(first posted 4/25/2016) If we chose to drive across the country nowadays instead of flying, it’s in serene air-conditioned comfort, with the kids engrossed in their video games. It was quite a different experience in 1948, when Life Magazine photographer Allan Grant spent some time photographing long-distance travelers on US Route 30, which was once one one of the main transcontinental highways, running from Atlantic City to Astoria, Oregon.
I love this shot, as it so perfectly captures the boredom of travel for a teenager, in the pre-electronics era. At least she’s got a mattress to stretch out on in the back of an old pickup, with a crude shelter from the sun. Beats walking alongside a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail one hundred years earlier, which Route 30 roughly paralleled in parts.
Here’s the same vehicle shot from the side. Looks like Ma is taking a turn at the wheel. I wanted to say it’s a Ford, but a closer look says otherwise.
This family, with a baby on board, probably wished it had a car or pickup. Looks like the driver is getting ready to kick start the big V twin, undoubtedly a Harley or Indian. No, they’re not headed for Sturgis.
Not everyone is in an old car. This family is sporting a Frazer, America’s first new post-war car. Gotta’ stop at the tourist traps…
But the newest car of them all is this 1948 Olds ‘Futuramic’ 98. The 98 shared the brand new ’48 GM C Body with Cadillac, while Buick continued to use the old pre-war body one more year. But as ‘Futuramic’ as the new 98 looked, it was powered by the quite elderly flathead straight eight, as Olds’ new V8 wouldn’t arrive until 1949. This one is sporting North carolina plates, as well as an evaporative cooler and big roof carrier, so presumably these folks are on a serious cross-country trip.
Here’s another one of these pre-airconditioning coolers. They were still fairly common when we used to make our annual treks from Iowa City to the Rockies every summer in the 60s. I did a post on them here.
In the first couple of years after arriving in 1960, we had to drive two-lane highways the whole way to Colorado, and my father alternated between Route 6 and Route 30, which parallel each other from Chicago to the west end of Nebraska, where they diverge, as 30 heads northwest, and 6 originally ended in the Los Angeles area.
Although Route 30 (red) does run concurrently with interstates along part of its route, it still has its own alignment along much of the way, unlike the more famous Route 66. Route 30 has its origins in the Lincoln Highway, America’s first transcontinental route, and one funded largely by private donations! Carl Fisher, a very successful Indiana entrepreneur and promoter/developer, spearheaded the Lincoln Highway in 1912. Its success, especially in large troop and supply movements during WW1, directly led to the government’s increased funding for highways, and the eventual interstates.
This looks like it could well be in Iowa, given the gently rolling hills. Parts of Route 30 were widened to four lanes between certain larger cities; I remember it being four lanes like this east of Cedar Rapids; maybe west of it too.
The inner two lanes here are paved with bricks; this was likely part of the old Lincoln Highway. And there’s a curb on the outside edges, something that was presumably done to keep folks from driving off the pavement, like the rumble strips now. But the curbs turned out to be dangerous, as they tended to upset a car’s directional stability at speed. I remember some still around in the 70s in Iowa. One scary drive in an ice, snowy winter day, I used the curb several times to keep my VW from sliding off the side of the road.
Further out west, Route 30 looked like a country road.
Needless to say, breakdowns were a much more common sight in the past. And in the immediate postwar era, the average age of cars was exceptionally old, due to the interruption of new car production during WW2. This flathead Ford is slaking its thirst.
This poor old Ford has a heavy load to pull, so no wonder it’s thirsty. And it’s getting fed from Mom’s tea kettle. Is the hood gone to help keep it cool?
This one has a thirst for beer.
These ‘desert’ water bags were a common sight still in the 60s, although usually carried on the front of the car, not on the back like on this Chrysler.
Flats were a common affliction.
Something’s not right with this handsome Zephyr. I had a major passion for these as a kid after I first saw one.
This cop is pushing an old broken-down car off the pavement. Check out its paint job.
These folks are well prepared.
This trunk makes for a shaded place to eat lunch.
Are these kids riding in the trunk? It rather looks like it, since this is a coupe with only one seat.
They aren’t the only ones.
You kids in the back of the Jeep don’t know how lucky you have it! Dad most likely got it for peanuts as an Army surplus vehicle.
This was the place to spend the night if you could afford it.
And for those that couldn’t, they found whatever shelter they could. #vanlife, circa 1948.
Billboards make a good windbreak, as well as keeping one a bit out of sight, but back then pulling off the road into the open country to camp wasn’t such a big deal.
There were rest areas too.
