The President Talks Lincoln Highway in 1917

That president would be Henry B. Joy, President of the Lincoln Highway Association, who evidently had gotten the mud off him from that fun 1915 trip he took across the US from Detroit to San Francisco, mostly on his highway.

This is from the Spring 2009 Lincoln Highway Forum which reprinted an article from the April 25, 1917, Outlook Magazine.

He reprinted a letter, one of the thousands received weekly by the LHA from every state inquiring about the feasibility of traveling by car. he said that every touring organization in the US received thousands as well.

"The point is that the average American in the year 1917 when planning a trip think first of his motor car as a means of locomotion. If motor transportation is out of the question, due to road conditions, he turns to the railway or steamship lines; but the motor first. Why?

"Careful statisticians estimate that there are in use in this country this year 4,000,000 self-propelled pleasure vehicles."

To Be Continued. --RoadDog