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Research Sources

The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, (1924), Reprint by Patrice Press, Tucson, AZ (800) 367-9242. This splendid guide, along with a fistful of AAA maps, will take you from one coast to the other.

Lincoln Highway: Nebraska, Gregory M. Franzwa, Published by Patrice Press, 1996.  1995, Tucson, AZ (800) 367-9242

"The Lincoln turned south in Missouri Valley at the intersection of present state highway 183, in the heart of the business district, to go to Omaha.  However, after the Blair Bridge was completed in the early 1930s, the Lincoln proceeded due west on the route of present U.S. 30 to bypass Omaha.   Or at least that's the way people perceived it.  But there was no Lincoln Highway in the 1930s - Congress shot it in the head in 1925 when all named interstate highways became numbers.  It took decades, however, before people stopped calling it the Lincoln Highway"
             - Gregory Franzwa, The Lincoln Highway: Iowa, The Patrice Press, 1995

The last major reroute of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska occurred with the opening of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge in 1930.   Also known as the Blair Bridge, the new Missouri River crossing made a more direct link between Fremont, Nebraska, and Missouri Valley, Iowa, by bypassing  Council Bluffs and Omaha. The new route not only captured the US 30 shield, but also the generally accepted route of the Lincoln Highway whose signs were relocated from Omaha to Blair.
         - Gregory Franzwa, The Lincoln Highway: Iowa, The Patrice Press, 1995

The Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America,  by Drake Hokanson, University of Iowa Press, 1988, & 1999. Outlines the history of the road, the Lincoln Highway Association and those who drove the road in the early years.  (The single best introduction to the subject, the book contains an accurate, readable text and evocative photographs.)  

 "The Lincoln Highway in Nebraska:  The Pioneer Trail of the Automotive Age,"  by Carol Ahlgren and David Anthone, Nebraska History 73, no. 4 (Winter 1992) page 173

The Lincoln Highway: The Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History. (LHA's 1935 official history)

The Lincoln Highway Forum. This high-quality magazine, which is distributed to members by the new Lincoln Highway Association, contains detailed articles, LHA news, reviews, and other material.

Photographs, Historical and Descriptive Data, Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge (Blair Bridge), Historic American Engineering Record, Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Regional Office.

1928 Lincoln Highway Souvenir Guide Through Iowa and Nebraska

The Lincoln Highway Resource Guide, Submitted to Beth Savage, National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, August 2002 by Kevin J. Patrick, Geography and Regional Planning Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and  Robert E. Wilson, Spatial Sciences Research Center, Indiana University of Pennsylvania  [Link]

Lincoln Highway Study Act of 1999
Directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the National Park Service, to coordinate a comprehensive study of routes comprising the Lincoln Highway. Requires that such study: (1) include an evaluation of its significance in American history, options for the preservation and use of remaining segments of the highway, and options for the preservation and interpretation of significant features association with such highway; and (2) consider private sector preservation alternatives.  H.R.2570

The Lincoln Highway, by Carol Ahlgren.  article from Cultural Resource Management, National Park Service.  http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/19-9/19-9-4.pdf

Nebraska's Lincoln Highway: Connecting People and Places
Presented by: Carol Ahlgren, architectural historian, Nebraska State Historical Society
Original program date: 5-15-97 Length: 38 minutes
Video (VHS tapes) may be checked out from the Nebraska State Historical Society at no cost.
A handling fee may be applied if tapes are mailed.   Call 1-800-833-6747, or 402- 471-4764, or write to: museum02@nebraskahistory.org.

National Parks Service -- Lincoln Highway Special Resource Study
A study conducted cooperatively with the National Park Service's National Center for Cultural Resources, four regions of the National Park Service-- the Midwest, Intermountain, Pacific West/Great Basin, and Northeast, the Federal Highway Administration and, through cooperative agreement, with the Organization of American Historians and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Nebraska State Highway Survey

Nebraska Department of Roads - Lincoln Highway Page

An August 1985 article in Smithsonian magazine featured the Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway, 1935 by Lincoln Highway Association

The Lincoln Highway, Omaha World-Herald, Magazine of the Midlands, Oct. 28, 1973

Speaker from the Nebraska Humanities
Nebraska's Historic Highways  By Carol Ahlgren, Architectural Historian, National Park Service
Omaha, Nebraska, 402-221-4649 (W)
Ahlgren examines Nebraska's historic transportation corridors from different perspectives: The evolution of roads from dirt to asphalt; route changes; buildings, such as motels, that grew up beside the roads; and the impact of these elements on people's lives. Through the use of contemporary photographs, maps, post cards and oral history, this presentation looks at Nebraska's historic highways and the cultural landscape of which they are a part. One possible focus is the importance of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska. A charter member of the national Lincoln Highway Association, she also served as Nebraska state director for two terms. She has published and presented on a variety of topics for national and regional conferences, such as Nebraska's Route 6 and the Lincoln Highway.