Trailers were not uncommon. Americans took to living on the road early on.
Makes living on the road a lot more pleasant.
An Olds with trailer and boat.
Bet these guys wish they had one.
So where’s the bathroom?
The shadows are getting long.
A classic teardrop trailer.
And a swivel-wheel trailer. These were also quite common, back when trunks were small. And one didn’t have to worry about backing up skills with these. We did a post on them here.
A Greyhound ‘Silversides’ bus passing a Jeep. Check out all of the license plates on it; back then trucks and buses had to have plates for all the states they regularly did business in.
A little self-promotion.
A lot of towns along the way did good business from the highway, and some resisted the interstates when they came, because of the loss of business to the their core. I remember Cheyenne, Wyoming managed to stall a section of I-80 bypassing it for ages, forcing all the traffic to go right through downtown. It’s the opposite of what one expect, wanting a bypass to reduce traffic.
I’ll end this with one of my other favorite shots, of a man bicycling. Somewhat surprisingly, his bike has a rear derailleur, which was not common in the US then. In fact, the bike is almost certainly European, with its delicate touring frame and thin tires. despite the lack of much gear.
This is Charles Corwin White, bicycling from Los Angeles to New York and speaking along the way on “Americanism” and the citizenry’s participation in a democracy. Here he’s photographed west of Rawlins, Wyo.
Here’s more of these shots, along with some further commentary
*VERY* nice Paul ;
Thank you .
-Nate
Now, imagine doing these trips as a minority family in 1948. Here is the 1947 Green Book.
This is all the listings for Oregon that accepts Black travelers in the 1957 Green Book.
I’d rather not imagine that Dude ;
One of my ex girlfriends father was in an all black engineer’s corps during WWII, he was from a farming family in Texas, after the war he remained in Oakland, Ca. where he’d mustered out and he’d drive his family every Summer back to visit the family remaining in Texas , not always an easy nor happy trip .
The last family member to live on the farm lived there until she died in a shotgun house, no one lived there anymore .
-Nate
With motels being so expensive, if the cops wouldn’t hassle you, I’d gladly travel this way. But alas those days are gone. Just like back in the 70’s when my dad carried his 30/30 and shotgun on the gun rack in the 69 Chevy. Cops never pulled us over, nobody ever said anything. Never had em stolen either. It’s just the way things were back then and earlier. I’ve often said, even though life was harder, I was born way too late. I should have been born in 26, not 66. Also bet those photos were taken with a 4×5 Speed Graphic. I also still use one myself, 76 years after it was made.
In the late 40’s (1949) average worker income was about $3000. Now (2010) average is $40,000 (median is $26,000). CPI was 24, now is 238. Hotel/motel rooms run about $100 per night in moderate sized towns/cities. With Priceline one can usually get a better deal if you plan ahead. I have no idea what a hotel/motel might have cost in 1950, but in the 70’s they were more than $10 a night in a cheap motel.
Flying out of here in the wild west is quite expensive.
I remember when Motel 6 was 6 bucks.
When I explained this to my then young Son , he was flabbergasted , thought I was goofing him .
-Nate
I tried to tell my 20 something niece that there was a time when I traveled across Texas and stayed at a Motel 6 for only $6….she thought I had to be mistaken. Six months ago I stayed at a Motel 6, and with an AAA discount it came to $60.
BTW, cheapest rates are usually sunday through thursday.
“We’ll leave the light on for you.”
Motel 6 got it’s start in 1962. The name comes from charging $6/night.
Super 8 got it’s start in 1973 by charging $8.88/night.
The original Motel 6 near the beach in Santa Barbara is still there.
No longer $6 though — on a summer weekend it’s $195 a night!
Priceline shows Santa Barbara prices to start at about $100 and range to $200+++. Special deals for mid week are under $100 for a number of hotels. Just up the road (Santa Maria) rooms can be had for $50 to $80.
In the 70’s I traveled to Boulder quite often. A motel which eventually was torn down or moved, not sure which, was about $10 a night. A nice hotel was about $20 or so a night (not really sure any more). The plane ticket was about $60. Now a basic ticket is about $300 to 600 depending…
I find that a Motel 6 is generally about $40 to $50 a night these days. The one in Rochester (stayed once) might have been built when they were $6 a night. I stayed at a Super 8 once too….
Well to me $100 for one night is way to expensive. I’d still rather sleep outside. I’m just an outdoor kinda guy.
