High Noon – 11/16/17

High Noon: Shootout with Neal Cobb
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Noon

This month our guest speaker will be Jim Bonar, past president for the Lincoln Highway Association in Reno. Hewill talk about the history of the Lincoln Highway and what the association still does today.

The Lincoln Highway Association was formed in 1913, and was responsible for the mapping and definition of the first transcontinental highway across the country. A group of business boosters named the road the Lincoln Highway before there was much roadway at all. In 1919, the federal government sent about 81 vehicles and some 300 men across the 3,200 mile mostly-unpaved and often ungraded route to study the terrain and driving conditions.

Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, future U.S. president, accompanied the convoy. It took the team 62 days to travel from Washington D.C. to San Francisco along a route that in some places was the track of wagon trains.

The Lincoln Highway was built mostly in the 1920s, following much of what later became U.S. Highway 30. In Nevada, the road became Highway 50 through most of the state, then turned north at Fallon to Fernley and proceeded west along what became Highway 40 and later Interstate 80. An alternate route continued west from outside Fallon, along Highway 50 through Carson City and Lake Tahoe. In 1921, that route was named the Pioneer Route, Bonar said.

As always, after the program, Neal will answer questions from the audience.

Admission is $5 for adults; free for children 17 and younger and for Nevada Historical Society members. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early as seating is limited. For details, call 688-1190.