SALUTING WHAT FIRST LINKED GREENE COUNTY TO THE REST OF AMERICA Historical society meeting this Friday Oct. 4 in Paton focuses on the Lincoln Highway’s story in Greene County The story of Greene County’s first and perhaps most important connection to the rest of the nation – the now 100-year-old Lincoln Highway – will be celebrated on Friday, Oct. 4, when the Historical Society has its regular monthly meeting, this time in Paton. Lunch, by reservation, is at 11:30 a.m. at the new 209 Main restaurant, and the 12:30 p.m. program will be right there at the restaurant and is free to all. The lunch and program are 30 minutes earlier than normal to give people time afterward to return to Jefferson for the 2 p.m. Homecoming parade. Alan Robinson, the Grand Junction writer and history buff who also is program director for Jefferson Matters: Main Street, will do the presentation on the Lincoln Highway. He will explain how it was initially proposed as a cross-country route to help promote the emerging automobile industry. It was considered a great boon to economic development to be on this proposed route, and the news was greeted with great fanfare in towns chosen for the route. Celebrations were held in Jefferson and Grand Junction in October, 1913, when it became official that the Lincoln Highway would pass through Greene County. Robinson says that ever since, local officials have had key roles in the development and promotion of the highway. In 1925, Greene County became the first county in Iowa to have its entire stretch of the road paved. As the years went by, the Lincoln was renamed U.S. Highway 30 and became part of the highway infrastructure serving the state and nation. The original Highway 30 receded to the background in the late 1950s when a “new” Highway 30 was built to bypass all three Greene County towns it had previously gone through. The original Lincoln Highway then became commonly referred to as “Old 30,” a term often still used today. Later, Greene County was instrumental in the “rebirth” of the Lincoln Highway as a historical icon. In 1992, a group of local citizens joined with like-minded preservationists in Ogden in 1992 to create a new Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) to preserve the heritage. Over the last two decades that group has grown into a national organization with representation in 13 states. They have been instrumental in planning and executing a number of events showcasing the Lincoln Highway during its centennial celebration in this year of 2013. And they have helped make the highway a bona fide tourism and marketing entity, one which also serves as a conduit for historical preservation in the original LHA states and beyond. The local members of that group now operate the fine Greene County Lincoln Highway Museum in Grand Junction. To help introduce the program in Paton, Denny Lautner, of Jefferson, the society’s master of historical trivia, has come up with 10 questions about the Lincoln Highway. The program will be followed by a short business meeting conducted by the society’s president Jeane Burk. The full lunch is $8, and reservations should be phoned by next Wednesday, Oct. 2, to Virginia Carlson, Paton, (515) 386-2401.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:36:38 +0000
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