The 2000 Auto Tour: Boy Scout Marker Day

By Norman Root

It all started out as the California Chapter's annual auto tour along the Lincoln Highway. And it turned out to be a "Boy Scout" Marker discovery day.

Registration for drivers began at 9:30 AM on Saturday, September 23, in the Safeway parking lot in West Sacramento. The Lincoln Highway, leaving Sacramento, heads for San Francisco right here on West Capitol Avenue. Drivers were issued a self-guiding tour package with instructions to be in Dixon by 11:30 AM for a "Boy Scout" Marker dedication ceremony.

The California Chapter intends to place a replica marker post each year during its annual tour. This year, Ron Tribbett, Public Works Director for Dixon had requested that his town be the chosen site. Thanks to the Dupratt Ford agency for allowing the new marker to be placed on the lawn in front of its business.

Along the way to Dixon, the tour wound through Davis and passed by the fairly well known Lincoln Highway marker post at 5th and B.

Arriving in Dixon, the dedication site was easily spotted. Ron Tribbett had his Model A sedan emblazoned with Lincoln Highway signs parked at the site. Boy Scout Troop 152 of Dixon did the honors of reenacting the post-setting ceremony of September 1, 1928. It was 73 years ago that First Street in Dixon had been designated the Main Street of America, with transcontinental traffic from New York to San Francisco passing right by here. First Street was still only two lanes just a couple of years ago, and has long since been bypassed by U.S. 40 and now the Interstate. City of Dixon redevelopment has recently widened it to a divided four-lane street, and a few new light industrial businesses have begun to populate it.

Scouts of Troop 152 that participated in the ceremony were:

• Kevin Hicks, Senior Patrol Leader
• Chris Kilkenny
• Chris Wilson
• Mark Gius
• Cutter Hicks

Troop leaders for the day were:

• Jeff Wilson, Scoutmaster
• Vince Nelson, Assistant Scoutmaster
• Kathy Hicks and Terry Kilkenny, Troop Committee members

Speakers at the ceremony included:

• Norman Root, Vice-President of the California Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association
• Don Erickson, Mayor of Dixon
• Mary Ann Corvel, Vice-Mayor of Dixon

After the ceremony, the scouts posed in the traditional spread flag formation for pictures just as the scouts in 1928 had done.

"I've learned something neat about scouting and my community that I never knew before."

Kevin Hicks
Senior Patrol Leader, Troop 152

Boy Scouts of Troop 152 in Dixon assist in setting a historical marker to indicate the former Lincoln Highway. This post setting, at the corner of North 1st Street and Industrial Way, is a reenactment of a ceremony that took place on September 23, 1928. [Click to enlarge]

The Boy Scouts pose in the traditional flag formation. [Click to enlarge]

Ron Tribett, Public Works Director of Dixon, has his Model A Ford set up to serve a meal along the Lincoln Highway. [Click to enlarge]

When Greg DuPratt at the Ford agency saw the marker post, he exclaimed, "I know a guy who has two of those. He lives on this same street on the other side of the freeway, but it's called Curry Road over there. One of the markers used to be on his property, and he found the other in a ditch." The chapter intends to follow up on this lead. There may be two more markers previously unknown to us. These most likely are markers #2376 and #2377.

After the ceremony, the tour progressed on through the town of Vacaville, where the instruction sheet said another Lincoln Highway marker post would be found in the park next to the old steps leading up to the high school. This is post #2382, originally placed around the comer about a block away in front of 123 McClellan Street. However, no one on the tour could find the post. But another post about a block away at Ulatis Creek Bridge was seen by some. This post greatly resembles post #2383 that disappeared from the Nut Tree grounds about three years ago.

The tour continued on through the town of Fairfield, where another marker sits in front of the Old County Courthouse. We know this marker has come from somewhere else too. It has a right turn arrow, but you cannot make a right turn at that location. Also, we know that no concrete markers were placed in Fairfield anyway. This could possibly be post #2393, formerly at Willotta Road House about 5 miles west of Fairfield.

The tour terminated at Allen Witt Park in Fairfield, where a picnic lunch was enjoyed by all. Over lunch, drivers discussed what they had seen what they had missed. As a result, most of the group returned to Vacaville to see the formerly missing Nut Tree post and the site by the old steps where no one had seen a marker. Jack Duncan, the tour planner, insisted that the marker had been there when he laid out the tour just three months before.

Back in Vacaville, what appeared to be the lost Nut Tree marker was set beside the recently refurbished 1911 Ulatis Creek Bridge. The McClellan Street marker was, in fact, missing from the old school steps. So the group stormed the Vacaville Historical Society Museum, about a mile down the road, to see if anyone knew what was going on. Bob Burns, a volunteer at the museum, confirmed that the Ulatis Creek Bridge marker was in fact the former Nut Tree marker. That means that marker #2383 is now back to within a half block of where it was originally set 72 years ago.

Burns at first insisted that the McClellan Street marker was still there. However, he quickly remembered that it was supposed to be taken down for refurbishing and thought it was supposed to be returned. He supplied the name of the person who is supposed to do the refurbishing.

Jack Duncan then announced that he had spotted another marker, previously reported by Joe Schlechter, on Russell Road at Route 113 near Davis, on his way over this morning. It had not been seen before, so it was not listed in the tour guide. So what remained of the group then raced back to Davis to see that marker. Sure enough, there it was, at the end of a mile long row of black walnut trees lining the roadway. This is the exact spot where marker #2371 had been placed in 1928. Joel Windmiller swept away the accumulated leaves and dirt, exposing the dedication plaque and leaving the site in a presentable condition. Ron Tribbett says this marker had been placed by the City of Davis when David Pelz was Public Works Director there. This marker is what inspired Ron to want a marker post placed in Dixon too. The post appears to have been broken off at one time and a new post cast.

"I've discovered four new marker posts during this event."

Jack Duncan
Tour planner