The Idea
The idea was simple yet big. Carl Fisher wanted to gravel 3,400 miles of road across the US.  He planned to use communities to provide the equipment and manpower and in exchange for the work, the communities would receive the material free of charge. To fund the estimated $10 million for materials, Fisher appealed to auto manufacturers and parts companies to donate one percent of their revenues and to sell membership certificates to the public at $5 a person. There was even a timetable for the road to be done by the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition so that the host town of San Francisco would be accessible by New York City. Frank Seiberling, founder of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and Henry B. Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company, were on board. Joy suggested naming the road after President Abraham Lincoln to gain patriotic support.

The following year on July 1, 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association was officially established and the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway was given the name: The Lincoln Highway. Joy was the president and Fisher the vice president so it did not appear that it was only one man driving the plan.

Henry Ford would not give his support for the plan because he believed that the government should build the roads. Support was low without Ford, so Joy and the Association came up with another promotional plan to generate interest by hosting “Seedling Mile” demonstration projects. The Portland Cement Association was pulled in to donate materials for mile-long paved sections of roadway in hopes of getting work to finish the roads. They were strategically placed near enough for communities to access but far enough that the rough roads had to be traversed to reach them. It was also hoped that this scheme would produce government interest in paved roads with the Lincoln Highway as an example. The first seedling mile was paved by October of 1914 west of Malta, Illinois. Iowa’s official seedling mile located between Mt Vernon and Cedar Rapids wasn’t completed until June 1919.

Publicity & Branding
Several celebrities were drawn in to take trips across the Lincoln to advertise the entertainment industry while promoting the highway. To follow the route, the Lincoln Highway’s signature marked the way on telephone poles with the red band on top and blue on the bottom with the letter L in the center. By the 1920’s the telephone poles sported several roadways’ painted colors. Interest was growing in road trips.

In 1919, to test roads and military mobility, a US Army Convoy of 72 vehicles and 297 men traveled across the Lincoln Highway (having joined up in Gettysburg). Among the men on the trip was a young Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower who was greatly affected by the arduous trip. This trip was very heavily publicized and after the comments by the men on board, the government had to take notice.

In 1919, to test roads and military mobility, a US Army Convoy of 72 vehicles and 297 men traveled across the Lincoln Highway. Tama, Iowa shown here.

The Lincoln Highway Association was no longer needed and ceased operating on Dec 31, 1927 with 42 miles yet to be improved in politically charged Utah. As their last promotional stunt, they enlisted the Boy Scouts to install nearly 2,400 concrete markers along the Lincoln Highway and 4,000 metal signs in what is rumored to be a one-day installation in 1928.

In 1938, by the 25th Anniversary of the Lincoln Highway, the paving of the roadway in Utah was finally underway. But was it still the Lincoln Highway? Or was it a US highway? Was the Lincoln Highway then ever really completed? Or was it an entirely different highway by then? There is a difference. I will let you enjoy the struggle with the argument.

The Rebirth
A group of individuals from seven Lincoln Highway states met on Oct 31, 1992, in Ogden, Iowa, to discuss the need “to identify, preserve and improve access to the remaining portions of the LH and its associated history sites.”  They soon formed a revived National Lincoln Highway Association, which today maintains a road map with a 1913 route, 2nd and 3rd generation routes, and auxiliary and detour routes.

In 2006, the Iowa Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association, along with community leaders, and the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) designated the entire Iowa route as the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway. This gave the Lincoln Highway visibility through the use of signage along the roadway and a managing entity (Prairie Rivers of Iowa) that would promote the intrinsic qualities of the historical, cultural, and natural resources of the Byway through education and economic improvements.

In 2021, then coordinator, Jan Gammon, with help from the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association, was able to obtain National Scenic Byway status!

Sources
www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/lincoln.cfm
www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/history/
www.iowadot.gov/autotrails/lincolnhighway

Historical Note: Henry Joy wasn’t the first to suggest Lincoln as the name for America’s coast-to-coast highway. Read more here in Brain Butko’s Lincoln Highway News.

Pritchard Companies Traverse the Lincoln Highway for their Historic Innovation Relay to Celebrate 110 Years

Nineteen hundred and thriteen was the year that Walter Pritchard opened Garner Auto Sales in Garner, Iowa. 110 years later the company is still run by the Pritchard family only on a much larger scale having 350 employees and seven divisions. Now known as the Pritchard Companies, the founding family wanted to make a big gesture to highlight the innovation of the auto industry after such a long history of a single-family business. When the Pritchards found out that the Lincoln Highway was not only the first improved transcontinental roadway across the United States but that the Lincoln Highway Association was also celebrating an 110th anniversary, the idea was set.

Two short months later, on Oct 31st, on a very cold Tuesday morning at sunrise over the Mississippi River, Pritchard family member Angela Pritchard (5th generation), headed west out of Clinton, Iowa driving a Ford Mustang Mach-E (electric vehicle) on her way across the Lincoln Highway. Before she took to the road, the city of Clinton presented her with a flag to the city.  In the days leading up to the drive, Bill Pritchard (3rd generation) had previously handed off the baton for the relay in a dramatic gesture captured here from his antique Model-T Ford (the original dealership car of 1913).

As the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway coordinator here at Prairie Rivers of Iowa, I would like to express our gratitude for the inclusion of the Lincoln Highway in such an iconic drive. We are thankful for your choice to use the Iowa Lincoln Highway route for your 110th Anniversary Innovation Relay and for the attention you brought to the 110th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway Association’s official dedication date for the Lincoln Highway route.

The Pritchard Companies’ Historic Innovation Relay drive was a success and a milestone. We can’t wait for the next celebratory drive.

High atop a ridge overlooking the Missouri Valley is Council Bluffs’ Fairview Cemetery, where stands the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, also known as the Black Angel. Legend has it the spot is haunted and visitors sometimes report unusual occurrences. Nevertheless, the site is worth a visit as the beautiful bronze sculpture, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the work of Daniel Chester French, who created Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial and the minuteman in Concord, Massachusetts.

Ruth Anne Dodge was the wife of railroad baron General Grenville Dodge, an honored figure in the history of Council Bluffs and the westward expansion of the railroad. 

Each night the angel encouraged Ruth Anne to drink the water. “Drink, I bring you both a promise and a blessing,” the angel said. Twice Ruth Anne refused to drink, but the third night she did drink the water, and after partaking she said she felt “transformed into a new and glorious being,” telling her daughters she had drunk the “water of life” and now had immortality. She died a short time later.

Who haunts the site today is unclear. Is it Ruth Anne Dodge? Or perhaps it is the beautiful but tormented young woman who served as the model for the sculptor. According to Tom Emmett, executive director of the Historic General Dodge House in Council Bluffs, Audrey Munson was the most oft-sculpted woman of her time.