Bus Tours

An eastern tour will include a trip to East Liverpool to visit the Museum of Ceramics, the industry that anchored this Ohio River town from its early roots. A western tour to Mansfield will traverse the 1913 and 1928 routes of the Highway and will allow a visit to the now-world famous and decidedly haunted Ohio State Reformatory, which in its heyday was the wrong place to be visiting along the Lincoln Highway.

Seminars

The Pathways & Presidents theme will be rounded out by including a seminar on First Ladies of the Lincoln Highway to be held in the theater of the National First Ladies’ Library, visits to the McKinley Museum, and will also touch others of Ohio’s eight presidents, several of whom were instrumental in the age of the developing automobile era. Other seminars may include a history of Canton’s brick industry, which contributed to many hard-surfaced miles across the country, and a seminar discussing the early pioneer and Indian paths into the Ohio country is being planned.

Special events

Mixed in just for fun is a coincidental Marmon Automobile Club national conference that will display their collection of these rare cars. Nearby Canton Classic Car Museum will host a special evening tour, while outside on the streets in front of the hotel a cruise-in will be adding eye-candy to the evening. Another reception will greet visitors and interested newcomers to share Lincoln Highway information.

An opening banquet in the McKinley Grand Hotel, a dinner and a movie evening hosted in the historic Palace Theater, and a lofty fourteenth-floor awards banquet high atop the lavish 1920s Canton Club (al fresco on the terrace, no less) are a couple more of the features that should compel you to attend the conference in Canton, Ohio in 2012.

Pre- and Post-conference tours

A Founders pre-tour will gather attendees in the east and explore President McKinley’s birthplace and the Packard Museum with its ties to Lincoln Highway founder Henry Joy. Another pre-tour will gather in Western Ohio at Delphos and traverse the southern and little-known Marion Way influenced by Warren G. Harding, and will include a tour of Harding’s home and tomb.

Ohio League President Mike Buettner will also host a post-conference tour of the National Road through east-central Ohio.