Monthly Archives: June 2013

Lincoln at the Lincoln Highway’s Highest Point

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At a rest area along east of Laramie, Wyo., a towering statue of Abraham Lincoln is visible from Interstate 80. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

At a rest area along east of Laramie, Wyo., a towering statue of Abraham Lincoln is visible from Interstate 80. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

2013-06-17 14.41.34LARAMIE, Wyo. — Heading westward from Iowa, there are fewer and fewer signs marking the route of the Lincoln Highway. This is especially true in Wyoming, where significant sections of Interstate 80 west of Cheyenne were simply built over the original Lincoln Highway.

But Wyoming is home to a gigantic Abraham Lincoln monument along the route at the highway’s highest point, 8,835 feet at the Summit Rest Area on Sherman Hill.

The 16th president’s bust looks down on Interstate 80 from the top of a tall column built out of stones. The sound of the highway echos up to the Lincoln statue, especially as the sputtering of truck engine brakes cuts across the monotone hum of vehicular traffic.

According to RoadsideAmerica.com:

Lincoln’s head was built by Wyoming’s Parks Commission to honor Lincoln’s 150th birthday. It was sculpted by Robert Russin, a University of Wyoming art professor and a Lincoln fan (When he died in 2007, his ashes were interred in the hollow monument). The head originally was perched at Sherman Summit, 8,878 feet above sea level, the highest point along the old coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway. When I-80 was completed in 1969, the head was moved here — losing a couple of hundred feet (and any eponymous rationale for existing, really) but gaining a vast new audience.

Another monument to the Lincoln Highway near Laramie, Wyo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Another monument to the Lincoln Highway near Laramie, Wyo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Adjacent to the Lincoln monument is a marker dedicated to Packard Motor Company president Henry B. Joy, the first president of the Lincoln Highway Association.

The road up to this point from Cheyenne, which sits at roughly 6,000 feet, travels across the high plains. This is what Colorado’s Front Range must have looked like before suburbia. The landscape here is certainly majestic and my photos don’t do the topography justice. It’s broad. It’s easy for the eyes to gaze out over the vast expanse.

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‘Living the Legend’ in Cheyenne

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Chief Washakie outside the Wyoming State Capitol building in Cheyenne. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Chief Washakie outside the Wyoming State Capitol building in Cheyenne. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

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Wyoming’s state seal sits out front of the Capitol in Cheyenne. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — For the rest of my Lincoln Highway trek from the East Coast to San Francisco, I’ll be visiting Salt Lake City, Carson City and Sacramento, state capitals I’ve never been to before. But first, there’s Cheyenne, capital of the Equality State. This was my first time in Wyoming.

As someone who lives in the nation’s capital, I’m not the first person to point out that Wyoming’s population is smaller than the District of Columbia, yet citizens in the Equality State have two senators and representation in the House of Representatives while those of us in D.C. lack full and equal representation in Congress.

D.C.’s disenfranchisement and periodic federal meddling into local affairs has been the product of the U.S. Constitution and something that’s proven difficult to change over the decades. But enough about the nation’s capital, I’m in Wyoming’s capital city and largest city, with roughly 60,000 people.

While cosmopolitan Denver and its Front Range suburbs feel like they could fit in well somewhere in California — especially considering the high number of Californians who have migrated to the Centennial State — there’s no mistaking Cheyenne for being a true city of the American West. All you have to do is look for cowboy boots and hats.

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Make Way for the Wind Turbines

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The train carrying wind turbine blades had some trouble passing through Fort Collins, Colo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

The train carrying wind turbine blades had some trouble passing through Fort Collins, Colo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — On my way north out of Colorado to link back up with the Lincoln Highway’s route through Wyoming and onward west to San Francisco, I followed U.S. 287 into this city of roughly 145,000 people, according to the 2010 Census, making it the Centennial State’s fourth-largest city.

Driving north from the Jack Kerouac gas station outside Longmont and into Loveland, where Lincoln Avenue carries northbound traffic through the center of the city, the mountains of the Front Range frame the western horizon. Longs Peak, a 14,255-foot mountain is the highest point in this part of the state, though it’s only Colorado’s 15th-highest.

