Geoff Ladd, chief of Logan County (Ill.) tourism, said the agency will be promoting a 1926-30 alignment of Route 66 and a second, more obscure alignment through Lincoln, reports the Lincoln Courier.
A second alignment, which was used for only 10 months in 1928, means the Logan County Courthouse and still more local businesses can be promoted along with the route.
One of the alignments passes the sign at the Lincoln Depot that commemorates Abraham Lincoln christening the city with watermelon juice.
“That’s an incredible one-two punch,” Ladd said. “It goes to the heart of the whole Abraham Lincoln promotion.”
The routes also take in the site of The Mill restaurant, which the bureau is working to save as a historic site, and the “ghost bridge” crossing Salt Creek.
There’s also some good news regarding the Pig Hip restaurant.
Ladd also announced that tourism volunteer Walt Radespiel will set up his shop on the Pig Hip site at Broadwell this summer to provide some interpretation at the site. The Pig Hip Museum and former restaurant, a Route 66 icon, was recently destroyed by fire.
This is good news. Until recently, Lincoln seemed to have little interest in promoting 66, and the several alignments have received little attention except in the more detailed guidebooks. A couple of the locations mentioned above — the Mill and the “ghost bridge” — are among my favorite sites in IL. I hope they provide for better foot-traffic access to the bridge.