Officer and committee reports
  • Updates:
    • LH signage
    • LH markers
    • Website
    • 2019 LHA Military Convoy Tour