Lincoln Highway paves way for Interstate

NORTH ENGLISH — Nearly 50 people shared their love of a piece of Americana at the English Valleys History Center in North English.

Author Darcy Dougherty Maulsby walked the audience through the creation of the Lincoln Highway through Iowa. The program was provided by Humanities Iowa.

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The route from the East Coast to West Coast predates the famous Route 66 and paved the way for the interstate highway system, said Maulsby.

From Clinton on the Mississippi River through Council Bluffs on the Missouri, the Lincoln Highway puts many small communities in Iowa on the map.

In Benton County, the Youngville Café, which has been recently restored, opened in the 1930s by a widow whose father helped her set up.

The Lincoln Café in Belle Plaine, which still serves customers, dates to the 1920s. Preston Station, a longtime tourist destination along the route, is being prepared for renovations.

The Herring Hotel, built in Belle Plaine in 1900, served travelers along the Lincoln Highway, changing its entrance to 13th Street frontage during 1922 after the Lincoln Highway shifted its route due west along 13th Street instead of turning north on Eighth Avenue.

In 1919, the Herring Hotel built a gas station for automobile traffic. The hotel fell into disrepair and was demolished last year.

There was such a strong push for Lincoln Highway in early 1900 because of the muddy condition of dirt roads after rains, said Maulsby.

Most people didn’t have cars; they still used horses for travel.

Trains were the most reliable means of transportation, said Maulsby. Cars were for the rich until the production of the Model T Ford.

Only 799 automobiles were registered in Iowa in 1905, said Maulsby. By 1915 the number had increased to more than 147,000.

In 1903, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson claimed he could drive across the country in an automobile. On a $50 bet, he drove from San Francisco to New York in a Winton. He took mechanic Sewall Crocker with him.

There were no service stations — or gas stations — along the way, said Maulsby. The pair had to take everything they needed with them.

They completed the trip in 64 days after many difficulties caused by the condition of the roads.

Also in 1903, George Wyman drove across the country on a 200 cc, 1.25 horsepower California motorcycle, basically a bicycle with a small engine attached.

He left San Francisco May 16 and arrived in New York 50 days later.

Wyman rode, when he could, on railroad tracks — without the permission of the railroads — because the path was easier to drive than the roads.

Waypoint signs have been erected along the Lincoln Highway to commemorate Wyman’s trip.

In Feb. 12, 1908, on Lincoln’s birthday, six cars from four countries — the United States, Germany, Italy and France — left from a rainy Times Square in New York City for an international automobile race.

As they drove west, they stopped in Ogden, Iowa. Most people hadn’t seen an automobile. “They just mobbed those cars,” said Maulsby.

American driver George Schuster told the crowd, “I don’t like your roads. The mud is something awful.”

Only three cars finished the race. The American team won.

In 1909, 22-year-old Alice Ramsey also made the trip across the U.S. Ramsey drove a four-cylinder, 30 horsepower Maxwell touring car. She completed the journey from New York to California in 59 days.

By 1912, Carl Fisher, an automobile salesman in Indianapolis who started the Indianapolis 500, dreamed of a rock highway across the United States.

The cost was estimated at $10 million and the route would be a named for President Abraham Lincoln. Fisher hoped to have it completed in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo, a world’s fair in San Fransciso, in 1915.

Automobile Henry Ford refused to contribute, said Maulsby. He was adamant that public funds should pay for the road.

Construction of the Lincoln Highway began in 1913. Much of the route through Iowa follows railroad tracks. These routes were the easiest to travel, the straightest, flattest, most direct route through Iowa.

The route followed roads already in use across Iowa, but the roads were improved to make travel easier.

Lincoln Highway covers 3,389 miles and goes through 13 states. It paved the way for the modern Interstate Highway system, said Maulsby.

Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower was with the troops who tested the U.S. road system from Washington, D.C. to California on the Lincoln Highway in 1919, following World War I.

Later, as President of the United States, Eisenhower was instrumental in creating the Interstate Highway system.

Today we have gas stations, hotels and diners along the interstate. “You owe a debt of gratitude to the Lincoln Highway,” Maulsby said.

Though the highway has changed routes in places, nearly 85% of the Lincoln Highway is still drivable in Iowa. About 1/3 of Iowans live along or near the route.

“Some of our biggest communities are along the Highway 30 corridor,” Maulsby said. And so are many hidden gems.

“States and towns fought to have the Lincoln come through their neighborhoods,” Maulsby said. Increased motor traffic brought economic growth.