Peakbagger.com has described the mountain as “a craggy monster with several enormous vertical cliffs, set among the sea of 13,000 foot peaks that make up Rocky Mountain National Park.”

Fort Collins a hub for the northern Front Range, home of Colorado State University‘s flagship campus and a number of great local breweries, including New Belgium Brewing Co., Equinox Brewing, Odell Brewing Co. and The Fort Collins Brewery. Anheuser-Busch has a large facility here, too.

It was mid morning and, unfortunately, too early to take a break to sample the local beer. (I have had may fair share of beer brewed by New Belgium over the years.) On my way out of town, I was actually contemplating turning back when a freight train carrying wind-turbine blades blocked my route to Cheyenne, Wyo.

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Jack Kerouac (And Sal Paradise) Slept Near Here

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In "On the Road," Jack Kerouac slept on grass outside this gas station, which was moved into Prospect, a planned mixed-used community near Longmont, Colo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

In “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac’s Sal Paradise slept on grass outside this gas station, which was moved into Prospect, a planned mixed-used community near Longmont, Colo.
(Photo by Michael E. Grass)

LONGMONT, Colo. — When Sal Paradise, the narrator and main character in Jack Kerouac‘s quasi-autobiographical novel On the Road, was on his way to Denver, he hitched a ride near Cheyenne, Wyo., from a guy from Connecticut driving cross-country in jalopy and painting along the way.

Taking the Denver-bound road closest to the mountains, Sal ended up here on the outskirts of Longmont for a short time.

Keroauc wrote in On the Road:

Under a tremendous old tree was a bed of green lawn-grass belonging to a gas station. I asked if the attendant if I could sleep there, and he said sure, so I stretched out a wool shirt, laid my face flat on it, with an elbow out, and one eye cocked at the snowy Rockies in the hot sun for a moment. I fell asleep for two delicious hours, the only discomfort being an occasional Colorado ant. And here I am in Colorado! I kept thinking gleefully. Damn damn damn! I’m making it!

To find the relocated Jack Keroac gas station, look for this intersection. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

To find the relocated Jack Keroac gas station, look for this intersection. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

That On the Road gas station is still around according to Brian Butko’s Lincoln Highway Companion. It’s at the corner of Ionosphere Street and Neon Forest Circle at the edge of a mixed-used development near the junction of U.S. 287 and Pike Road.

It was moved here from its former location nearby at the intersection of U.S. 287 and Colorado State Highway 119. As I discovered, the Art Deco-inspired gas station sits vacant, is surrounded by a chain-link fence and does not yet sit on a permanent foundation.

Modern-day U.S. 287 is a six-lane divided highway that runs along Colorado’s Front Range and along the eastern flank of the gas station’s new home. According to the Lincoln Highway Association’s official map, the Lincoln Highway’s Colorado Loop through Denver follows today’s U.S. 287 or parallel roads nearby.

This is the way Kerouac (and Sal Paradise) would have used traveling between Cheyenne and Denver. This route passes through Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Broomfield, but stays to the east of Boulder.

While there’s still some rich agricultural land and open space in this corridor, the greater expanse of Front Range suburbia encroaches along the route. During Kerouac’s time here, this area would have been considerably more rural.

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A Quick Fast Forward to the Western Terminus

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A vintage car, part of the Lincoln Highway Association's 100th Anniversary Tour, leaves Lincoln Park in foggy San Francisco on Sunday, June 23, 2013. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

A vintage car, part of the Lincoln Highway Association’s 100th Anniversary Tour, leaves Lincoln Park in foggy San Francisco on Sunday, June 23, 2013. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

SAN FRANCISCO — Where I last left off, in northeastern Colorado, I was about to take a few days off to relax in Boulder, Colo. I used part of that down time to catch up on writing from earlier in my trip. Then I had to get back on the road.

Writing, researching, driving long distances and making stops along the way aren’t an ideal mix. But overall, this has certainly been a grand trip.

A quick and timely preview: I’m happy to report that I did indeed reach Lincoln Park in San Francisco, the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway. That’s where, in front of the Legion of Honor, the Lincoln Highway Association’s 100th Anniversary Tour kicked off its western car caravan on Sunday morning. (I arrived at the tail end of the departure of the vintage cars just in time to grab a few quick photos. Then poof! The Lincoln Highway celebrants disappeared into the fog.)

