Automobile tourists visited the Mountain Inn thirty-five miles east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the Lincoln Highway c.1920s. Imagine hopping into your auto and heading out of town into the country, all on your schedule.

With the Lincoln Highway dedication on October 31, 1913, towns along the way had huge celebrations like this one in Ohio. Imagine the fun! “Onion eating contest,” “nail driving race, for ladies,” and “The biggest torchlight processions since the days of the Civil War.” At this date, some of the attendees might have very well been alive to see those Civil War processions.

In the early days of automobile travel, various auto associations signed sections of the highway so the new”autoists” could find their way. In the above photos, we see the California Auto Association putting up some of our signs, likely in the early c. 1920s.

Autos headed east on the Lincoln Highway at Donner Summit c. 1920s. Notice the railroad snow sheds and the subway at the left. The highway wasn’t plowed until the 1930s. Locals in Truckee would hand dig and apply soot (black stuff on snow ) to help early melting.

If Amor Towles’s new novel, “Lincoln Highway,” has fired up your wanderlust and you want to learn more about the old road, check out this link to the author’s web page. Full of fantastic photographs and history of the highway. Check out this map which is featured at the beginning of the book.

The photo above shows Monica Pitsenberger, California Chapter, touching up a replica marker at Big Bend in the High Sierra of California. The Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) comprises members who are passionate about road history and seeing it preserved. When you join the Association, you will work with your state chapter to encourage markers and signs to be placed along your section of the highway.

Here in California, as with the other Lincoln Highway states, members petition local authorities to help recognize the highway. Often monuments and signs need repair or repainting, and it’s the members of the various chapters that get the work done. If you like to see history saved and even brought back to life, then the LHA is just the organization for you. You can join online here.