Planners Hope Drivers Get Their Kicks on Lincoln Highway
Posted
Jordan Fouts-
The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association wants to showcase America’s first coast-to-coast auto route and its place in Hoosier history during the state’s bicentennial next year. Association leaders spoke in Warsaw Tuesday about their plans to promote Indiana’s two segments of the New York to Los Angeles road, built in 1913 and 1928, which the state recognized as a byway in 2011. They hope to finish a corridor management plan in time for the 2016 celebration. Jeff Blair, president of the ILHA, and Kurt Garner, his counterpart for the Michigan stretch, spoke with residents about what sites and sights along the way might be worth highlighting. Planners also hope to pinpoint the 2,426 markers placed along the highway in 1928, many of which have been buried or destroyed, and to place signs identifying the route and the features along it. “It’s not the road but the stuff along the road, the towns it goes through,” Blair said of the significance of the Lincoln Highway. “It’s a path to take you places.” Conception of the Lincoln Highway is credited to Carl Fisher, an Indianapolis auto racer and dealer, Garner said. The original route through Indiana was northerly, passing through Fort Wayne, Elkhart, South Bend and Valparaiso. In 1928 a more southerly leg was established, roughly along Old U.S. 30 and a Pennsylvania Railroad route, which passes through Warsaw. Wherever the highway went, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and tourist camps followed. Many branded themselves with the highway name and its red, white and blue sign colors, decades before Route 66 became synonymous with long drives and kitschy roadside attractions. Planners hope to use the highway as a way to connect not only auto enthusiasts with noteworthy destinations but also lovers of railroads, food, history and everything else the road touches on. A committee will be formed to take ideas raised during talks in towns along the route and incorporate them into the corridor management plan. Garner and Blair unveiled one of the promotions they plan for the bicentennial, a passport program aimed at young families. It received the endorsement of the state bicentennial commission. Kids will be able to get stamps at destinations along the route, Garner explained, and might receive a prize at the end like a commemorative coin. Blair said his first idea proved too complicated, a narrated travel app that guides you along the route, but he still holds out hope the association can develop one. “We have to face it, people aren’t really pulling over and looking at trifold maps anymore,” Garner said. “We have to run with the times.”
