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When it comes to acknowledging their role in history, Hoosiers just might be too modest.
“Hoosiers don’t take credit for what they do. As a culture, we’re a really humble people,” Jan Shupert-Arick says.
This Indiana native and former president of the national Lincoln Highway Association hopes to change that and encourage more people to hit the road and explore the state.
“I want to make Indiana a better place. I think we can do that by claiming our history. There are a lot of really wonderful things that happened here. This may not be New York City, but Indiana is truly an interesting place. But you have to get off the main road and meet the people,” she says.
That’s one reason why she wrote “The Lincoln Highway Across Indiana,” which uses historical photos to show the state’s role in the early automotive industry and its highlights along the nation’s first transcontinental highway.
The book is available at The History Center and at local Borders and Barnes & Noble stores (Arcadia Publishing; $21.99).
“I thought this history should be brought together in context,” Shupert-Arick says.
On May 21, Fort Wayne officials will unveil signs along the local part of the Lincoln Highway, including one at the Harrison Street bridge.
Part of a route that stretched across 13 states from New York’s Times Square to San Francisco’s Lincoln Park, Indiana’s Lincoln Highway was dedicated in 1915 by Vice President Thomas Marshall, a Columbia City native.
The route initially linked Fort Wayne and New Haven to Goshen, South Bend and Valparaiso (today’s U.S. 33) but was shortened in 1926 to create a direct route to Valparaiso (today’s U.S. 30).
Back then, driving the highway was “promoted as a patriotic adventure,” she says. Because there was no official memorial to President Abraham Lincoln at the time, a road that could benefit everyone was considered the best sort of monument.
And so the road trip was born. Many cities along the highway, including New Haven, renamed their main streets to Lincoln Way or some variation. Soon, businesses, in the form of gas stations, hotels and shops, popped up to accommodate travelers.
Shupert-Arick, who grew up near South Bend and lives in Fort Wayne, has driven parts of the Lincoln Highway in 10 states.
Maybe she’s a little bit biased, but she believes Indiana offers some of the best treasures, with its architecture, landscapes, artists, diners and retailers. And the entire Lincoln Highway has just as much culture and history to offer as its more famous counterpart, Route 66.
She grew up traveling, since her parents took her along on road trips. She hopes today’s parents will do the same, encouraging their kids to take photos and keep a journal of their travels.
Viewing a Google map is just not the same as being there, she says.
And she’s pleased to see that more people “are interested in traveling two-lane America and getting off the interstates,” she says.
That’s why the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association (www.indianalincolnhighway.com) is creating a curriculum for third- and fourth-graders. And Shupert-Arick, a former education director for the defunct Lincoln Museum, wants to create a geocaching event along the highway.
The national Lincoln Highway Association will have its conference in June in South Bend. Its members, about half of them women, represent preservationists, academics, vintage car fans and those who love to travel. (The association was formed in 1912 and disbanded in 1928. It was reborn in 1992 to preserve the highway’s history and culture.)
In the past few years, Shupert-Arick has noticed a renewed interest in the highway, perhaps because of the Lincoln Bicentennial this year.
And, yes, her favorite historical figure is Lincoln, “a man with a Hoosier upbringing who believed slavery had to end, whatever the cost,” she says. “We need Lincoln. We need to believe in ourselves and in America.”
Her next book will be “The Dixie Highway Across Indiana,” to be published next year and followed by the Michigan version in 2011.
But preserving the history of the Lincoln Highway will always be a favorite project.
“History teaches us that individuals can change history. Those who have vision to create something others would never even imagine make all the difference in our world,” she says.
“In the case of the Lincoln Highway, it wasn’t government that changed the world – it was a group of people who inspired others to join a cause for the good of America,” Shupert-Arick says. “And it happened. That’s the lesson.”
