A Blog Along The Lincoln Highway

After lunch in Green River, we keep zipping along, and soon we’re in Utah. The terrain changes drastically as we drive into Echo Canyon through the Wasatch Mountains. This is one of the passages that make you wish you had taken several classes in geology when you were in college. The rock formations, the colors, nature’s artistry and the ever changing shapes are awesome. We could slow down and make a separate documentary here, but we want to get to Tooele before we stop.

It’s a beautiful afternoon as we stay on I-80 into Salt Lake City. All is flat again. The interstate turns north through town then swings west along the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake.

Tooele is a growing town about 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It looks like it’s booming with all sorts of franchise stores, restaurants and businesses lining up along the highway. We find the Hampton Inn at the south end of town, and we are impressed. I have a great view out my window with the Salt Lake and Antelope Island in the distance. Impressive.

I make a call and decide we’re going to meet and interview Jess Petersen tonight. His home isn’t far from our motel, and he and his wife Nancy have agreed to let us invade for a while. Jess is one of the founding members of the Utah Lincoln Highway Association and the retired Chief of Police of Tooele. He has done extensive research on the various paths of the Lincoln Highway (and its predecessor pathways) and when I was setting up our visit to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge with refuge manager Jay Banta, Jay suggested that I try to meet with Jess who wrote the book on Utah’s Lincoln Highway.

The history of Utah’s stretch of the Lincoln Highway can be very complicated. There were at least 3 major routes that the Highway took between 1913 and 1930, and pieces of all three are still here, but some are very difficult to get to because they are now inside the federal government’s testing facility known as the Dugway Proving Ground. We have decided to try and follow the spirit of the original path south to Fish Springs, taking the old Pony Express Road until it joins up with the original Lincoln on the south side of the Proving Ground, and then eventually travel on from Fish Springs to Ely, Nevada.

Jess says it’s a great drive, and any modern car can handle it, sedan, van, whatever, if you’re properly prepared with food, water, maps and a good spare. It’s the last item that worries us. Bob says he thinks we don’t have a spare, that the fold-down seats in the rear of our van are taking up the space where the spare should be stored. We consider buying a spare, but Jess says it’s probably impossible this late (nearly 9 pm) on a Saturday night in Tooele. And what self-respecting tire store is open early on a Sunday? I say we’ll trust our luck as travellers, even though our luck has not been especially good this trip.

Jess and Nancy wish us safe travels, give us a handful of maps, and we head off to find a late dinner.

The visit with the Petersens was great, like consulting the oracle before a journey, or getting advice from a wise teacher. We feel better about the trip just having talked with Jess.