WOODBINE — An audiovisual exhibition telling the story of the national Lincoln Highway is now available for showing at the Woodbine Public Library until April 30.
“Promise Road: How the Lincoln Highway Changed America” was originally funded through a grant from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and developed by Prairie Rivers of Iowa as part of their contract with the Iowa Department of Transportation to manage cultural tourism on the Lincoln Highway National Heritage Byway.
“Many of us have driven the Lincoln Highway but haven’t realized its significance for the unfolding of our country’s modern history. This exhibition tells that story,” said Shellie Orngard, the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway special projects coordinator who created the exhibit.
The building of the Lincoln Highway was initiated in 1913, when most people traveled by foot, by horse or by train and the roads were mud or gravel. America’s first planned coast-to-coast highway, the Lincoln Highway starts in Times Square, New York City, and travels through 14 states, ending at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. A dramatic story of ingenuity, personality, commerce, and adventure, Promise Road will engage visitors in a new understanding of and appreciation of our forgotten past and what it means for us today.
In 2021, the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway in Iowa was recognized as a National Scenic Byway. The National Scenic Byways Program is a voluntary, community-based program administered through the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to recognize, protect, and promote America’s most outstanding roads.
For more information about the national Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway in Iowa, visit Prairie Rivers of Iowa’s website at https://www.prrcd.org/lincoln-highway-heritage-byway/. Prairie Rivers of Iowa is a nonprofit focused on conserving natural and cultural resources, using its expertise to address Iowa’s most challenging needs. It manages the Lincoln Highway National Heritage Byway in Iowa on behalf of the Iowa Department of Transportation.
