Monica and I headed up to Weimar to continue the Lincoln Highway logo project. Weimar is located just above Auburn and below Colfax, along present day Highway 80.
T-35 sits in the middle of the trail, headed straight towards the camera.
Walk with history
Just outside of Truckee we found a Trails West "T" marker, located at Old Greenwood Golf Course and housing development. T-35 is the number printed on the marker, which means it's the 35th marker describing The Truckee Trail. There are 34 markers before this one, each representing an event or remembrance of that particular spot. Marker T-35 is titled "Truckee Trail-Magnificent View." This marker sit's in the middle of the old trail, as you can see the wagon ruts that have left their impression, still visible after 150 years.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the Trails West Organization, who has marked many of the old immigrant and wagon roads across the west. If these historic trails are not marked and mapped, they will disappear into the mists of time. Imagine trying to find those old wagon ruts if not for the marker or trail guide. To be able to stand in the middle of such a famous trail that carried thousands of emigrants to California in the 19th Century is a thrill. You can imagine the covered wagons and people marching over this un-familiar land headed to their new lives in the west.
Emigrant wagon ruts headed west.
Map of location.
Weimar Crossroads railroad subway painted
Monday found Monica and I heading up to the Big Bend area, specifically Hampshire Rocks campground. Along the way in Weimar, we painted a Lincoln Highway "L" on the Union Pacific railroad subway. This particular subway, built in 1928, during the last year of The Lincoln Highway.
Weimar railroad subway with new Lincoln Highway “L”
Location of Railroad Subway
We had intended to head to Prosser Reservoir, just outside Truckee for a night of camping, but instead found ourselves staying at The Hampshire Rocks Campground, near Big Bend. This particular campground had only recently opened two week earlier, due to the massive amount of snow that was still on the ground. The snow was all gone in the camp, so we found ourselves a beautiful spot right next to The South Fork of The Yuba River. Everything about this place is great, except your only a hundred or so yards from Highway 80, so traffic noise is a constant unless you get down next to the flowing river. This place's location among the natural beauty and incredible history, is what makes it so desirable. The Lincoln Highway runs right through the camp if you know where to look.
Campground at Hampshire Rocks
Map of Hampshire Rocks area.
Just a few hundred yards west of the camp entrance, on Hampshire Rocks Road, is a most unusual structure. What looks like a fireplace chimney, but has no flue, has kept locals mystified since it's origins, whenever that was. One local say's it's related to The Overland Emigrant Trail, which passes right in front of it. While looking at the mystery obelisk, we almost tripped over a "C" marker, as we call it. These concrete posts are what is called a "right of way" marker. The state would bury them, and I'm told they are 4 feet tall, to mark their area of influence along the road. Someone else had put some "marking tape" around it, but the three or four other times we had stopped here, it eluded us.
Mystery obelisk in background, “C” marker in foreground.
The next day found ourselves heading to Truckee and hunting down some Trails West “T” Markers for The Johnson Cut-Off Trail of the 1850’s and some Nevada sections of The Lincoln Highway. More on that in the next post.
Eisenhower and Army convoy leave Washington DC headed to San Francisco
It was on July 7th, 1919 that The Army's Motor Transport Corps convoy left Washington DC headed towards San Francisco. The trip was to see if the military could move men and machines across the country using the recently "completed" Lincoln Highway as the route. They almost didn't make it, arriving in Oakland seven day's behind schedule.
The convoy included, "24 expeditionary officers, 15 War Department staff observation officers, including a young, Bvt Lt Col Dwight D. Eisenhower of the Tank Corps, and 258 enlisted men." The experience Eisenhower had on the trip helped formulate his plan as President for an Interstate Highway System, still in place today.
The National Archives has a video of some of the trip. It's fascinating to watch, and at the 18:47 mark we start to see the mountains of Nevada and California, and the climb up Meyers Grade, across the summit, and down into Kyburz at the 21:45 mark.
Painting Lincoln Highway Logo, Newcastle 1910 bridge.
Over the weekend, Monica and I painted another Lincoln Highway "L" on the auto subway in Newcastle, California. The particular crossing may be the oldest auto subway in California, built in 1910, making it four years older than The Lincoln Highway. This project was great fun as there was a gentle breeze passing through the tunnel making for comfortable conditions.
Monica touching up the Lincoln Highway “L”.
This is a photo of the same bridge taken sometime in 1920.
1920’s Newcastle Auto Subway, headed west.
President Eisenhower signing into law The Interstate Highway System, June 29th, 1956.
