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Join us as we Gather in Goshen for our 2019 Fall Meeting

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Join us as we Gather in Goshen For our Fall Event
Saturday, November 2, 2019

The fall meeting of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association (INLHA) will be in Goshen, Indiana on November 2, 2019.  Everyone is invited, whether a current INLHA member or just interested!   Here is our tentative agenda.

♦ 9:30 a.m. EDT – Meet at the Reith Interpretive Center for car pooling. The facility is located at Millrace Park, 410 W. Plymouth Ave. Click here for a Google map of the area:  https://goo.gl/maps/42z2YX15138zyJ2w6

♦ 10:00-11:30 a.m. – Join us at the Lincoln Highway kiosk at Fidler Pond Park, 1424 Lincolnway East for a view of our LH historic panels and a brief discussion of the LH through Goshen, followed by a drive further east on US 33 to just beyond Benton, IN to hear the story of the ongoing restoration of the Benton Tourist Camp Cabins and some recognition for Dave Beachy and his work there. The cabins were recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.

♦ 11:30-12:30p.m. – Lunch on our own at one of the suggested restaurants listed below.

♦ 12:30-2:30 p.m. – INLHA business meeting back at the Reith Interpretive Center.  All are welcome if you have an interest in the activities underway regarding the LH in Indiana or want to know more. If not, just come for the morning!

Restaurant suggestions for lunch:

Olympia Candy Kitchen
136 N. Main St. (across from the Court House)

South Side Soda Shop
1122 South Main St.

Venturi’s Pizza
123 E. Lincoln St.
Opens at 11:30

Hopper’s
1208 W. Pike St.

Goshen Brewing Co.
315 W. Washington St.

Lunch and Learn in La Porte – Saturday, July 13, 2019

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You are invited to
Lunch and Learn in La Porte
during the
 The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association’s
Summer Event & Annual Meeting
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Mama T’s Diner (formerly B & J’s American Cafe)

The Itinerary:

  • 9:00 am Central Daylight Time:  Meet at Mama T’s Diner, 607 Lincolnway, La Porte 46350
  • 9:15 – 11:15 am:  La Porte native Bruce Johnson, educator and historian, will guide non-board member attendees as they visit the Lincoln Highway Kiosk downtown, then drive to the La Porte County Historical Society Museum for a tour ($3.00), 2405 Indiana Avenue. laportecountyhistory.org/
  • 9:15 – 11:15:  INLHA Board meeting
  • 11:30 – 1:30:  Lunch and Membership Meeting at Mama T’s.  We will order off the menu on our own.

Meeting Highlights:

  • View The Lincoln Highway’s Ideal Section* produced by Paul Nelson
  • Hear updates on INLHA projects and activities including the visit by two groups traveling cross-country commemorating the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Army’s 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy on the Lincoln Highway
  • Election of Directors, and more.

We look forward to seeing YOU! There is no charge (except for the Museum entry fee) but it would be helpful for planning if you reply by email that you will attend. Use the link in the upper right hand corner of this page under the Byway sign.

* The 20 minute documentary offers a look at the creation of the Ideal Section of the Lincoln Highway, the memorial site, and the restoration of the Henry C. Ostermann Memorial Seat and the Ideal Section Monument.  The video includes historic photos and movie clips as well as interpretive comments from several members of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association and other historians.  In addition, viewers will get a condensed introduction to the Lincoln Highway, including the 1919 Military Convoy.

 

Original Lincoln Highway Buffet at 607 Lincolnway in La Porte, IN

The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association office has moved down the street:

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The Indiana Chapter has moved a few blocks west to a small office space in the 1885 Romanesque mansion built by South Bend business leader William Kizer, listed in the 1915 LH Road Guide as the St. Joseph County Consul.  While the interior is being renovated by Indiana Landmarks, who will use this as their Northern Regional Office, we are in the carriage house behind the home.  The INLHA took over the space in the Remedy Building when the LHA National Office was closed in 2008. The replica LH concrete post that was planted during the LHA National Office Dedication on April 21, 2007, will be removed and stored until it can be installed at an appropriate site along the 1928 alignment. The new INLHA address is 801 W. Washington St., South Bend, IN 46601.  Bev Gillespie continues as the volunteer office manager.

Review of Honest Eats

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Keith Elchert and Laura Weston-Elchert have written a wonderful new book Honest Eats – Celebrating the Rich Food History of Indiana’s Historic Lincoln Highway.
The book is now available through Amazon. Use the AmazonSmile homepage when you shop, and Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to the Indiana Lincoln HIghway Association. Please bookmark this link for all your future Amazon shopping – thanks:  http://smile.amazon.com/ch/68-0661158
Honest EatsHere’s a review by Jeff Blair, president of the Indiana Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association:

I had heard for the past couple of years about this book on restaurants along Indiana’s portion of the Lincoln Highway and looked forward to seeing it when it was to be released. I had personally walked the two Indiana alignments twice, once in 2011 and again in 2014, so felt I was a pretty knowledgeable guy about places to see and eat on its paths. I might even be the first one to order a copy the very day I got the email that it was about to be released from publication. Boy am I glad!

