Lincoln Highway Centennial Programs in South Bend

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The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association, in cooperation with the Studebaker National Museum and the Center for History, continue the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway by presenting two events during the week of September 29. Each talk will be held at 1:30 p.m. EDT in the Wiekamp Auditorium, and are funded in part by a grant from Indiana Humanities with the support of the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Sunday, September 29 – Carl Fisher, The Lincoln Highway, and the Evolution of the Highway System in America
Author and Historian Dennis Horvath, presenter, with Professional Actor Jeff Kuehl portraying Carl Fisher
This talk will show how the Lincoln Highway served as a model of the evolution of the highway system in America and cover the evolution of travel from rural roads to improved federal highways in the early part of the twentieth century. “Carl Fisher” will be on hand to describe his vision for the first coast-to-coast rock highway.

Cost: free with admission to the Studebaker National Museum ($8 adults, $6.50 senior, $5 children over six, free for SNM members and children five and under) www.studebakermuseum.org

Wednesday, October 2 – Insights in History – Competitive Spirits: Celebrating 100 Years of the Lincoln Highway
South Bend native and Lincoln Highway historian, Bill Arick, Presenter
This talk will introduce the founders of the Lincoln Highway. It will also explore the many connections between South Bend and the Lincoln Highway. Included will be a tour of the exhibit, The Lincoln Highway: Centennial Reflections.

Cost: $3.00 regular, $1.00 CFH members – reservations required by September 30. Phone (574) 235-9664  www.centerforhistory.org

Complete information including presenter biographies are available on this pdf file:
https://indianalincolnhighway.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/INLHA-Press-Release-9-13.pdf

Indiana Lincoln Highway Fall Tour Featured in National Geographic Traveler

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From National Geographic – Best of World Weekly – Lincoln Highway Fall Foliage Road Trip, Fort Wayne to Dyer, Indiana:
Each week National Geographic Traveler editors select a seasonal trip showcasing the world’s best destinations to visit right now.
lincoln-highway-indiana_70877_600x450Photograph by Todd Zeiger, Indiana Landmarks

2013 Best Fall Trip #2

Hoosier Carl G. Fisher was one of the people who spearheaded construction of the original 3,389-mile Lincoln Highway in 1913, making the Indiana portions of America’s first coast-to-coast highway ideal for a centennial celebration-fall foliage road trip. Pull off along the way at the Johnny Appleseed Festival, September 21-22; Wanatah Scarecrow Festival, September 27-29; and Westville Pumpkin Festival, October 4-6.

When to Go: September-October

How to Get Around: There are two distinct Lincoln Highway routes in northern Indiana. To retrace the original 1913 sections, start in Fort Wayne and head northwest on U.S. Route 33 following “Indiana’s Lincoln Highway Byway: A Turn-by-Turn Road Guide for the 1913 Route.”

Where to Eat: Teibel’s Family Restaurant at the intersection of U.S. 30 and Highway 41 in Schererville has been a Lincoln Highway lunch and dinner favorite since 1929. Seven days a week, Stephen and Paul Teibel serve up hearty, homemade staples like Grandma Teibel’s fried chicken, buttered lake perch, and broccoli chicken casserole.

Where to Stay: Built 37 years before the Lincoln Highway (and with 96,650 bricks) the stately Kimmell House Inn on U.S. 33 / Lincolnway S in Kimmell has three romantic guest rooms in the main house and a standalone cottage that once served as the estate’s summer kitchen. Trails lead through the inn’s six wooded acres (an additional six are mowed), where by late September the leaves of the hundred-year-old sugar maples typically glow brilliant orange-red.

What to Read Before You Go: Greetings from the Lincoln Highway: A Road Trip Celebration of America’s First Coast-to-Coast Highway, Centennial Edition, by Brian Butko (Stackpole Books, 2013)

What to Watch Before You Go: A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway, a PBS documentary by film director and narrator Rick Sebak

Helpful Links: Indiana Lincoln Highway Association and Visit Indiana

Fun Fact: At 1 p.m. on September 1, 1928, groups of Boy Scouts simultaneously positioned 2,450 directional markers at intervals along the Lincoln Highway. Only 15 markers remain in Indiana, including one displayed outside the New Haven City Hall.

