DATE: October 6, 2015
SITE: Victory & Lincoln Highways
LOCATION: West Wendover Blvd., West Wendover, Elko Co.,
Nevada 89883
There were two plaques placed here. It seems the more significant
of the two is for the Victory Highway but I recognized the other much more…the
Lincoln Highway.
The plaque for the Victory Highway states…
“The Victory Highway monument is a representation of the
earlier county bronze eagle markers of the 1920’s. Original eagle markers were
to be located at each county line with a plaque dedicated to the sons and
daughters who served their country in World War I, sacrificing their lives for
our freedom. Only five original bronze eagles are knows to be in existence, two
in Kansas and three in California. The Victory Highway is a near-forgotten
relic of the early 20th century roadways, a path traversed by early
auto-pioneers from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The road you are
standing on today was completed in 1925 and used until the 1940’s. Highway U.S.
40 replaced the Victory Highway to the south, which is now known as Wendover
Boulevard. The arch represents the Victory Highway sign, used at the only
documented official ceremony opening the Victory Highway. The ceremony took
place on June 25, 1925, just east of Wendover on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Officiating were Utah Governor George Dern, Nevada Governor James Scrugham, and
Secretary of Agriculture William Jardine.”
“The Victory Highway Association was incorporated in Topeka,
Kansas, late in 1921 to locate and mark a transcontinental highway. Victory
Highway, dedicated to American Forces who died in World War I, traversed the
United States from New York City to San Francisco. In 1925, the
Transcontinental route offered a panorama of the mid-section of the country
3,205 miles, this great motorway follows the same course, or one closely
parallels, as that of the earliest settlers of the Ohio, Mississippi, and
Missouri valleys, crossing 14 states in all. Less than 14 percent or 788 miles
of the highway was unimproved.”
“From Salt Lake City, the Victory Highway skirts around Great
Salt Lake over the famous Wendover Cutoff. The crossing of the salt flats
between Salt Lake City and Wendover on the Utah/Nevada border was costly,
involving five years of labor. The remarkable engineering feat bridged what was
once a great obstacle to transcontinental motor travel, the Bonneville Salt
Flats. This accomplishment blazed a new auto-route across northern Nevada to
Reno, parallel to the Lincoln Highway to the south. In the early mid-twenties,
only 81 miles of the 371 miles of the Victory Highway across Utah were paved,
107 miles consisted of gravel surfacing, and 183 miles were relatively unimproved.
The Victory Highway was designated Route No. 40 by state and federal highway
officials shortly after the Wendover Cutoff was completed, and the Victory
Highway was used until it was replaced in the 1940’s.”
“An original culvert to the east of this marker still exists
today. When a new portion of Highway 40 was constructed in the 1940’s, this
section of the Victory Highway, along with the culverts, was left intact.
Constructed of stone and galvanized steel, these culverts are a testament to
the skills of road engineers and rock masons of the early 19th
century.”
“In 1921, the federal government passed the Federal Highway
Act of 1921. A similar act, passed in 1916, provided matching funds to the
states for highway construction. Unlike the 1916 act, the 1921 act required the
states to identify seven percent of its total mileage as “primary”; only these
roads would be eligible for federal funds. In the ten years prior to the 1921
act, the United States went from having one named highway to having an unorganized
and confusing system of multiple-named highways. As a result, a numbered
highway system was formed to organize the national highways across the United
States. In most states, the Lincoln Highway was the obvious choice as a federal
road, but there were a few exceptions, the greatest challenge being Utah.
Despite numerous reports and heavy lobbying by the Lincoln Highway Association,
the federal government selected the Wendover route or “Victory Highway” (Route
No. 40) as the federal road across Utah and Nevada.”