Laura and Keith’s book is terrific and a good read for everyone…Hoosiers, Lincoln Highway tourists, history buffs, even those who love a good picture or postcard.  Photographer Brian Tombaugh and Graphic Designer Amanda Reyher, along with many other contributors, make this a visually stimulating book in addition to the fine verbal content.

The Lincoln Highway from New York City to San Francisco is often considered the “Main Street of America” and the Elchert’s book is a marvelous walk down that Main Street. It is full of old and new descriptions and photographs of nearly 100 Indiana restaurants that bring the Highway to life…through food.  It introduces you to innumerable Hoosier entrepreneurs who have left their footprint on northern Indiana over the years. Along the walk they point out additional points of interest either on the Lincoln or nearby. And you get the added pleasure of some of the divine recipes they collected in their travels.

My congratulations and thanks to the Elchert’s for this book. It is extremely well researched and they give ample praise to the many historical societies and individuals that made contributions. Here are my summary recommendations to anyone reading this review…

  • SHOW IT by putting the book on your coffee table or business waiting room table for everyone to see…your guests will be both surprised and pleased to learn about this historic road and its significance.
  • DRIVE IT…the Indiana Lincoln Highway that is. Use the book as a great guide across the state to find the listed points of interests and many more of your own.
  • DIGEST IT…whether it be through testing the many great looking recipes or supporting the wonderful restaurants and diners depicted throughout the book.  Find the perfect Indiana tenderloin, the finest candy, great little diners, outstanding ethnic stops all along the route.  But first I highly recommend you…
  • BUY IT! It will be a great addition to your home or library.  You will not be disappointed.

WordPress web problem

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There are 101 subscribers to the Indiana Lincoln HIghway Association website. When you get an e-mail from the website it means that a new entry has been posted on the Blog / News page. For some reason the first link on the e-mails for the blog title does not work. To go to the page just use:
http://indianalincolnhighway.org/blog-news
or click on the Categories link at the bottom of the email,
or click on our homepage and use the menu bar underneath the picture:
http://indianalincolnhighway.org/
Sorry for any inconvenience. Any WordPress experts out there?

Race to finish the Lincoln Highway Ostermann Monument Site Renovation

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It’s May in Indiana, so attention has turned to anticipation surrounding who will qualify for the100th running of Carl Fisher’s Indianapolis 500 race on May 29th, and who will persevere to Victory Lane.

In Northwest Indiana, another race is underway along the Ideal Section of Carl Fisher’s Lincoln Highway—the race to complete the renovations at the site of the Henry C. Ostermann Memorial Seat and the Ideal Section Monument before the official September 17th dedication. Generous in-kind and monetary donations have enabled qualifying renovations to date which include the removal and refinishing of the five historical plaques (four bronze and one aluminum), cleaning, tuck-pointing, and adding a protective coating to the stone monuments, excavation of the flagstone steps and terrace, removal of non-original trees and vegetation, completion of a sidewalk to improve access, and development of interpretive panels and restoration of a Lincoln Highway concrete post to enhance the site.

Now we’re ready for the race to the finish line: professional re-installation of the plaques, fabrication of the interpretive panels and mounting posts, repairs for the steps and terrace and some final landscaping will cost about $2,000. Remaining balance in the account plus new donations from the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association members bring the total needed down to about $1,000. Tax-deductible donations of any size at any time are welcome, but reaching the checkered flag by May 29th will assure that we have the time needed to complete the project by September.

Contributions can be made by check payable to INLHA and sent to Indiana Lincoln Highway Association, 402 W. Washington St., South Bend, IN 46601. You can also pay by PayPal using the Donate button on our homepage, even if you do not have a PayPal account. Just mention that your contribution is for the Ostermann Bench in the PayPal comments section.
http://indianalincolnhighway.org/

Thanks for your help in driving the Ostermann/Ideal Section Restoration Project to Victory Lane!

