Tama

TAMA	Pop. 2,601	Control, E.E. Harlen's Garage.
Cedar Rapids 51.9	Marshalltown 21.3	Two hotels, 5 garages. Two railroad crossings at grade. Railroads CM&St.P, C&NW. Two banks, 50 general business places, express company, telephone company, 2 newspapers. Commercial Club and Woman's Club, each with rest room free to tourists. One mile west of the city tourists will find free camp grounds with good water.
Graded Dirt		L.H. Local Consul, F.M. Ingram

- A Complete Official Road Guide of The LINCOLN HIGHWAY Fifth Edition (1924)

East Tama.
"The King Tower was built in 1937 by Wesley Mansfield, who promoted it as one of the most modern twenty-four-hour truck stops in the Midwest. It consisted of a two-story restaurant building with an adjacent service garage, a filling station office, and a cabin camp in back. The cafe was air-conditioned... Both the filling station and garage were torn down several years ago [one of the cabins remains]. A spectacular Indian-head neon sign was erected in 1950." (Greg Franzwa, The Lincoln Highway: Iowa, The Patrice Press, 1995) And the giant neon Indian head is still out front today.

King Tower, Eastern Tama.
The King Tower cabin camp sat behind the still-flourishing restaurant. If you don't wait too much longer, you can still see the last cabin in its original location - this photo was taken in 1996 and it hasn't gotten any prettier. As with many Lincoln Highway attractions, get there in the spring before foliage overtakes the cabin.

Tama.
Built in 1915, the Lincoln Highway bridge in Tama is the most famous bridge on the highway. The initial construction was financed by the citizens of Tama to show their pride in being on the Lincoln Highway, and in the mid-1980s their descendents raised the money necessary to save it.

West Tama.
This metal Pepsi sign stood for decades before coming down in 1996. It marked the Weir family's souvenir shop on the west edge of Tama, beyond the golf course. They had the standard fare tourists expect so close to the Mesquakie indian reservation, including rubber tomahawks. A year after the sign was removed, the building was razed as well. Mr. Weir always loved to tell the story of the night John Dillinger and his gang stopped by.

"Robert Harrison, Toledo [on the north side of Tama], driving a Pontiac coach with his wife and her mother on the Lincoln Highway west of Tama had to turn right on meeting an oncoming car. Two surveyors were working the road, and as his car passed were on the side of the road. One threw an iron surveyor's rod at Harrison's car. It struck a glancing blow, damaging the car, but did not go through the body.

Then Miles Stoakes of Belle Plaine followed in a new Nash sedan. The other surveyor threw his iron rod, which pierced the body, making a hole, and went into the car. Stoakes was accompanied by a young lady. No arrests were made. The surveyors claimed they were nearly run down several times. Harrison said he was going no faster than 15 mph."

- Tama News-Herald, 23 December, 1926.

TAMA COUNTY

Tama