Statement issued Monday by the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association:

The Board of Directors of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association received official word from the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) on Thursday, October 6th that Indiana Lt. Governor, Becky Skillman, and INDOT Commissioner Michael B. Cline, signed the official resolution designating the historic Lincoln Highway across northern Indiana as an official Indiana state byway on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. The Indiana portion of the Lincoln Highway now becomes part of the Indiana Byways Program.

The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association (INLHA) was incorporated in 2008 in order to begin working on the state byway designation. Through private donations from Indiana Lincoln Highway Association members, funds from Indiana Landmarks, and funds from the national Lincoln Highway Association, the INLHA conducted a resource survey to identify the route. Also identified were significant structures relating to Indiana Lincoln Highway such as historic bridges that served Lincoln Highway travelers. Tourist cabins, motels, gas stations, Lincoln Highway markers and monuments, tourist camps and many other related sites were also documented. Approximately two years ago the INLHA prepared and submitted the state byway application to INDOT. Following two review meetings and the approval of the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) across northern Indiana, the application was recently processed for signature by state officials. The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association celebrates this achievement.

The Future

The INLHA will now form the Indiana Lincoln Highway Byway Council with representatives from across the state. The INLHA and the Council will oversee the development of a Corridor Management plan. This plan will include guidelines for road signage and the creation of tourism materials to promote the towns and businesses and events held along the route.

The INLHA will continue to build collaborative relationships across the state and form partnerships with businesses and non-profits that will benefit the state through tourism, preservation, and economic development.

The INLHA will create an enhanced website that will provide travel information and maps for automobile tourists. The INLHA will also continue to work with other organizations in planning special projects (such as LH interpretive kiosks, exhibits, community murals, and an annual BUYWAY yard sale held each August), tours, road rallies, museum exhibits, etc.

The INLHA has been working with the Indiana Department of Tourism and local CVBs to share information with tourists in order to lure more travelers to their communities to stay in local hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts and eat and shop at local businesses. The next issue of the Indiana Tourism map will illustrate the Indiana Lincoln Highway Byway with a release of one half million maps that will be available to travelers across the State of Indiana.

Linking to other state byways along the Lincoln Highway The Indiana Lincoln Highway Byway completes a stretch of the Lincoln Highway Byway from the Pennsylvania-Ohio boundary west to the western state line of Nebraska. The byways include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (the only national byway designation on the Lincoln Highway), Iowa and Nebraska. A portion of Pennsylvania is designated a heritage corridor.

Background Information about the Historic Lincoln Highway

Named in honor or our nation’s 16th President, the historic Lincoln Highway remains an active auto corridor today across northern Indiana. Since 1913, the Lincoln Highway (Lincolnway) has stretched across the nation and has linked the people of Indiana to New York and San Francisco.

The Lincoln Highway was the first named automobile road that crossed the United States of America from coast to coast. Conceived and promoted by Indianapolis, Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Originally the route ran through 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California.

In 1915, the "Colorado Loop" was removed, and in 1928, a re-alignment relocated the Lincoln Highway through the northern tip of West Virginia. Thus, there are a total of 14 states, 128 counties, and over 700 cities, towns and villages through which the highway passed at some time in its history. The first officially recorded length of the entire Lincoln Highway in 1913 was 3,389 miles.

Over the years, the road was improved and numerous realignments were made, and by 1924 the highway had been shortened to 3,142 miles. Counting the original route and all of the subsequent realignments, there is a grand total of 5,869 miles of Lincoln Highway known today.

Conceived in 1912 and formally first dedicated October 31, 1913, the Lincoln Highway was America’s first national memorial to martyred President Abraham Lincoln. This living memorial predated the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

As the first automobile road across America, the Lincoln Highway proved to stimulate a huge economic impact to hundreds of businesses in towns, cities, and simple cross roads all along the way. The Lincoln Highway became known as "The Main Street Across America and many cities renamed their main streets “Lincolnway”.

Inspired by bicyclists, early automobile enthusiasts and the Good Roads Movement the success of the Lincoln Highway and the resulting economic boost to the governments, businesses and citizens along its route inspired the creation of many other named long-distance roads (known then as National Auto Trails), such as the Yellowstone Trail, National Old Trails Road, Dixie Highway (also conceived by Carl Fisher of Indianapolis), Jefferson Highway, Bankhead Highway, Jackson Highway, Meridian Highway and Victory Highway.

Many of these named highways were supplanted by the national highway numbering system in 1926. A large portion of the Lincoln Highway became US Route 30. In Indiana the original Lincoln Highway alignment became US 30 (through Fort Wayne), US 33, US 20, and Indiana 2 until it realigned with US 30 in Valparaiso. The 1926 Indiana alignment became US 30 from the Ohio-Indiana line to the Illinois state line.

That old Lincoln Highway still exists, and for many it holds an allure in much the same way that it did in its heyday during the 1920s and 1930s. Along the way tourists discover towns such as New Haven, Churubusco, Goshen, New Carlisle, Rolling Prairie, Deep River, Valparaiso or Plymouth. Each mile and town along its path has a unique story to tell and culture to experience. Travelers find a drive along the Lincoln is more interesting than that found on modern interstates or busy four lane highways. We encourage you to stop along the way, meet the people, enjoy the food, and admire the architecture and scenery.

LINCOLN HIGHWAY TIME LINE

• 1913 Lincoln Highway Association formed by Carl Fisher of Indianapolis.
• 1913 The coast-to-coast route announced.
• 1914 The first seedling mile completed just west of Malta, Illinois.
• 1915 Moving picture of entire Lincoln Highway was made for showing at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. This was the Lincoln Highway “touring year.”
• 1919 Military Convoy Trip across the Lincoln Highway with Lt. Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower
• 1922-23 Ideal Section built between Schererville and Dyer, Indiana. 1926-1928 The Lincoln Highway shortened across northern Indiana establishing the Lincoln Highway route from Fort Wayne to Columbia City, Warsaw, and Plymouth.
• 1928 Concrete markers placed coast-to-coast by the Boy Scouts of America in honor of Lincoln.
• 1992 The Lincoln Highway Association re-established to preserve and promote the road and the heritage of the Lincoln Highway as a legacy to Abraham Lincoln.

Townley, Zulu, New Haven, Fort Wayne, Churubusco, Merriam, Wolf Lake, Kimmell, Ligonier, Benton, Goshen, Dunlap, Elkhart, Osceola, Mishawaka, South Bend, New Carlisle, Rolling Prairie, La Porte, Westville, Valparaiso, Lincoln Hills, Deep River, Ainsworth, Green Acres, Merrillville, New Elliot, Schererville, and Dyer.

1928 ROUTE TOWNS The following towns were added to the Lincoln Highway corridor - Columbia City, Winona Lake, Warsaw, Atwood, Etna Green, Bourbon, Inwood, Plymouth, Donaldson, Grovertown, Hamlet, Hanna, and Wanatah.

“…Not only is the Lincoln Highway a perpetual memorial, but a road to be perpetuated by the energies of future generations.” -Carl Fisher, 1914