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Traversing Northeastern Colorado’s Cigarette-Burn Country

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Railroad Street in Sedgwick, Colo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Railroad Street in Crook, Colo. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

CROOK, Colo. — Seven or eight years ago, I came across a large but very worn United States Geological Survey map of Colorado in the garbage room of my apartment building in Washington, D.C. I rescued it, naturally — it can be difficult to throw out an old map — and still have it somewhere.

Curiously, there’s a cluster of what appears to be cigarette burns in northeastern Colorado, somewhere in either Sedgwick County or Logan County. (I’ll have to dig out that map when I return home to make certain.)

So now, I get to check out what I’ve nicknamed Colorado’s cigarette-burn country.

To get to this part of Colorado from California Hill across the border in Nebraska, I made a detour from the Lincoln Highway’s primary route west to head into the Centennial State to use the long-controversial Colorado Loop, which links back up with the Lincoln Highway in Cheyenne, Wyo.

There’s a long history to this, but Brian Butko’s very useful guide, Lincoln Highway Companion, has it summed up concisely:

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California Is Over That Hill, Eventually

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California Hill, near modern-day Brule, Neb., is where many westward settlers encountered their first large climb from the Platte River valley to higher terrain. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

California Hill, near modern-day Brule, Neb., is where many westward settlers encountered their first large climb from the Platte River valley to higher terrain. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

BRULE, Neb. — It may not look like much, but the beautifully rolling topography wedged between the Platte River’s north and south forks was one of the first big endurance tests for any westward-bound emigrant.

California Hill is located near Brule, Neb. (Photo bu Michael E. Grass)

California Hill is located near Brule, Neb. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

This is California Hill, the place where thousands of wagons carrying settlers and supplies bound for California, Oregon and other points westward encountered their first major uphill climb. There certainly aren’t any major mountains here, but as central Nebraska pushes into western Nebraska, a gradual change in topography is noticeable. In this case, a big hill is still a big hill, especially when the previous few hundred miles have been absolutely flat.

Most westward emigrants heading through Nebraska would stick to the south side of the Platte River. (Many Mormons traveled along the north side of the river.) Near modern-day North Platte, the city that’s home to the Buffalo Bill Ranch, the river forks into two branches: The South Platte continues to the southwest into northeastern Colorado and onward to Denver while the North Platte continues in a northwesterly direction toward east-central Wyoming and, eventually, South Pass, the all-important crossing of the Rocky Mountains.

At California Crossing, emigrants would ford the South Platte, trudge up California Hill toward the north and northwest and later connect with the North Platte. This territory is apparently full of old emigrant wagon ruts.

I was on the lookout for these remainders from the former overland trails, but couldn’t pinpoint any within view of the dirt road I drove up from U.S. 30 to reach this beautiful and peaceful windblown spot.

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Looking from California Hill down toward the South Platte River. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

For his 2001 book Wither Thou Goest, author Patrick Simpson visited California Hill as part of his journey following his ancestors’ 1878 trek westward. He had some trouble at California Hill, just like me:

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Seeing Rural Nebraska’s Great Demographic Shift

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The L.R. Ranch motel greets travelers on U.S. 30 heading into Lexington, Neb. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

The L.R. Ranch motel greets travelers on U.S. 30 heading into Lexington, Neb. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

LEXINGTON, Neb. — The approach to this city 11 miles west of Overton is just like most other settled spots along the Union Pacific Railroad and the Lincoln Highway. Railroad tracks? Check. Grain elevator? Check. Town grid starts north of the highway? Check, check, check, complete with the aging L.H. Motel and its faded sign declaring “Quality for Less.” (Since I was just passing through, I couldn’t confirm the accuracy of that claim.)

Washington Street is one of Lexington, Neb.'s principal commercial streets. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Washington Street is one of Lexington, Neb.’s principal commercial streets. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Since Lexington stands out as a somewhat larger town than most along Nebraska’s stretch of the Lincoln Highway — the 2010 Census found 10,230 people living here — the town’s main commercial area stretches a little bit farther north from U.S. 30.