I don’t like paying $100 either. Usually I can get a priceline deal for a hotel room in Rochester near the Mayo Clinic for about $60 to 70 per night. These rooms are usually $110 to 130 per night I think. Other rooms are available at lower cost far away, but I like being able to walk to my appointments in the winter (been there three times since Christmas).
My Mother thought that $30 a night (this was back in the 1990’s) was frightful. She grew up in the 30’s. But the affordability of hotel/motel rooms depends on whether your income is above or below the median income level (which is around $35,000 for 2014).
About 2 years ago I stopped at a Motel 6 that wanted $159 a night on a weekend. I think a lot of the price was location as there was no pool but a nice bar and restaurant. I decided that as tired as I was I wouldn’t pay $159 for a room where I would spend most of my time in it with my eyes closed.
Boulder County had a lodging tax tacked onto the hotel bill when I stayed in the area in 2009.
Me and two college buddies shared a Motel 6 room in South Carolina on the way to spring break in Ft. Lauderdale in 1970 – 6 bucks. Was clean, new and had cold A/C.
Last December on an overnight trip to NYC, a standard room in the Marriott Marquis cost $550.
Hotel prices in Canada are the most absurd I have ever experienced. Just for fun, I looked at the price a decent room in NYC. It is C$131 a night. In Vancouver the cheapest equivalent is $200. In decrepit, run down and drug infested Victoria, it’s $250.
It is so expensive to travel in Canada that for a two week vacation, I’d spend much less money in Western Europe, even accounting for the airfares. The Canadian dollar goes much farther outside of Canada.
A great piece, Paul. Thanx.
Great story!
I was hoping to see a post-war DeSoto and am pretty sure one was in there (the DeSoto logo was barely readable on the hub cap in the photo of the man sitting in the trunk eating.) My dad drove a ’48 DeSoto for about a year when I was 5 or so. I still have the carburetor he let me “help” him change.
Even so, a few of the pictures featured Chryslers of the same vintage which were fun to see, also.
Paul:
The bicyclist’s sign says “urging americanism”
http://time.com/3880017/road-trip-photos-from-us-route-30-in-1948/
Thanks. That’s a nice set of alternative shots from that series. I’m going to add that one to the post.
That’s funny, since if you’re a follower of the history of bicycling, it largely didn’t exist for adults in the USA between the 1920s and the 1970s. Cars ruled, you were cast as a weirdo or bum if you were an adult riding a bicycle in those years.
Fantastic photos, great article, Paul. Makes me nostalgic for a time before I was born (only just before). It’s hard to explain how absolutely beaten up everyone was after a 400 mile day in the heat of summer with all the windows down in a car with six passengers of two generations (and a dog), even into the early ’60s when a/c started to become more common (we had a hang on unit in our ’63 Belvedere wagon, and I still have the “Airtemp” evaporator). The kid in the middle seat in front was the worst off, except on cool mornings, when the view overcame the gradual “global warming” during the day. We usually had Mopars, which had simple vent boxes with little doors under the dash on each side. Midday, what air came rushing through them was hotter than outside, having picked up a bit of engine heat off the hood on the trip in. At the end of the day, The side of one’s face that caught the wind would tingle for hours. The girl in the first picture was the predecessor of the first group of Boomers, who nodded off in the “waybacks” of station wagons or gazed upward at the clouds from the parcel shelves of sedans.
What a wonderful set of photos… Thanks, Paul !
Paul, a really great set of pictures – thanks very much for taking us back.
A contrasting view of how life once was well before my time and it allowed me the wonderment of the past. Thanks for sharing, Paul.
Damn Paul you did it again. Brilliant. Thanks.
My sister and I travelled all over the Southeast and a few trips in the Midwest atop a foam mattress in the pickup bed of my Father’s 1980 F100. It was on a plywood and 2×4 frame that stretched across the top of the bedsides… covered by a fiberglass campershell. There was a sliding glass window in both the truck and camper. They bought an inflatable “boot” to go between the shell and the cab to keep the wind down. No electronics… only board games, coloring books, and toys which we played with in the bottom of the truck bed on a piece of carpet. How did we survive?!?!?!?
I know, not nearly as adventuresome as a the picture of the girl on the mattress above, but certainly more fun than today’s safe means of travel!! LOL
Marvellous photo collection !
Great photos! The Lincoln Highway/US 30 loomed large in my childhood, as it was the main highway from Chicago, through Fort Wayne, and on through Ohio and PA. Lancaster Avenue outside of Philly (my father’s old neighborhood) was US 30 too.
