Iowa Byways Archives - Prairie Rivers of Iowa

1919 Trans-Continental Motor Convoy – 100 Years Later

May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

One hundred years ago, in what began as the idea of one man, America was shown how motor trucks could transport troops, supplies, arms, and ammunition across the nation. This was known in 1919 as the First Trans-Continental Motor Transport Convoy. The Idea and Development Henry Ostermann, who we talked about in a previous writing, had been piloting convoys for the Army up and down the east coast in the winter of 1917, during World War I. He was also serving as Field Secretary for the Lincoln Highway Association and merged his two occupations into one idea for the convoy. In "A Picture of Progress on the Lincoln Way", published by The Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) in 1920, the LHA officers and the General Staff in Washington held a conference in June 1919 to discuss convoy details. The success of the run was due to the LHA supplying accurate data to the Army as a "result of its years of study of trans-continental ...

Pioneers of Transcontinental Travel

December 3, 2018 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

When one is doing research of pioneers of transcontinental travel and the Lincoln Highway, the two names that pop up immediately are Carl Fisher and Henry B. Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Carl Fisher, owner of the Prest-O-Lite (headlight) Company, supplied almost all of the headlights to the Detroit car manufacturers. He had already developed the Indianapolis 500 race and thought a "Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway" would be a good way for people to have a place to drive their cars. Plus it would help car sales! He enlisted the help of auto makers and Henry B. Joy became a very strong supporter as well as the first president of the newly formed Lincoln Highway Association. They renamed the route as the Lincoln Highway to pay tribute to President Abraham Lincoln because a memorial to him did not exist yet. But today's writing is about a lesser known pioneer for the Lincoln Highway, Henry C. Ostermann, the first Field...

Spring, Where Art Thou?

May 7, 2018 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

It's been two months since we last wrote. And were talking about Spring at that time! But Spring has taken its sweet time to get here. With snow lasting well into April, we might just jump ahead right into Summer. But we need Spring. It is an important step to transition from Winter to Summer. Although I am a huge fan of Summer, Spring has many good points we cannot overlook. We need this in-between time. Farmers might be rushed, but they need to plant their crops. The ground needs to warm up to be able to awaken seeds and dormant plants. Small producers and artisans, scrambling, will need to get ready for Farmers Markets. My house will thank me again this year as I spring clean and open the windows to let in the fresh air. Nothing like a cool spring breeze floating in. I enjoy the windows-open season no matter how short it might be before I take the plunge...

Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway Springs into 2018

March 6, 2018March 6, 2018 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

It is finally March and with that comes the promise of Spring! The Byway is gearing up for a wonderful 2018. We are into grant writing season and as we wait for large state-wide projects to come to fruition, we are happy to tackle smaller localized ones. One project just completed was for the community of Westside. The residents recently developed a park, the Eugene Kock Memorial Park, in honor of a local man who lost his life in Vietnam many years ago. The park has engraved paver bricks that can be purchased, seating for visitors, and a military sculpture placed in the center. The area is flanked by flags and soon will have an interpretive panel we created about the community placed there as well. We continue to work with the Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) on other interpretive panels. Three smaller ones will be placed in the City of Jefferson's east entrance as part of their improvement project. The panels will...

Thanksgiving Season On the Byway

November 8, 2017November 14, 2017 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I am reflecting on the past 3 years I've worked at Prairie Rivers and with the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway (LHHB.) I am thankful for the Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) and their vision to create and promote the road in 1913 and for the Iowa leaders who re-created theorganization in 1992, to those Iowa LHA people who applied for the Iowa section to be part of the Iowa Scenic Byway program, to the Department of Transportation for including the Lincoln Highway in their Byway program and the support they continue to give to the Byways, and to the people in the communities along the route who work tirelessly to promote and support their neck-of-the-woods with their products, services, amenities, and attractions. A few weeks ago, I drove a part of the Byway and saw farmers out harvesting their crops. Dust was flying, wagons were being filled with crops, and slow-moving vehicles with equipment and wagons slowed...

Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway News

September 8, 2017 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

The Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway has been selected to continue on to the second round of the ArtPlace America Grant! Out of 1,000 applications, 70 were selected for a site visit and asked to submit a final application. Our Byway was one of those selected. Quite an honor! The Byway's proposed project is to work with Preston's Historic District in Belle Plaine, Reed-Niland Corner in Colo, and Youngville in rural Benton County to restore their old gas stations; add art, interpretive signs, and oral histories; and re-purpose the stations by adding electric charging stations. Many partners have gathered to bring this project together and we can not wait to know if we receive these funds. We will continue fundraising efforts to add to the overall project that will be jump-started with the ArtPlace America grant. We also have a new Recreational and Camping Brochure available. It has been placed in some Iowa Welcome Centers and a few key Lincoln Highway locations,...

Corridor Management Plan, Projects, and Celebrations

March 28, 2017July 21, 2017 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

The Corridor Management Plan has been completed! This has been a 3-year process and included hours of research, meetings with city and county officials, holding community input meetings, and many hours of writing. You may view the plan using this link. The plan not only contains history of the Lincoln Highway in Iowa and in the nation, but details the 6 intrinsic qualities that make up a byway (Archaeological, Cultural, Historic, Natural, Recreational, and Scenic). The document also contains projects listed by county as it travels through 13 counties in Iowa. The plan also identifies projects that will be completed statewide.Some of the projects have begun already. We are working with the City of Tama to secure funding to repair the iconic Lincoln Highway Bridge that travels over Mud Creek on East 5th Street. This bridge was built in 1915 with plans created from a design by the Iowa Highway Commission. In the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, it...

Learning and Sharing About the Byway

January 29, 2016 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

The Corridor Management Plan is coming along nicely. From our community input meetings, reviewing city comprehensive plans, and discussions with officials in communities and counties along the Byway we certainly have an exhaustive amount of information and ideas to make a very detailed living document. I have kept my nose to the grindstone for a while now and did come up for air last week when I took a few days off. The second day back, I attended the Travel Federation of Iowa’s Legislative Showcase at the State Fairgrounds. This was the first event I attended last year when I began as the coordinator of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway. I know SO much more about the Lincoln Highway and Byways in general than I did last year at this time. I was able to talk about the Lincoln Highway and the Iowa Byway program to the legislators as they passed by the Iowa Byways' booth and encouraged them to continue...

ILHA launched new website

August 19, 2015August 20, 2015 by Prairie Rivers Administrator Comment Closed

Working with the ILHA is not new to us as the Lincoln Heritage Byway is one of our programs. One new way we assisted the Association this summer was by hosting a Lincoln Highway Association Intern and assisting them on projects for the association. One major project that Paul, our intern, accomplished was the creation of a new website. It consists of the same information the old site had and then some! We are still gathering and updating information for each county and events as they are submitted. It truly is a very modern and nice looking website. Check it out! http://www.iowalincolnhighway.org/ Another big project that is almost ready for print is the creation of a Greene County Brochure. Paul created a wonderful design with information about transportation and the history of Greene County provided by Bob and Joyce Ausberger. With only a few more edits we are hopeful that the brochure will be printed and distributed to the Greene County area...

Summertime on the Byway

August 17, 2015 by Janice Gammon Comment Closed

Summer has been a busy time along the Byway! I did make it to the Mahanay Bell Tower Festival in Jefferson and rode the elevator 120 feet up to the observation deck of the 14-story Tower. What a view!! It gave me a whole new perspective of the countryside and it was great to see the Lincoln Highway as a ribbon running through it. I also enjoyed the beautiful Thomas Jefferson Gardens and RVP~1875, where they make furniture with only hand tools. Its like stepping back in time and they'll even show you what they are working on! Another great tour is the Sawmill Museum in Clinton in the Lyons District on the north side of the city. Lyons was the name of the town where the first bridge linked Illinois to Iowa on the Lincoln Highway. Lyons is now part of Clinton. The Sawmill Museum has great displays of the history of the lumber industry in Clinton. It was a...