A number of guidebooks about the Lincoln Highway, an important predecessor to historic Route 66, exist for several states that the road traverses.
However, Brian Butko’s “Lincoln Highway Companion” (Stackpole Books, 192 pages, $26.95 retail) is the first book of which I’m aware that tries to compile all of the coast-to-coast road’s unique motels, restaurants, attractions and maps of its varying alignments in one place.
Butko is exceedingly well-qualified to produce a such a guidebook. He’s written two previous volumes about the Lincoln Highway, was a contributor to PBS-TV’s “A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway,” and is the proprietor of the Lincoln Highway News site.
“Lincoln Highway Companion” measures only 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches — compact enough to fit in a vehicle’s glove box. After briefly recounting the highway’s sometimes-unruly history, “Lincoln Highway Companion” begins in California at its terminus of San Francisco and moves its way east to the road’s end at Times Square in New York City.
The maps include not only each state, but details of certain regions and cities. Color-coded are the original 1913 alignments, intermediate alignments, and final alignments still in use by the late 1920s. Maps also show modern detours, impassable alignments and road segments that have been swallowed up by the interstates.
Chapters post a brief summary of each state on the Lincoln Highway (plus the Washington, D.C., feeder route and Colorado loop) and a listing of must-see spots. Just about every page contains at least one photo from the road.
“Lincoln Highway Companion” truly shines with descriptions of choice motels and restaurants by Butko and a slew of contributors (among them are longtime Route 66 roadies John and Lenore Weiss and “RoadDog” Don Hatch). It’s a pleasure to discover such places as Tortilla Flat in Placerville, Calif., which has a 1928 Lincoln Highway post imbedded in one wall; and Cindy’s Diner in Fort Wayne, Ind.:
A few minutes at Cindy’s Diner and you’ll think everyone in town stops by for a home-cooked meal. Their motto — “we serve the world … fifteen at a time” — refers to the 1952 Valentine-brand diner’s fifteen stools. The Garbage scramble of eggs, potatoes, cheese, onions and ham gets the publicity, but everything owner John Scheele cooks at the griddle is excellent. Try a donut from the old Murphy’s machine, just $4.35 a dozen. Cindy is his wife and co-owner. No smoking, cash only, daily 6 A.M.-2 P.M. (Sunday 7 A.M.).
Readers may be disappointed by the lack of turn-by-turn directions. This isn’t necessarily a shortcoming by Butko — it would be terribly daunting to do such research on a highway that is more than 1,000 miles longer than Route 66 and contains myriad alignments. It shows how blessed Route 66ers are — at least two books on the market (and one Web site) give turn-by-turn directions for the entire Mother Road.
Also, in the Nevada chapter, Butko notes that “Reno and Sparks offer many vintage motels but some are difficult to recommend since they now rarely serve tourists. A few are known for their signs but no one I know has ever stayed in them.”
Again, this shows how Route 66ers have been spoiled by the National Historic Route 66 Federation and its efforts to educate travelers. An “Adopt a Hundred” volunteer for the federation’s Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide (now in its 14th edition) would have sussed out the good from the marginal motels such an area. (Disclosure: My wife and I are among the 66 guide’s two dozen or two volunteers.) Perhaps that is a model that the national Lincoln Highway Association could emulate.
But these are modest shortcomings. “Lincoln Highway Companion” is by far the most complete guidebook of America’s first coast-to-coast road, and it will remain useful to travelers for years. My copy is barely a week old, and the pages are already becoming bent from lots of use.
Highly recommended.
Postscript: Butko recently posted this video that neatly shows the book’s features.