Interstate Highway system signed in law on this date, 1956
The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental highway in The United States. In 1919 a young army officer by the name of Dwight D. Eisenhower joined with a group of fellow army soldiers who were going to attempt to cross the country, in a convoy of 80 trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles, using the route of The Lincoln Highway. It was quite the slog with bridges that didn't hold the weight of the vehicles, or their size, and roads that were more mud than dirt. At that time in the early 20th Century, The Lincoln Highway was a series of roads stitched together by The Lincoln Highway Association and their map into a single route to follow from Times Square in New York to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Here is a great link to more on that famous trip.
The Interstate Highway Law.
Eisenhower's experiences on that trip left a mark, when as President, on June 29th, 1956 he signed into law The Interstate Highway System. The bill created a 41,000-mile "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways" that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other things that got in the way of "speedy, safe transcontinental travel."
Bachelor Buttons for emergency repairs
The "Hint's to Tourists on The Lincoln Highway" guide mentions the various items to bring along for the Transcontinental trip. Most of the things are recognizable, like scissor (small), or a camera. Some items are less recognizable for their uses. A Rubber Sheet 6x7, yellow goggles, or "bachelor buttons?"
Bachelor Buttons, in this case, are buttons that use a stud pressed through the fabric and into a top button. They were sold extensively in the late 1800s and early 1900s as emergency buttons. There is a poem, "A Bachelor's Button," which is a lament by a man whose lover never sewed his button on his coat and had to use a bachelor's button to repair it. Haven't been able to find a copy of that poem.
Who invented the "rearview mirror"?
Did you know that rearview mirrors were not on automobiles until 1914, or that Dorothy Levitt, a pioneer of female independence and female motoring, is credited with inventing it, in 1909!
In my last post, we discussed a small manual printed in 1914, by F.M. Trego, Chief Engineer of The Lincoln Highway Association. Titled, "Hints to Transcontinental Tourists Travelling on The Lincoln Highway," the small booklet described the items one might find necessary to bring with them while adventuring in the auto. One such thing to bring was a small mirror.
Page from the 1914 booklet, “Hints to Transcontinental Tourists Travelling on The Lincoln Highway.”
Dorothy Levitt working on her automobile.
In 1909 Dorothy Levitt wrote a booklet titled, "The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor. "The booklet was for "those [women] who would like to (motor), but either dare not because of nervousness, or who imagine it is too difficult to understand the many necessary technical details." Photographs illustrating the topics that Levitt describes, including recommended motoring dress, adjusting the footbrake and changing a spark plug.
One of the items she mentions is a mirror. "The mirror should be fairly large to be really useful, and it is better to have one with a handle. Just before starting take the glass out of the little drawer and put it into the little flap pocket of the car. You will find it useful to have handy, not only for personal use, but to occasionally hold up to see what behind you.” Yes, Dorthy Levitt had invented the rearview mirror, five years before it's adoption as a standard part of an auto. That is why Trego mentions bringing a mirror along on your Transcontinental journey.
You can read Levitt’s booklet here, at the National Archives.
Lincoln Highway Travelers Guide
Pictured here is an excerpt from a small guide that was published in 1914 advising potential Transcontinental Tourists on The Lincoln Highway, of hints and suggestions for making the trip. Here is a page from the little booklet concerning provisions that should be taken along for the journey. I find it fascinating to see what folks had to bring with them before the advent of plastics.
Love the “gauntlet gloves,” which look so cool. How about the specific brand “Ingersoll” watch, and the pair of “yellow” and “white goggles.” Don’t forget a package of “bachelor buttons,” which I assume are not the flowers, but replacement buttons?
The next paragraph recommends what types of food to pack along including, “Slab Best Bacon,” “10 lbs Potatoes”, and of course “surgeons plaster” for sealing those tin cans. As mentioned in the pamphlet, these provisions are to be kept with the car at “…all times, west of Omaha Neb.”
There is more to the book, which I’ll cover in the next issue. This booklet comes to you when you join The Lincoln Highway Association here: Lincoln Highway Association
Click photo for a larger view!
Gold Discovery Centennial Celebration in Coloma, California
Gold Discovery Centennial Celebration in Coloma, California filmed in 16 mm, 1948. Participant filmed vignettes of the 1948 centennial celebration of the discovery of gold. Scenes mostly in Coloma, CA with a couple snippets from Placerville CA. Parade floats, speakers, participants, spectators. Gold panning.
From the California State Archives. https://archive.org/details/caclmmgd_000010