BUCKEYE RAMBLINGS
The Official Newsletter of the Ohio Lincoln Highway League
Number 48                                                                                                                            April, 2006


ODOT OPENS NEW U.S. 30 IN WAYNE COUNTY
(excerpted from internet news release at www.dot.state.us)

WOOSTER--DECEMBER 19, 2005)--Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Director Gordon Proctor opened a new stretch of four-lane U.S. Route 30 today, between Wooster and State Route 57, following a formal ribbon cutting ceremony in Wooster. This completes the upgrade of U.S. 30 to a four-lane route in Wayne County.

Proctor was joined by State Senator Ron Amstutz, State Representative Jim Carmichael, Federal Highway Administration Division Administrator Dennis Decker and ODOT District Three Deputy Director Thomas M. O'Leary to celebrate the project's completion. The project is opening nearly one year ahead of schedule.

"Completing this project brings Ohio one step closer to upgrading U.S. 30 to a four-lane highway from Indiana to Pennsylvania," said Proctor. "This upgrade also addresses the safety and congestion issues that made this stretch of U.S. 30 one of the top non-freeway accident locations in the state."

The $45 million project relocated an outdated, congested, eight-mile stretch of U.S. 30 from Wooster to State Route 57. ODOT widened the road to four lanes, built new interchanges at Apple Creek Road and Carr Road, and built four new grade separations, resulting in a safer and less congested highway.

This project, and others like it around the state, would not be possible without Governor Bob Taft's Jobs and Progress Plan. Unveiled in 2003, the Jobs and Progress Plan is a $5 billion, 10-year plan to rebuild Ohio's urban interstate networks, address high-crash locations and complete the state's rural macro-corridors, like U.S. 30....

Through the governor's plan, ODOT kicked off a $99 million project from Upper Sandusky to State Route 235 in May 2005. When this project is complete in 2007, motorists will be able to travel on a four-lane, limited access highway from the Indiana state line to Canton. Projects to upgrade the route in Stark, Carroll, and Columbiana counties are in the planning process. Information regarding these projects is available online at www.us30.org.
 


UPCOMING EVENTS
MID-OHIO CHAPTER:
For information regarding chapter activities, contact Chapter President Mike McNaull or newsletter editor Beverly Looker.

EASTERN OHIO CHAPTER:
April 29, 2006— Eastern Ohio Chapter will host the 12th Annual Business Meeting of the OLHL, at the Canton Club in downtown Canton, overlooking the Lincoln Highway.
( REGISTRATION FORM)
May 11, 2006— Possible tour of Museum of Ceramics, East Liverpool, Ohio.
July 16, 2006— Road Rally; location to be announced.
For information regarding chapter activities, contact Chapter President Jeff Lotze, 330-875-2989

OHIO LINCOLN HIGHWAY HERITAGE CORRIDOR:
April 26, 2006— OLHHC Travel and Tourism Conference at Shisler Center in Wooster
For conference information, call Mike Hocker at 419-468-6773
Guest speakers include the following:
Curt Pianalto, National Byways Resource Center, Duluth, Minnesota
"Assessing Your Byway's Resources"
Scott Sandman, Executive Director, Fentress City, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce
Route 127 (World's Longest Yard Sale) Director
Bob Lichty, President of Lincoln Highway Association; and Rosemary Rubin
will speak about the 2003 Cross Country Lincoln Highway Tour
August 10-12, 2006— Second Annual Buy-Way Yard Sale, in Ohio and Indiana

LINCOLN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION
June 13-17, 2006— 14th Annual LHA Conference, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa



Thank you to LHA/OLHL member Jim Cassler and The Klingstedt Brothers Company, who have donated the return envelopes that were used to mail the hardcopy of the newsletter. Congratulations remain in order for Jim and his associates for continuing their fine work with the Lincoln Highway Trading Post, who in 2006 will begin their fifth year as the official supplier of Lincoln Highway Merchandise. Members are encouraged to visit the web site at www.lhtp.com for a look at the impressive inventory of items, which now includes a center-wire binder for your collection of Lincoln Highway Forum.