New tour brochure highlights South Bend history

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From Indiana Landmarks Northern Regional Office – September 2012 Monthly News:

A new heritage tour in South Bend highlights the legacy of several titans of industry who influenced the city’s history and development. The just-released Studebaker Bendix Heritage Trail brochure guides participants on a 13-site tour of churches, homes, and factories associated with some of South Bend’s most prominent businessmen and their families. Download the brochure (click here for a pdf file), or request a copy by contacting Todd Zeiger, 574-232-4534, tzeiger@indianalandmarks.org.

Lincoln Highway Association Releases Free Coast-to-Coast Online Map

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In gearing up for the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway in 2013, the Lincoln Highway Association released a complete, definitive online map of the entire highway, from New York City to San Francisco, freely available on the Association’s Website. The online map represents more than twenty years of historical research and ten years of mapping by over a hundred expert volunteers.

Established in 1913 and named for Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Highway crosses fourteen states, including a loop through Colorado, and represents the first coast-to-coast improved road in the United States. The year 2013 will be the Lincoln Highway’s Centennial; the online map’s release comes just in time before numerous car clubs and families will drive the road next year.

Powered by Google’s interactive mapping software, the online map shows satellite and street views of the Lincoln Highway and hundreds of points of interest along the way. The interactive online map represents the first detailed mapping of the entire Lincoln Highway, including several generations of road improvements and realignments with points of interest to visit, in one free resource. Additionally, the online map shows special feeder routes from the Lincoln Highway to Washington, D.C. and Chicago. Users can zoom in on a state or a particular location, trace the Lincoln Highway, and check the Points of Interest button to view places to see along the road.

The online map includes both the 1913 and 1928 routes of the Indiana Lincoln Highway. Anyone planning a trip or is just curious about where the Lincoln Highway goes is welcome to use the map at: http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/.  There will also be a permanent link to the map on our Map / Directions web page.

Indiana Lincoln Highway Turn-By-Turn Driving Guides

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Indiana Lincoln Highway Association board member Bruce Butgereit and his wife Marcia
created detailed turn by turn road guides of the 1913 and 1928 routes of Indiana’s Lincoln
Highway Byway.

In addition they produced a listing of Indiana Lincoln Highway Educational Discovery Stops with GPS coordinates.  This program was made possible by an Historic Preservation Education Grant from Indiana Landmarks, Indiana Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The documents are all pdf files, and require the free Adobe reader. These are now available on our Maps / Directions web page.

 

New Lincoln Highway Kiosk Dedicated in La Porte

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On May 5, La Porte became the fourth town along Indiana’s Lincoln Highway routes to display an informational kiosk; it joins Warsaw, New Carlisle and Plymouth.

La Porte Kiosk Dedication

The newest kiosk can be found in front of the town’s restored NY Central and Lake Shore Depot (803 Washington St.), now the home of the Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce. One side of the kiosk highlights the Lincoln Highway’s history through La Porte County, featuring such landmarks as Bob’s Bar-B-Q, the Hotel Rumely and the county courthouse, as well as the depot. The reverse side offers a brief history of “The Lincoln Highway: American’s First Paved Coast-to-Coast Highway.”

The kiosk, which was painted in a color scheme to match the depot, was unveiled by Indiana Lincoln Highway Association members Jim Bevins and Fred Sachtleben. Both men are La Porte County natives who spent more than two years on construction and installation of the kiosk.

La Porte Mayor Blair Milo, and Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce President Mike Seitz, were presented with a Proclamation prepared by Indiana Lincoln Highway Association President Jan Shupert-Arick.  Click here for the Proclamation.

La Porte Mayor Blair Milo & Chamber President Mike Seitz

The annual meeting of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association followed at B&J’s American Café. The group learned of opportunities for partnering with businesses in a presentation from Chamber President  Mike Seitz.

The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association’s accomplishments of the past year – highlighted by the highway’s designation as a Byway– were outlined in a presentation by President Jan Shupert-Arick.