The plaque for the Lincoln Highway states…
“In 1912, roads were dirt, bumpy and dusty in dry weather;
impassable in wet weather. Asphalt and concrete roads were yet to come. To get
from coast-to-coast, it was much easier to take the train. The Lincoln Highway
Association conceived the first improved automobile road across the United
States of America. Inspired by the Good Roads Movement, the Lincoln Highway ran
from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, traversing
14 states; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. This
paved the way for the development of a nationwide highway network that is now
unsurpassed. As the first automobile road across America, the Lincoln Highway
brought great prosperity to hundreds of cities, town and villages along the
way. The first officially recorded mileage in 1913 was 3,389 miles; by 1924 the
road was improved and realigned, covering only 3,142 miles. A road was
“improved” if it was just graded; few even had gravel in the early years of the
association. One of the hardest fought realignments took place in the deserts
of Utah, west of Sal Lake City. A new route, the Goodyear Cutoff, was surveyed,
and prepared for construction by the Lincoln Highway Association. The Utah
State government promoted a route directly west of Salt Lake City to Wendover,
Nevada, as the route to San Francisco. This course crossed miles of salt
desert, which was often submerged under water. The Wendover road, favored by
Utah, was part of another named highway, the Victory Highway. Like the Lincoln,
it claimed New York and San Francisco as its endpoints. Northern Californians
favored the Victory for economic reason; travelers along the Victory would
almost certainly end their trips in San Francisco.”
“Lincoln Highway Markers
The association ceased activity at the end of 1927. Its last major
activity was to mark the highway not as a route from one destination to
another, but as a memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, the roads namesake. On
September 1, 1928, thousands of boy scouts fanned out along the highway. At an
average of about one monument per mile, 3,000 concrete markers were installed
with a small bust of Lincoln and the inscription, “This highway dedicated to
Abraham Lincoln” were placed along the road from New York City to San
Francisco.”
PERSONAL
REFLECTIONS:
I found an old magazine on Google Books from 1922 that the
president of the Victory Highway Association had written an article in. Being
me, I couldn’t stay with just that article but perused several months’ worth.
Interesting reading about many of the roads and the problems, some that were overcome,
some just noted while building the road system in the U.S. and it has great
pictures. It’s amazing what those first roads were like with some totally
impassable at different times of the year. Roads could be paved in some fashion
but most were more rudimentary than that. Work on the roads varied too. In some
places, there might be one or two “government” workers; while many times locals
who wanted roads to go by their town or place of business might get out there
and “make” a road.
I liked this line from one of the magazines…”the contrast in
roads typifies the contrast in social and economic standing of communities. The
roads are the barometers of civilization”
The plan for the Victory Highway was to build a road from New
York to San Francisco, using only roads already improved or likely to be
improved within a short time frame. As I said before, road quality really varied.
While investigating the best route, there was no real decisions to be made
going from New York City to St. Charles, Missouri where the road was paved
except for a tiny section of gravel road in New Jersey.
The first hurdle to deal with was the sticky mud of Missouri
and then Kansas which had little to no paving. Colorado was in good shape with
gravel along the route and California had the best roads of all. Although the
route picked by the association from the state line to Sacramento was not
paved, it was scheduled to be completed in a short timeframe.
The big problems were Utah and Nevada where travel was
difficult through the desert and the route was often no more than a track in
the sand to follow. For 3 months out of the year, the route in Utah is covered
in water for about 40 miles. There were discussions over the best way to get
over the salt flats with the idea of a raised road winning out.
This was the first time in history that one state helped another
state finance projects. By 1922, cities in Northern California raised
$50,000.00 to finance the building of the Wendover Cutoff. Fifteen years later,
California also financed part of the highway through Nevada. Not being shortsighted, California understood
what it meant to get tourists to the state.
Numbered highways were introduced in 1926 and The Victory
Highway Association continued to promote tourism. With the decline in “named”
highways, the Association itself changed its name to U.S. Highway 40
Association.
As for the Lincoln Highway, I was pleased to see the reference
to it since I came upon another one of the markers when I was exploring in the
Newcastle area near home. Again, it’s interesting how things seen in one place
link themselves to other places I visit.
There were huge political arguments over the best route…Victory
vs. Lincoln with some of the decisions having to wait for politicians to be
defeated or for the weather to finally teach developers a lesson. Some big
names threw themselves behind one side or another…the Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company gave $75,000 for a cutoff to be built south of Wendover while
the city of San Francisco threw their weight into a northern route; that being
the Victory Highway.
When the possibility of federal funding came, both plans were
to be presented but when the plan was submitted, only the northern route, Victory
Highway. Despite protests from the Lincoln Highway group, the U.S. Bureau of
Roads approved the northern route and funding was secured.
Today, neither highway in known except as part of history
although both roads exist as part of U.S. Route 40.
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