MID-OHIO CHAPTER MEMBERS ATTEND RIBBON-CUTTING AT WOOSTER
Mike McNaull (Ashland) and Tom Mykrantz (Wooster) braved cold temperatures on December 19, 2005 to represent the Ohio Lincoln Highway League and witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony and official opening for a portion of eight new miles of U.S. Route 30 between Wooster and State Route 57 at Riceland. Mike reported that "although the outside temperature was only 9 degrees, it was actually quite comfortable in the tent (see photo, sheet one), thanks to the two external heaters that were supplying hot air." Mike went on to say that "things immediately cooled down" when crews opened up two large flaps at the back of the tent to make more room for the overflow crowd. Wooster's newspaper, The Daily Record, estimated that the crowd approached 200 people.

Mike also reported that the scheduled main speaker, U.S. Congressman Ralph Regula, was unable to attend the ceremony "due to late budget hearings at Washington the night before." Regula helped secure the $22.5 million needed for the project. Deputy Director Thomas O'Leary adequately echoed the sentiments of many, calling the new road the "best Christmas gift we could have given Wayne County."


OLHL WEB SITE FEATURES SEVERAL NEW ARTICLES
With an unusually small work load during the past several winter months, the editor kept busy with intermittent research and writing by preparing several new articles for the web site of the Ohio Lincoln Highway League at www.lincolnhighwayoh.com. Articles have now been posted which feature Ohio's other transcontinental routes—the Dixie Highway, the National Old Trails Road, the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, and the Yellowstone Trail. An article has also been posted which covers Ohio's well-remembered Three-C Highway, which traversed diagonally across the state from Cleveland to Cincinnati by way of Columbus, in a corridor that compares well with I-71 of today. Also recently posted is a new article on U.S. 20, with a similar story on U.S. 50 still in the works. Once the U.S. 50 article is complete, the four major east-west federal routes across Ohio will all have been covered by one story or another.

Another new article which has proved to be a challenge to write covers the subject of named automobile trails of Ohio. The story that is now online is already obsolete, as a result of new information culled from a wonderful set of 1918 auto trails map copies recently received from the awesome collection of Dave Cole. With this new information, the present count of named automobile trails in Ohio is now up to forty-three, including several trails for which I have no map reference. These several trails appear in a similar list at Dave Schul's national/regional auto trails site at:
www.marion.ohio-state.edu/fac/schul/trails/trails.html