There was a bypass to 30 built in the late 1950s, and my neighborhood was right next to it. And for many years my father commuted from Van Wert County Ohio to Fort Wayne along 30, including the old 2 lane alignment in Indiana that went past the little spot in the road called Zulu, home of the Zulu Garage, a couple of old grizzled mechanics who could fix anything you brought them. Sadly, when Indiana improved the road around 1979-ish, the Zulu Garage got bypassed and eventually closed. I wonder if my 63 Cadillac parts car is still sitting behind it?
Amazing, a motorcycle used as family transportation. Today you’d find that mostly in parts of Asia, at least.
Looking at travel conditions back then (before the Interstate Highway Act & Boeing 707), no wonder passenger trains were still a viable alternative for transcontinental travel. The best were practically rolling luxury hotels.
“Amazing, a motorcycle used as family transportation. Today you’d find that mostly in parts of Asia, at least.”
When I was a young buck , newly married , all I had was a 1965 PanHead FL ex L.A.P.D. Harley Davidson I’d bought as a junker and rebuilt .
Food shopping meant two paper bags of food one in each of my Wife’s arms…
Times were different back then .
I miss it too but it wasn’t all rosy like many suggest .
-Nate
Amazing, a motorcycle being used in a non police situation at all.
Prior to the mid-50’s when the British bikes started seriously catching on, if you saw a motorcycle in your rear view mirror, you assumed it was a cop – and the statistical odds backed up that belief.
I remember reading a vintage article that during the late 1940’s there were only around 100,000 civilian motorcycle registrations in the entire united states. To put that in perspective, if every rider in the US had attended Daytona Bike Week in, say 1948, the event would have been about 40% as big as the 2006 event (the last time I’ve attended, so far).
Great job Paul! I love old American photos, especially ones involving transportation. And they remind me of a America I wish we could go back to. (with our computers of course 🙂 )
Paul – The third photo really piqued my interest.
Wyoming motorcycle license plate 2-70 is from Laramie County (whose county seat is Cheyenne).
I live in Cheyenne. The photo looks very much like eastern Laramie County, somewhere between Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs. Route 30 runs parallel to the UP tracks out there (as does I-80 now).
The biker in this photo has one of the low digit Laramie County plates. 2-70 is only ten digits removed from my Laramie County bike plate – # 2-80, photo attached.
Love these pics, having been an itinerant for 20 years in OZ these photos are strangely reminiscent of long interstate roadtrips camping roadside and driving old cars that should never have left the town they were bought in, the invention of the sedan based panelvan was a boon for people like me accommodation and transport all rolled into one without the heater effect windows of a station wagon, good times I miss them.
Cops don’t bother ya in OZ for sleeping in your car or outside alongside the road? Must be nice, their way too paranoid in the US anymore.
Many of the U.S. have Interstate rest stops for that purpose, sometimes with decent toilets? depending on funding. This is so folks won’t park on the shoulder, a hazard. At least along I-10, TX built their rest areas much closer to the highway than AZ or CA does, hence more noise.
I’ve been a life long resident of Texas. Last time I tried sleeping in my car, a trooper told me I couldn’t do that.
I found on some blogs that you’re allowed to sleep 24hrs in a TX rest stop. One claimed sleeping on any TX public land is legal. It would be crazy otherwise, esp. for long-distance truckers. Maybe that officer didn’t know the law.
No officers bothered us while we overnighted in our van at a rest stop while crossing W. TX.
Yeah, they don’t bother you in a rig, which I do drive. But the time I just talked about I was in my 79 Thunderbird. At the rest area just north of Bowie TX on 287.
Cops dont venture far from towns usually plenty of pull off areas when sleeping is allowed.
Speaking of flat tires: My father, who grew up in New Jersey, went on a road trip with some buddies of his in the 1930s. I don’t know the length of the trip, but I’m guessing a few hundred miles. He told me that they had 23 flats. I’m glad I’m living now and not then!
My grandfather drove from Chicago to southern California in 1927 in a Model T on Route 66. He lost count of the number of flat tires.
He also remembers it was mostly dirt and gravel apart from short paved stretches in towns. He didn’t hit continuous asphalt until San Bernardino.
Great article and photos.
During the recent Great Recession I saw some vehicles both newer and older loaded up like the ones in the photos during my travels. Even to this day I still see vehicles that are a modern interpretation of the Grapes of Wrath.
I lived in my vehicle for three weeks while driving to CA and usually slept at truck stops.