See the attached PDF for photos of the progress to date.  Please share this with other interested persons/groups.
http://indianalincolnhighway.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ideal-Section-Ostermann-Seat-Renovation.pdf

Thank You!
Indiana Lincoln Highway Association

Ostermann bench 1924 LH Guide

Ostermann bench 1924 LH Guide

 

AmazonSmile – Your online purchases can help the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association

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The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association is a non-profit organization, and relies on membership, donations in cash and in-kind, and the occasional grant for funding. We have a lot of ongoing projects, and this is another way you can help when you buy products online from Amazon. Use the AmazonSmile homepage when you shop and
Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to the Indiana Lincoln HIghway Association. Please bookmark this link for all your future Amazon shopping – thanks:
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/68-0661158

Indiana Byways Bicentennial Passport–an Indiana Bicentennial Legacy Project

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Summer is just around the corner but that doesn’t mean you can’t start making plans for a road trip using the Indiana Byways Bicentennial Passport–an Indiana Bicentennial Legacy Project.

Passports and boxesVisit the website below to get started, watch the video, and be sure to then click on the Lincoln Highway to see the 10 sites along both routes of the Lincoln Highway Byway. Pick up a Passport at any of the listed locations (a small $2 donation is encouraged) and be sure to get it stamped while there, and at the other sites as well.

While we are naturally partial to the Lincoln Highway Byway, this is a joint effort between all seven Indiana Byways. When you’ve completed the Lincoln Highway, there are great sites listed on the other Byways too.

It’s a Road Trip 200 Years in the Making!

http://indianabyways.wix.com/indiana-byways

MAKING A PLANNED GIFT TO THE INDIANA LINCOLN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION

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The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association (INLHA) is leading efforts to preserve America’s first coast-to-coast highway, promote tourism along it, tell its history, and expand ways to enjoy today’s routes.

As we look forward to the coming years, there are many new and ongoing projects and opportunities.  We are now an Indiana Scenic BYWAY, which allows us to produce and display new route signs, as well as to provide easier access to attractions to see and do along and near the two Indiana routes.

We ask you to take a moment to look down the road with us . . . to imagine what a planned gift could do to support our work.  We’ve listed on the document linked below some planned giving methods often used by individuals and families to help support a favorite charity.  Please consider which of them might be right for you. We also recommend that you consult your tax accountant or lawyer about your planned giving goals.

INLHA Planned Giving

Please help us sign the Indiana Lincoln Highway Byway

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In 1928, when the Boy Scouts of America traveled across the USA placing cement Lincoln Highway markers on the Lincoln Highway routes, they probably never dreamed of the profound positive impact those markers, their efforts and the Lincoln Highway would have on so many people through the generations. Now, YOU have an historic opportunity to help purchase signs to mark the Lincoln Highway. And, it will be in time to mark Indiana’s Bicentennial Celebration in 2016! We need to work fast to get this accomplished. . . .

As you may know, in 2012 our two Indiana Lincoln Highway routes were designated as a state BYWAY, and we are in the process of completing a Corridor Management Plan. This is being accomplished through the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association (INLHA), an organization working to preserve and celebrate the legacy of the nation’s first transcontinental highway as well as our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Indiana is fortunate to not only be the birthplace of the Lincoln Highway, but to have both an original “northern” route and a more direct “southern” route. In 2013, we celebrated the Lincoln Highway’s centennial year: it was in late 1912 that Hoosier Carl Fisher gathered a group of fellow auto magnates in Indianapolis to share his vision of a coast-to-coast tribute to the nation’s 16th president with the official route following and named in mid-1913. You can learn more about the INLHA, our BYWAY award, and the transcontinental Lincoln Highway at our website, www.indianalincolnhighway.org

Lincoln Highway SIGN v4Now, we need your help to provide funds for the INLHA to purchase 170 BYWAY signs to be placed along Indiana’s Lincoln Highway routes. These new INDOT-approved BYWAY signs will be strategically placed on the LH in order to help direct those who are visiting. Each BYWAY sign with directional arrow costs $70. Will you consider purchasing one, two or more of these LH BYWAY signs? Our goal is to purchase $12,000 worth of these BYWAY signs.

Our INLHA Board members have already begun the momentum for this project to succeed by providing the cash for purchasing several signs! Won’t you help us to reach our goal for this project by providing funds to purchase a sign? Please complete the  INLHA Donation Form to be part of Lincoln Highway history. Download it online here at:
http://indianalincolnhighway.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/BYWAY-Sign-Donation-Form.pdf

You can also donate online at our home page using the PayPal Donate button. Just include the requested information in the PayPal comments section.

If you have questions, contact Jeff Blair at jeffblair87@gmail.com . Thank you for your consideration of this request. Please note that the date to return your INLHA BYWAY Sign Donation Form is December 31, 2015.

Sincerely,
2015 Indiana Lincoln Highway Association board members: Jeff Blair, Bruce Butgereit, Joyce Chambers, Lynne McKenna-Frazier, Rose Fritzinger, Beverly Gillespie, Deb Parcell, Russell Rein, George Rogge, and Judy Wood