UNOFFICIAL LIST OF THE NAMED AUTOMOBILE TRAILS IN OHIO

1. ATLANTIC-PACIFIC HIGHWAY; Dave Schul has this one between New York and Los Angeles
2. Belt Line (1 of 2); entered Ohio near Celina; terminated at Logan; compare now to US 33 east of Celina
3. Belt Line (2 of 2); western terminus at Warren, OH; eastern terminus in Pennsylvania
4. Benjamin Franklin Highway; Dave Schul has this one between Philadelphia and Akron
5. Blue and Gray Trail; Dave Schul has this one between Charleston, WV and Columbus, OH
6. Blue Grass Way; between Cincinnati and Norwalk, OH; compare now to US 42, US 68, and SR 4
7. Canton-Alliance-Pittsburgh Trail; well-traveled detour route of the Lincoln Highway in 1920s
8. Capitol Trail; between Toledo and Columbus; compare now to US 23
9. Chicago-Buffalo Trail; perhaps a later combination of #38 and #39 below; compare now to US 20
10. Cincinnati-Parkersburg Way; compare to SR 28 and US 50 today
11. Cleveland-Canton-Parkersburg Way; appears only on 1918 map from Dave Cole
12. DIXIE HIGHWAY; another Carl G. Fisher idea; the forerunner of US 25 in Ohio and then I-75
13. Flint Trail; from Toledo into Michigan
14. French Lick Route; from Cincinnati into Indiana
15. HARDING HIGHWAY; online article features part of route between Galion and Lima
16. Harrison Trail; on 1922 map, between Portsmouth and Port Clinton
17. Hoosier Highway; clips northwest corner of Ohio at Bryan
18. Hoosier Dixie Highway; from Cincinnati into Indiana, with north terminus at Goshen on L.H.
19. Hub Highway; between Dayton and Chillicothe via Xenia and Washington C.H.
20. Huntington-Manitan-Culver Trail; mostly in Indiana, but with inexplicable eastern terminus at Lima
21. Industrial Way; convoluted route between Cleveland and Pittsburgh via Ravenna, Warren, Youngstown
22. LAKES TO OCEAN HIGHWAY; Dave Schul has this one between Cleveland and Tampa
23. Lima-Ann Arbor-Flint Trail; appears only on 1918 map from Dave Cole
24. LINCOLN HIGHWAY; the online article is the original feature article at the OLHL web site
25. Marion-Kenton Trail; the forerunner of the Harding Highway between Lima and Galion
26. Muncie-Lima-Fremont Trail; essentially displaced passenger traffic on Nickel Plate Railroad
27. NATIONAL OLD TRAILS ROAD; followed route of National Road to Springfield, then Dayton Cutoff
28. Ohio-Indiana-Michigan Way; south terminus at Cincinnati, but mostly in Indiana
29. PIKES PEAK OCEAN-TO-OCEAN HIGHWAY; compare now to US 36, US 250, and US 22
30. Rose Trail; compare now to US 68 between Springfield and Findlay
31. Scioto Trail; compare now to US 23 and SR 4 between Portsmouth and Sandusky
32. Sherman-Sheridan Trail; compare now to US 22 between Zanesville and Circleville
33. Shore Road; trail along Lake Erie later followed by Yellowstone Trail
34. Tecumseh Trail; from Toledo into Michigan, with north terminus at Jackson
35. Terre Haute-Columbus-Cincinnati Trail; mostly in Indiana, with east terminus at Cincinnati
36. Three-C Highway; the forerunner of Interstate 71; met Lincoln Highway at Wooster
37. Toledo-Angola-Goshen Trail; became original route of US 20 in western Ohio
38. Toledo-Chicago Pike; passed through Wauseon and Bryan before entering Indiana
39. Toledo-Cleveland-Buffalo Trail; an eastern complement to the two routes above
40. Two-C Highway; parallel with Three-C Highway between Columbus and Cleveland but via Mansfield
41. VICTORY HIGHWAY; see www.route40.net for this predecessor of US 40 in Ohio
42. Wayne Highway; compare now to US 127 in westernmost column of Ohio counties
43. YELLOWSTONE TRAIL; never promoted in Ohio to the extent of the other coast-to-coast routes

Notes: TRAIL NAMES IN CAPITAL LETTERS are considered transcontinental routes;
bold type indicates that a related article is now online at www.lincolnhighwayoh.com

This list is based on the editor's limited collection of auto trails maps from the late 1910s to the late 1920s, plus information from Dave Schul's auto trails web site. Additions or revisions will be considered for this list only if a reliable map copy or excerpt is provided.
 


Buckeye Ramblings is the newsletter of the Ohio Lincoln Highway League, our state affiliate of the Lincoln Highway Association, and is published four times per year. Editor of this newsletter and president of the OLHL is Mike Buettner (1618 Chandler Drive/ Lima, Ohio/ 45805). Any changes of address should be forwarded to Mike, either by mail or by calling his office at 419-227-1135. Other officers through April 2006 are Mike McNaull, Vice-President; Tammy Buettner, Secretary; and Michael Lester, Treasurer. State Director for the Lincoln Highway Association is Marie Malernee. Past State Director Bob Lichty is now our national president. For texts of back issues, plus photography and other Ohio information, visit our website at  www.lincolnhighwayoh.com.

Costs for printing and mailing the newsletter are covered entirely by LHA membership dues. Please renew your membership in the national association so that we can continue to publish news from Ohio on a regular basis.

home