Cross country travel was never the same in America after Hoosier Carl Fisher persuaded investors to commit money to plan and build this nation's first transcontinental highway in 1912.
This year marks the official bicentennial of the route first opened to travelers in 1913, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the event than to hit the old road through Fisher's home state with the help of some free guides developed by the Indiana Lincoln Highway Byway Association (INLHA).
Fisher recognized the need to improve the nation's roads in order to stimulate the country's agriculture and commerce, and his Lincoln Highway quickly improved and revolutionized the travel experience for motorists across the nation.
By the end of the 1920s, America's then-new numbered highway system subsumed Fisher's old Lincoln Highway, but it's still possible to follow some of the old roads through Indiana and other Midwestern states.
We love road trips and traveling the old highways, exploring the Ohio leg of the old Lincoln Highway last year and recently driving through Indiana on the old routes.
Yes, there are a couple of Lincoln Highway routes through Indiana-the path of the older 1913 alignment that cuts a more northern route across the state, and a later 1928 route that follows a more southern route across the state that roughly follows the present-day U.S. 30.
We downloaded the turn-by-turn road guides for the old Lincoln Highway 1913 and 1928 routes from the INLHA onto our iPad to use during our most recent road trip.
Both routes basically form a large loop through the northern part of Indiana, so it's possible to do both routes in a couple of days without traveling many of the same roads twice.
Signage along the historic route can be sporadic and hard-to-spot, so traveling with these cool PDF guides allowed us to stay on-route with a minimum of missed turns. The guides were especially helpful in letting us know exactly when we should look for a turnoff or spur along the present-day main roads and for finding some great stretches of road that seemed nearly untouched by the passage of time.
The Lincoln Highway routes can't always run exactly along the original roads because of modern developments like newer buildings, one-way streets or highways obliterating the original two-lane roads, but by using the guides you can see much of the old routes and experience at least a bit of the travelers' experience in the early 1900s.
We expected the ride back along the 1928 route to run right along U.S. 30, but by using the guides, we actually saw a lot of the older route by turning off onto the spurs or stretches of old road running alongside the more modern multi-lane highway.
The guides for the 1913 and 1928 routes, along with an overall guide for Indiana's portion of the famed highway, are also great for the numerous vintage photos and history of Fisher and his highway.
So check them out and hit the road to celebrate the official bicentennial of America's first cross-country highway.
Want to learn more? Check out The Lincoln Highway Across Indiana (Images of America) by Jan Shupert Arick and the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association or a book we've used a few times to help guide our travels along the highway, The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate by Michael Wallis.
© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved
Great entry. I like your photos along both routes. Thank's for the mention of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association. See you along the route.
Posted by: Dennis E. Horvath | June 27, 2012 at 03:35 PM
Dennis-There are still plenty of things we weren't able to see along the route, especially as we were through early in the week and some of the small museums, etc. were closed those days. So, I'm thinking we'll be back out that way one of these days again :)
Posted by: Dominique King | June 28, 2012 at 07:40 PM