The Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway. A Highway to Honor Lincoln. As of 1900, the United States had an excellent rail network but no system of long-distance highways. Private associations made the earliest attempts to blaze "auto trails," giving them colorful names and emblems. , The most famous road across Iowa was the Lincoln Highway, the first successful effort to mark, promote, and build an automobile highway spanning the United States. Launched in 1913, it was billed as a memorial to the martyred president. , The Lincoln Highway also followed the main line of the Chicago and North Western (now Union Pacific) railroad across Iowa. A train depot often was within sight of the highway, as in Lisbon. , By the mid-1920s, more than sixty named and marked highways ran in Iowa. , Federal financial support to states achieved a coordinated system of federal-aid highways by the end of the 1920s, and in 1926 numbers displaced names on those highways. Some lamented the passing of the era of named highways. , In the pioneer days of motoring, necessities of travel usually were found only downtown. Gas, food, and lodging, as well as a Lincoln Highway "tourist information" office, were available to early travelers on Lisbon's Main Street. , Across Iowa, U.S. 30 shields replaced "L" signs. In 1953, those shields through Lisbon and Mt. Vernon, as well as along Mt. Vernon Road in eastern Cedar Rapids, came down when U.S. 30 was relocated to a new bypass south of the original route. , The Lincoln Highway ceased to exist officially after 1926, but for many Iowans U.S. 30 remained the Lincoln Highway. On September 1, 1928, Boy Scouts planted nearly 3,000 commemorative Lincoln Highway markers along the entire route. , Linking New York City and San Francisco, the Lincoln Highway crossed Iowa from Clinton to Council Bluffs by way of Lisbon and three other cities in Linn County , Mt. Vernon, Marion, and Cedar Rapids. , This is one of eight exhibits created by the Linn County Historic Preservation Commission for the purpose of interpreting the historical importance of the Lincoln Highway in Linn County. The interpretive themes and sites of these exhibits (also located by numbers on this map) are as follows:

1. A Highway to Honor Lincoln (Lisbon) , 2. A Highway of Main Streets (Mt. Vernon) , 3. "Seedling Miles" (Abbe Creek School) , 4. Engineering the Highway (Squaw Creek) , 5. The Highway through Marion (Thomas Park) , 6. Accommodating the Motorist (Lincoln Heights) , 7. Promoting the Highway (Haskell Park) , 8. The Enduring Lincoln Highway (State Patrol Station)

, One of the few markers remaining in place is located on East Main Street in Lisbon. At least three other markers stand along the original route in Linn County. Can you find them? , [marker illustrations] , . Trans-Continental Pole Markers , . Iowa’s Registered Highway Routes, 1914-1925 , . The Lincoln Highway in Iowa , 358.3 miles from Clinton to Omaha , . The Lincoln Highway in Linn County