Moving forward, the byway will be known as the Lincoln Highway National Heritage Byway. “With this honor, the Iowa section of the Lincoln Highway will continue to gain visibility worldwide and build and expand on the opportunities to market traveling along Iowa’s section to the globe,” says Prairie Rivers of Iowa Executive Director Penny Brown Huber.

Prairie Rivers of Iowa Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway Coordinator Jan Gammon states, “We are very excited for the 460 miles of the byway in Iowa to be named a new National Scenic Byway. The Nebraska section was also given this honor and as we join the Illinois route, this will make over 1,000 miles of continuous byway in three states.” The road passes through 13 counties and 43 communities in Iowa with so much history to be shared with travelers.

In 1991, a group of Iowans formed the Greene County Lincoln Highway Association to help preserve the Eureka Bridge just west of Jefferson. One year later, the national Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) was reborn. The Iowa chapter of the LHA applied to have the Iowa section of the Lincoln Highway included in the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Scenic Byway program. The application was approved in 2006. Two of Greene county residents, and long-time byway supporters, are Bob and Joyce Ausberger.

According to the Ausbergers, “This is great news for the Iowa Lincoln Highway. Prairie Rivers of Iowa and other organizations helped with planning, hard work and perseverance to make this dream come true. The Lincoln Highway in Iowa has now been raised to the national level it deserves!”

“The Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway achieving National Scenic Byway status is very much warranted based on the outstanding interpretive sites that exist such as Reed Niland’s Corner in Colo, Youngville Station west of Cedar Rapids, brick streets in Woodbine, and many others,” relates Iowa Department of Transportation Systems Planning Office Director Craig Markley. In addition to experiencing these interpretive sites, byway travelers enjoy city and rural landscapes while tasting food and libation, viewing art, touring museums, appreciating the outdoors and more.

The Youngville Café in rural Benton County on the National Register of Historic Places is one of the many attractions along the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway that was a factor in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s recent decision to designate the byway in Iowa as a National Scenic Byway.

The Ames, Iowa-based not-for-profit Prairie Rivers of Iowa Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway program facilitated the interpretive panel’s design and construction as part of a ten-panel project using grant funding from the Union Pacific Railroad Community Ties Giving Program and Humanities of Iowa along with a cash match courtesy of The Burke Heritage Foundation. The panels offer travelers and their families a safe, fun, educational and engaging activity.

“We are honored to be one the sites to have been selected to install an interpretive panel,” says Preston’s Station Historic District owner Mary Helen Preston, “This panel showcases four generations of Prestons that began in 1913 when my great grandfather followed the Union Pacific to Belle Plaine for work and while watching the Lincoln Highway be rerouted through the town.”

From great grandfather to grandfather, to father, to daughter Mary Preston and her husband Garry, the family has remained Preston Station’s caretakers preserving the property and telling the story of how important the railroad and the Lincoln Highway have been to Belle Plaine.

Located at 402 13th Street in Belle Plaine, Preston’s Station was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in September 2020. It comprises an old gas station, a garage and motel. Visitors can appreciate what travel was like during the past along the Lincoln Highway while experiencing vintage gas pumps, signage and memorabilia.

The Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway – A National Scenic Byway in Iowa is managed by Prairie Rivers of Iowa in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Transportation. Prairie Rivers’ mission is to preserve its history and tell the hundreds of stories from along its 470 miles running east to west, river to river through 43 communities in 13 counties in the state. Learn more at prrcd.org/lincoln-highway-heritage-byway.