The Lincoln Highway: America's First Highway

 

 

The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental highway in the United States which went from coast to coast going from San Francisco to New York. The states and towns it went through were:

California: Oakland, Hayward, Livermore, Tracy, Stockton, Sacramento, Roseville, Folsom, Auburn, Placerville, and Truckee

Nevada: Carson City, Reno, Fernley, Fallon, Austin, Eureka and Ely

 Utah: Great Salt Lake Desert, Grantsville, Salt Lake City and Coalville

Wyoming: Evanston, Green River, Rock Springs, Rawlins, Medicine Bow, Laramie and Cheyenne

Colorado had a branch of the highway that went from Cheyenne, WY to Big Springs, NE: Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, Denver, Fort Morgan, and Sterling

Nebraska: Sidney, North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Columbus and Omaha

Iowa: Ames, Marshalltown, Cedar Rapids and Clinton

Illinois: Aurora and Joilet

Indiana: Valparaiso, La Porte, South Bend, Elkhart and Fort Wayne

Ohio: Lima, Upper Sandusky, Mansfield, Canton, and East Liverpool in Ohio

Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh, Gettysburg, York, Lancaster and Philadelphia

New Jersey: Trenton, Newark, Jersey City and finally to New York City.  

The highway was originally 3,389 miles long.

The Lincoln Highway's history was started by Carl Fisher and Henry Joy, who had proposed a coast to coast highway. This highway was dedicated on October 31st 1913 as a memorial to the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

The highway was not all paved, in fact some of the road was still dirt in portions of the country, especially in Iowa and the area in between Joilet, Illinois and California. Because of that, many changes were made to the highway over the years such as paving roads, straightening them, and adding links such as the Carquinez Bridge in Vallejo linking Sacramento to San Francisco without going through Stockton.

In California, there were two branches of the Lincoln Highway: the Pioneer Branch which went through Mills (now Rancho Cordova), Folsom, and El Dorado County. The Lincoln Highway was the predecessor of the Interstate 80 that was to come.

In El Dorado County, the highway went through the old town of Clarksville, the towns of Shingle Springs, El Dorado, Placerville, Camino, Riverton, Kyburz, Strawberry, and Meyers

The routes it went through in the county are the present day:

White Rock Road, Old Bass Lake Grade, Country Club Drive in Cameron Park, Durock Road, Mother Lode Drive, Pleasant Valley Road, Forni Road, Placerville Drive, Main Street, Broadway, the route of modern US 50 to Five Mile House, Carson Road, Pony Express Trail, Modern US 50 from Pacific House to Johnson Pass, and Pioneer Trail from Meyers.

I first heard about the Lincoln Highway from Ken Allen, one of my family's longtime friend,  talking about where it went and what it was like. When I heard about it, I was eager to take a tour of the old Lincoln Highway and see what it was like.

He finally took us on a tour a year later of the highway which we saw the route and the remnants of the old road. On the trip, we saw the old route of the highway from old Clarksville to Placerville.

A few months later, I looked at old maps that Mr. Allen gave me after the tour and I was fascinated at what the old highways looked like. Because of that interest, my family and I toured the old Rusch House in Citrus Heights which was one of the first houses in the area and saw exhibits about the history of Citrus Heights at the house. Citrus Heights was on the old Lincoln Highway.

On May 5th, we went to the fun Clarksville Days at the historic town of Clarksville, a few blocks away from the modern El Dorado Hills Town Center off of White Rock Road on the old Lincoln Highway. While we were there, we saw old cars, the old buildings and the remnants of them in the town, people riding on horses, and a fun model train set.

It was a blast learning about the old highway and the history of our area and I hope that you can learn about it also.

I learned about the Lincoln Highway from:

The Lincoln Highway Association's website: https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/.

 The El Dorado County A Pictorial History Book by Lisa M. Butler and Jon McCabe

 The History of A Place Called Rescue book from Francis Carpenter and William C. Teie

The Citrus Heights Images of America Book by Jim Van Maren

 the El Dorado History Museum on Placerville Drive

the Lincoln Highway Main Street Across America book by Drake Hokanson

 the NETR Historical Aerials website

some of the old California maps from Shell, Chevron, Texaco, and the old Richfield gas station.

 

                        

                                                 

 

   Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.  Psalm 25:4-5

 

                                   Thank You for reading my history lesson and may God bless you.