The Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Sunday “Time Machine” last week went into detail on the construction of the Seedling Mile for the Lincoln Highway northwest of Mount Vernon. The history shows the mile was supposed to be finished in 1918 but delays pushed it to the summer of 1919, at a total cost around $35,000.
The Lincoln Highway Association compiled a history of the Seedling Mile in 2004 (PDF), right about the time the road was rebuilt and widened.
A year after the mile was finished, the Lincoln Highway became the first IA 6, and then US 30. Since the mile was away from the Marion cutoff, it remained part of 30 until the highway was moved away from Mount Vernon Road in 1953, as Jason Hancock covers in his “Highways of Cedar Rapids” history page.