Photos courtesy Tim Ashley.  Click photos for larger views.

Jim Bevins & Fred Sachtleben
Restored La Porte Depot

Life’s Better Here: Churubusco 2012

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IndianasNewsCenter.com, the ABC and NBC affiliate in Fort Wayne, is running a new series on local small towns. They are kicking off this series with Churubusco. Check out their video below with Eric Olson:

If you were looking for a definition for small town America the name Churubusco would do. The town sprang up in 1838 when the railroad intersected the old Goshen Road, an ancient Indian trail. The early town served the local farm community and was an important source of lumber thanks to the local sawmill. When the legendary Lincoln Highway pushed through in 1913 it put Churubusco on the map. The town was always a sleepy community and would have stayed that way but for one brief yet notorious brush with fame. It revolved around Churubusco’s most famous phantom citizen; a guy named Oscar, the ‘Busco Beast.

Oscar’s story begins one night in1948 at a little lake on a farm east of town owned by Gayle Harris.

“And he and another fellow was up on the barn working on the roof,” says town historian Chuck Mathieu. “And apparently they spotted something in the lake and that kinda got the story started.”

Nobody knows what that something was but Harris and his buddies wasted no time trying to catch it. They built traps, they built cages, wire nets…sent down divers. The commotion caught the eye of local newspapers and the story took off from there.

“And it actually gained national acclaim,” says Chuck Mathieu. “Lowell Thomas was a radio commentator at the time and he did a story on it. Life Magazine sent Mike Shay out and he took photographs of it.”

As a breathless nation watched the hunt for Oscar escalated, climaxing with the ultimate strategy…draining the lake. Alas that strategy like all others was destined to fail.

“Mr. Harris I guess became ill,” says Chuck Mathieu, “and then winter set in and they never did get it completely drained.”

And that’s where Oscar’s trail grew cold. Though he was never found most folks think Oscar was a giant turtle, perhaps a southern alligator snapper that ventured too far north. Whatever it was Oscar’s story lives today. the ‘Busco Beast guards downtown Churubusco, welcomes folks to the local park, guards the towns water supply and is celebrated each year during the turtle days festival. So even though he never showed his face, Oscar the turtle is the gift that just keeps giving, to life in this very pleasant town.

Fort Wayne’s Cindy’s Diner in the news

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Cindy’s Diner was recently reviewed in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.com, by Cindy Larson:

“If anybody ever asked me for a list of the top 10 must-experience restaurants in Fort Wayne, of course Cindy’s Diner would be near the top.

This little gem anchors the corner of Wayne and Harrison (Lincoln Highway) streets downtown and is beloved by many. The 1953 luncheonette owned by John and Cindy Scheele was moved to its present location in 1990.

Cindy’s motto is “serving the world, 15 at a time” because that’s all the seats the tiny diner holds, although they have added a few tables outside.”

Photo by Cindy Larson of The News-Sentinel

Cindy’s Diner is actually bigger than normal for a Valentine Diner, as many models from this Kansas manufacturer only had 8 – 10 stools.  You can read more about these diners at the Kansas Historical Society website:
http://www.kshs.org/p/travel-by-theme-diners/10398

Cabin Camp Project

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The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association is seeking information, images and ephemera dealing with the early cabin camps on the Lincoln Highway.  These precursors to the motel were also referred to as cabin courts, cottage camps, auto camps and courts, tourist camps and motor courts. We are interested in the history and disposition of these camps, and images from photographs, postcards, matchbooks and other advertising ephemera.

Please visit the Cabin Camp Project page under the Blog / News menu link above, or click here.

Wiley’s Camp – Rolling Prairie

Traffic roundabout

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Kosciusko County’s very first traffic roundabout is on the old Lincoln Highway. It opened Nov. 22nd on Warsaw’s west side at the intersection with Fox Farm Road. In Warsaw Old U.S. 30 (Lincoln Highway) is known as Lake Street. Traffic roundabouts are designed to improve traffic flow and safety, and eliminate the maintenance associated with stop lights. Another roundabout is scheduled to be built in 2012 at the intersection of Old 30 and Zimmer Road not far from the one already in place.