Heading north on Washington Street, this could be any town’s main street, lined with one- and two-story commercial buildings.

It looks ordinary. But look closer. It’s in Lexington where you really start to grasp just how diverse some rural Nebraska communities can be.

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Patterns in the Platte River Valley

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Looking toward U.S. 30, a grain elevator towers over Overton, Neb. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

Looking toward U.S. 30, a grain elevator towers over Overton, Neb. (Photo by Michael E. Grass)

OVERTON, Neb. — While no two towns are exactly alike, there’s something of a pattern that the chain of human settlement in the Platte River valley follows. Long-haul travelers on Interstate 80 will miss this, but those following U.S. 30 will likely pick up on the template for these towns along the way.

Heading out of any city, town or Census-designated place along U.S. 30, and off in the distance, a tower will rise out of the alignment of the road a few miles down the highway.

A few minutes later, cruising alongside the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and through the flat countryside, the outline of the next town will come into view. Heading west, the tracks are on the left and the town is on the right, just north of the highway. Between the highway and the Union Pacific tracks is the tall grain elevator standing amid a cluster of warehouses and other support buildings.

The town’s street grid will start at the highway and assuming it’s a small place — and most of them are — it will spread out for a few blocks before the flat farmland reappears.

This pattern will repeat itself every few miles, though the positions of the highway, railroad and grain elevator may shift depending on town.

It’s hard to miss the Platte River valley’s chain of grain elevators, which stand in succession along the Union Pacific like the Great Wall’s beacon towers. After awhile, this repetition will play out town and after town.

Overton, with a population of just under 600 people, generally fits this Platte River pattern, but its history doesn’t.

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No, I Didn’t Use Gunpowder to Season My Chinese Food

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KEARNEY, Neb. — After a few days of on-the-road food, I was desperate for something different — and hopefully healthier. Along the way, I’ve been doing my best with dried fruit, mixed nuts and water in an effort to try not turn into a roadtrip pig. But I’ve had my fair share of fast food, too.

By the time I arrived in Kearney, I was exhausted. The drive from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with all of my stops, took me longer than I had planned for. I was thinking about checking out one of the downtown brewpubs, either Cunningham’s Journal or Thunderhead Brewing Company, but I wasn’t up for beer and when I drove by, they were packed.

The menu at Hunan Chinese in Kearney, Neb.

The menu at Hunan Chinese in Kearney, Neb.

Yelp pointed me to Hunan Chinese, which reviewers had indicated was “[h]onestly, probably the best Chinese in a 100 mile radius” and when considering all of the local restaurant offerings is “[a]s good as it gets for Kearney.” It wasn’t downtown but it was close to my hotel. And some Chinese food sounded good at the moment.

I have a soft spot for Chinese restaurants in the United States. I used to work at a fairly Spartan-looking Chinese take-out operation in high school. Over many generations, Chinese restaurants in the United States have become a critically important part of the American culinary footprint. The first Chinese restaurants in the U.S. opened during the California Gold Rush in mining towns — “Caucasian miners feared, ridiculed and discriminated against the Chinese, but loved their food,” according to the Sacramento Bee — but overtime, spread east, to places just like Kearney.

“What began in this country as exotic has become thoroughly American,” The New York Times wrote in 2004.

Recently, I’ve been seeking out more and more traditional Chinese cooking on my travels and when I can Sichuan food in particular. This has included some knock-out dishes at Han Dynasty in Philadelphia and great meals in Penang, Malaysia, where Chinese merchants brought their cooking traditions to the British outpost at George Town. I also recently ventured to Fredericksburg, Va., about an hour from Washington, D.C., to sample the cooking of acclaimed former Chinese Embassy chef Peter Chang. The chef has a bit of a cult following and has a somewhat mysterious track record of disappearing and reappearing in a random city with a new restaurant located in a seemingly nondescript strip mall. Chang has bigger plans for bringing his food to larger audiences.

Perhaps, Chang’s cooking will appear here in Kearney someday. In the meantime at Hunan Chinese, I knew I would likely be getting standard Americanized Chinese favorites, but that was OK. My stomach wanted some crab rangoon.

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