Lincoln Highway section near Duncan marked for posterity

COLUMBUS �” Robert (Bob) Edmison, 71, is a life-long resident of Platte County near Prairie Creek west of Duncan.

As a youngster Edmison knew that the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway in the United States, ran parallel to the current Highway 30.

The section of 115th Street, on the south side of his property along with the railroad station known as Gardiner Station was part of the Lincoln Highway.

Edmison and his wife Karen had long wanted to preserve this piece of history. In 2005 the couple began the process of getting the Gardiner Station section of the Lincoln Highway listed on the National Historic Register.

“Late in 2005 I contacted the Nebraska State Historical Society to ask how to get a bridge and roadway nominated for the National Historic Register,” Karen Edmison said. “I worked with the National Register Coordinator Stacy Stupka-Burda and the Nebraska State Historic Preservation Office and learned the basics of how to prepare a National Register of Historic Places nomination.”

Edmison said she submitted a rough draft of the nomination to the Nebraska State historical Society in the spring of 2006. She said Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer L. Robert Puschendorf then took over the work using her rough draft nomination.

She said Puschendorf made several trips to the site to document the path and time line of the Lincoln Highway.

Puschendorf spent nearly a year completing research for the final nomination which included extensive research of Columbus Telegram archives and then submitted the nomination to the Nebraska State Historic Preservation board.

That board approved the nomination in May 2007 and submitted it to the National Park Service in Washington D.C. for final review and approval for the listing for the National Historic Register. Approval from the National Park Service came in summer 2007.

“Early in 2008, we began working with the Nebraska chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association to get the marker,” Edmison said. “Because the marker must be placed on public property we had to go to the Platte County Highway Superintendent Fred Liss and then on to the Platte County Board of Supervisors to get approval for the placement of the marker.”

Lenore Stubblefield is the National Director for Nebraska, Lincoln Highway Association.

“The Lincoln Highway Association is a volunteer organization, and this is an excellent example of local people helping preserve and protect remaining historic parts of the Lincoln Highway,” Stubblefield wrote in an e-mail. ”We certainly commend Bob and Karen Edmison for all of their hard work in getting this section of the Lincoln Highway and the Pony Truss Bridge over Prairie Creek placed on the Historic Register. We look forward to the dedication of this marker on Sunday, Oct. 25.”

Edmison said The Lincoln Highway Association, Nebraska Chapter funded the official plaque at a cost of about $2,600. She and her husband Bob provided the money for the construction of the base of the historical marker and the concrete work around it.

“Bob and Lenore Stubblefield of Shelton are very active in the Lincoln Highway Association, Nebraska Chapter,” Karen Edmison said. “They assisted with getting funding for the plaque part of the marker. The Nebraska State Historical Society and John Lindahl of the Nebraska Historical Marker Program worked with the foundry to get the marker cast.”

Edmison said once the marker arrived from the foundry, she and Bob poured concrete for the marker base, the top of the marker and the sidewalks. Joe Boruch, of Joe Boruch Masonry of Duncan, constructed the brick pedestal.

The marker will be dedicated in a ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday Oct. 25. at the Prairie Creek Bridge located at 115th Street and 355th Avenue west of Duncan.

Learn more about the Lincoln Highway online at www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org

If you go:

Dedication ceremony: 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 25

Location: Gardiner Station Section near Prairie Creek on 115th Street, near 355th Avenue west and north of Duncan.

Directions: From Duncan west on Nebraska State Highway 30 four miles; turn right on 340th Avenue cross the Union Pacific Rail Road and turn left on 115th Street. Continue west for about one mile to the Prairie Creek Bridge.

From Silver Creek travel east on Nebraska State Highway 30 five miles, turn left on 355th Avenue cross the Union Pacific Rail Road turn right on 115th Street and continue east for about 1/8 mile to the Prairie Creek Bridge.

Refreshments will follow the ceremony in Silver Creek at the Fire Hall located on Highway 30.

INFOBOX

Additional historic areas of the Lincoln Highway in Platte County include:

n the Avenue of Trees at Duncan was a former Camp Ground on the Lincoln Highway.

n Ernst Chevrolet Company was the Kopak Garage in Columbus

n the Evans Hotel was the Control Point where tourists obtained information in Columbus in 1924

n the Gottberg Building, now “Dusters Restaurant and Pub,” was a Model-T assembly plant and later an auto dealership

Nebraska State Historical Society: Official designation:

The Lincoln Highway �” Gardiner Station Section

The Lincoln Highway Association was founded in 1913 to promote a coast-to-coast, toll- free automobile route. The Lincoln Highway, which followed existing roadways through thirteen states, was dedicated on October 31, 1913. The route was marked by the letter “L” within red, white, and blue bands, painted on telephone poles or signs.

In Nebraska the Lincoln Highway continued the evolution of the Platte River Valley as a significant travel corridor in American history. Used by fur traders, the U.S. Army, overland emigrants, and the transcontinental railroad during the nineteenth century, the valley remains an important modern railroad and highway route.

This 1.2-mile Gardiner Station section of the original Lincoln Highway and the Pratt pony-truss bridge spanning Prairie Creek were in use from 1913 to 1928, when this highway section was rerouted south of the Union Pacific tracks. By then the Lincoln Highway had received federal designation as U.S. Highway 30. The original highway section and bridge are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Nebraska Chapter, Lincoln Highway Association Nebraska State Historical Society .9 mile west of 340th Ave. on 115th St., west of Columbus Platte County Marker 462.