The April 7th Joliet Herald News had a review of Cynthia L. Ogorek's book "The Lincoln Highway Around Chicago." The reviewer, Greg Houghton, said that thanks to Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, "Americans today barely think about driving 60 miles for a restaurant dinner or 120 miles for a round of golf." Someone must not have seen the price of gas these days. I think about even a five mile trip.
The Lincoln Highway can be considered America's first urban bypass. Even back in 1913, Chicago was seen as a possible traffic bottleneck to be avoided and a straight drive from Dyer, Indiana, to Joliet, Illinois, was selected, then north to Geneva. However, these days, anyone attempting to drive this bypass may wonder about bottlenecks in Chicago.
Local boosters in towns along the way were given the title of consul and encouraged to get sections completed. At one time, there were 262 consuls in 13 states. As such, hundreds of small road-building projects added up to one massive road-building project called the LincolnHighway.
Houghton concluded saying that Ogoreck's book "makes this story interesting and highly local.
I'm looking forward to seeing her and getting a signed copy of the book at the May Indiana/Illinois LHA meeting in Schererville, Indiana.
Give me a Book with Lots of Pictures Anyday. --RoadDog
RoadDog's RoadLog Blog: Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.
The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.
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