Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

The Army cross-country Lincoln Highway convoy got to Denison on Saturday, July 26, 1919, and would spend Sunday there as a rest day. Here’s part of the Denison Review‘s coverage in the next week’s paper (“train” refers to the trucks in the convoy).

“After reaching Denison, camp was quickly established in the park, and people began an inspection of the train. All during the afternoon, there was a continual stream of people go­ing to and from the park. Of course the train carried its own kitchen and during the supper hour, there was a very large crowd of spectators around the kitchen, watching the work of pre­paring the meal for the 250 men. And while the men were waiting the sup­per hour, they were at work inspect­ing the trucks and equipment, and the officers were busy filing reports to headquarters.

Saturday evening the band accompanying the Goodyear truck, rendered a concert on the court house lawn and thousands of people gathered and enjoyed the music. Account of the automobiles around and near the court yard revealed the number to be some­thing over six hundred cars. After the concert, the committee announced a public dance on the pavement and space was cleared on the street be­tween Center Street and Broadway and hundreds of people enjoyed the dancing. Music was furnished by the Hains’ orchestra, and young ladies were chaperoned by delegates from the Woman’s Federated Club, and the soldier boys and officers of the motor train, were given preference in dancing. Throughout the evening, the soldiers were treated to ice cream and cake and canteloupe, served by the ladles of the Federated Clubs of this city. The ladles of the local Relief Corps also added to the pleasure of the boys’ stay in this city by supply­ing them with some 1200 homemade cookies and cake, which were sent to the park Saturday afternoon.”

It wasn’t all fun and games though.

“The only episode which really marred the visit here of the transport train and which has cast some reflection on Denison, was the action of one of our local celebrities, who on more than one occasion has been in the police court.

The young man in question, and who we are sorry to say, was only recently discharged from the army, went down to Washington park Sunday with the evident intention of starting some trouble. He made some remarks to the visiting soldiers which were any­thing but complimentary, but the soldiers bore the insult rather than have trouble. Sunday night down on Broad­way, he met some of the visiting soldiers and again picked a quarrel with them, calling them vile names. The soldiers resented this and for a time it was feared that the local celebrity would pay dearly for the insult, but he managed to make his escape, but not until he had been struck in the eye by one of the soldiers. Officers of the convoy rushed to the scene, and order­ed the soldiers to return to the park, which they did at once.”

November 29, 2001: Based on a photo at Hickory Park restaurant, this overhead sign on Lincoln Way at Kellogg Avenue pointing to Main Street in Ames had been around since the early 1960s. It didn’t last much longer after this photo was taken.

The original route of the Lincoln Highway went out of its way, sometimes almost comically so, to pass through as many towns’ business districts as it could. There was one place, though, where it did not take a turn — Ames.

Now, this might seem weird. After all, today’s Lincoln Way is practically one long business district. But what I’m referring to here is what’s now the “Main Street Cultural District” that runs between Duff and Grand avenues on the north side of the railroad. For the Lincoln to run there, the route would have to add two railroad crossings, one of which — at Grand Avenue — involves three tracks and wasn’t grade-separated until 1937-38.

When the 1919 convoy passed through, Ames’ last-minute attempts to divert the trucks onto Main failed. The Army went from Marshalltown to Jefferson that day on Ames’ Lincoln Way, passing by the Iowa State campus and then heading north to Ontario Street and west to Boone.

“Owing to the fact that no one in Ames had arranged a welcome for the train, that no one had been in communication with the commanding officer, no arrangements had been made for the train of 52 trucks and cars and six motorcycles to detour from the Lincoln way long enough to pass down Main street.” — Ames Daily Tribune and Evening Times, July 25, 1919

UPDATE 8/26: According to old notes, the sign at the top of the page was removed in early March 2003.

This week is the 100th anniversary of the Army convoy on the Lincoln Highway across Iowa. The Iowa DOT, quoting the Eisenhower presidential museum, says the primary goal was “an exercise to test the ability of the military to move great distances over roads under wartime conditions.” The experience would color Eisenhower’s experience about highways and (along with the Autobahn in World War II Germany) be among his inspirations for the interstate highway system.

There was a lot of promotion going on in this trip — the military, the Lincoln Highway Association, the Good Roads movement in general, and the military’s suppliers. Here’s what one advertisement in the Clinton Advertiser on July 22, 1919, said:

“The cross country trip of this first motor transport convoy will, in its way, be as historic an event as the first trans-Atlantic flight. The Lincoln Highway Association has for many months been working with the War Department and offices of the Motor Transport Corps in logging the various routes from interior manufacturing centers to the Atlantic coast, and later in providing the necessary data for the first trans-continental trip. The run which started from the Capitol at Washington July 7th is being made by 65 army trucks, staff, observation, and reconnaissance passenger cars, motorcycles, ambulances, tank trucks, mobile field kitchens, mobile repair shops, signal corps searchlight trucks, and personnel-of 290 army officers-and men.”

The Willys-Overland ad made note of its vehicles’ roles — the pilot car, an LHA car, the film/photo crew, and the newspapermen. It was capitalizing on postwar spirit to promote upcoming passenger cars. The company’s 4-cylinder models would become the basis, 20 years later, for a “light-weight, four-wheel-drive, general-purpose (GP) US Army vehicle.”

The GP vehicle … or, the jeep.