Tin Can Tourists trekking to Kearney for Lincoln Highway centennial

KEARNEY — Enthusiasts of vintage camper trailers and motor coaches will be among Kearney’s visitors in summer 2013 for the National Lincoln Highway Association Centennial.

The June 30-July 1 celebration already has attracted auto clubs across the United States, a Packard owners group and a Scandinavian car club.

Now, members of the Tin Can Tourists camper club plan to be in Kearney to mark the 100th birthday of the United States’ first transcontinental highway.

“We want to have a nice group of trailers and motor coaches that represents various manufacturers and years,” said Forrest and Jeri Bone, directors of the 1,000-member Tin Can Tourists.

The group’s members are from the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia.

So far, 10 members have committed to be in Kearney, but eventually about 30 camper club members are expected to set up their rigs at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds, said Forrest and Jeri.

“We are very excited to have a group like this be a part of the celebration. It will add the nostalgic experience we are expecting in a national celebration such as this,” said Sarah Focke of the Kearney Visitors Bureau, co-chairperson of the Lincoln Highway festivities.

The Tin Can Club caravan will get under way June 22, 2013, in Haysville, Ohio, and arrive in Kearney June 30, 2013.

Some auto enthusiasts planning to attend the centennial will cross half of the United States on U.S. Highway 30 from New York City and San Francisco, as they retrace the route of the original Lincoln Highway.

The American Bus Association in September designated the National Lincoln Highway Centennial as one of its Top 100 Events of 2013.

Unlike modern roads that are designed and paid for by government, most of the Lincoln Highway took shape because of donors and volunteers.

A group of auto manufacturers and others organized the Lincoln Highway Association and designated the route for the transcontinental highway in 1913 — about 50 years after the Union Pacific became the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.About 80 percent of the original Lincoln Highway was gravel. The rest was rutted pasture, asphalt, or hard-surfaced with bricks or concrete.

To demonstrate the advantages of paved roads, communities along the route were challenged to pave one-mile segments as their seedling miles. Grand Island was Nebraska’s first city to complete its seeding mile, followed a few weeks later by Kearney.

According to the Buffalo County Historical Society’s Buffalo Tales newsletter, the Kearney Commercial Club voted to raise funds for the seedling mile, which resulted in a concrete slab 15 feet wide and 8 inches thick.

The stretch of road on West 24th Street from 19th Avenue to 30th Avenue was said to be broad enough for two loaded hayracks to pass.

The Lincoln Highway became U.S. Highway 30 in 1929.