I remember the waterbags, normally mounted on the front hanging from a wire frame so the air could get all around them. I never saw one on the rear. And it was common here for older cars to travel around with their hood side panels removed so more cooling air could get to the engine. We didn’t see them often like this in town, but out on the highways it was common. Unfortunately I can’t remember whether it was just old Fords or other makes as well.
Those LIFE photos are a gold mine, and that was a great sampling and essay, Paul. I’m of your vintage, and remember the tail end of this kind of “simpler times” travel in the 50s and early 60s (pre-interstate, without amenities everywhere, or A/C, etc.)
Because you like those Zephyrs, here’s one proud owner’s vacation photo (Cali, early 1940). It’s not exactly the long-distance family haul that so many are doing in your LIFE photos, thus no trailers and “jerry-rigged” add-ons (doubtless a better income, too):
There’s a section of US 290 between Houston and Austin that looks a lot like that 4-lane undivided stretch of US 30 near Cedar Rapids. With a 70 MPH speed limit, that’s a white-knuckle drive.
I’m just old enough to remember non-interstate travel, in fact, I vaguely remember construction on I-85 through Atlanta, although I would have been a toddler at the time. We used to drive from the Atlanta suburbs down to my Great Grandparent’s home in Thomaston, GA, all on two-lane roads with several stops for yours truly, who frequently suffered from car-sickness.
About a decade ago, my younger son and I drove out to do some construction work on the Parco Inn in Sinclair, WY, which opened in 1925. Guests over the years included Amelia Earhart, Clark Gable and several US Presidents. The hotel is now privately owned by a youth ministry. While we were there, they told us that there are old hotels about every 30-50 miles, which was a typical day’s travel for folks passing through the West at the time.
Great photos. I remember the water bags and swamp coolers back in the early ’60’s. The cars were somewhat newer, but similar images remain in my memory.
In 1986 I lived for a while in my self contained ’21 ft ’69 Kenskill travel trailer towed with my ’70 C10. Shower, toilet, propane refrigerator, water heater, onboard water supply with electric 12 volt pump, stove, oven, furnace, air conditioner (when 110v was available), 12 volt 13 inch black and white TV.
Sure wasn’t roughing it like these folks. Other than an occasional hassle from daring to park in the street in front of some busy body crybabys house, it worked well for me until a job and money were once again available.
I remember my dad using a window swamp cooler on his 51 Plymouth. I was too young to remember if it worked well. There are still swamp coolers produced for vehicles without AC., 12 volt that plug into a cigarette lighter. I used one for a few summers in a company vehicle without AC.While they are expensive, you can’t put a price on comfort. http://www.swampy.net
That Jeep (might be the same one in the “kids” and the “bus” pic is a CJ, not Army surplus – it has WILLYS stamped on the lower windshield frame, side-mounted spare and a tailgate, all of which are absent from MBs.
Our cars and trucks….taking us to places or away if necessary.
The accents changed with the scenery. Wonderful “regional”
food and all the restaurants had waitresses and menus.
My wife and I still travel the non-interstate routes, it adds time
but keeps us sane.
For an epic travel book I recommend “Blue Highways” by
William Least Heat-Moon
Thanks Paul, for this one and all the previous and yet to come articles.
Paul, I don’t know if you’ve yet noticed the Zephyr photo posted a few hours ago. I’m engaging in a little deceit, as that was originally a Kodachrome:
I did, but this one in color is sublime. it looks like it could also be in Eastern Oregon; I love the open country and grassy hills in the West. And the traffic on many of these highways out here is still about this sparse.
Thanks; I’d love to be driving it.
Thanks for the reply, Paul. Follow-up Kodachrome by proud Zephyr owner upon turning 203K in early ’58, just before getting a new ’58 Ford sedan:
Ah, that’s a Charles W Cushman photo. I thought I’d seen that somewhere.
Cushman took detailed notes on his 14,000+ photos, which makes the locations fun to look up in the present day. Unlike this location, they are often unrecognizable..
Thanks for noticing, DougD. I figured some CC-er would know of this collection at Indiana University; always nice to see prewar amateur color images.
(Conversely, I wonder what would have resulted if I’d given PhotoShop buddies one of the Zephyr photos in B&W and invited them to “colorize” it?)
I find it so fascinating that some of the cars in these pictures(had they survived) would be the same delicate little creatures you see shining in todays car shows.
I imagine some of the current owners would pass out if they could look back in time and see what family workhorses their 1940’s whatever was back in the day.
Thanx Sally ;
This photo reminds me of the now past ” No Frills Iron Bottom Motoring Tours ” in Central California a few years back , put on by Ed Pasini who never did tire of Farm to market back roads…..
Good times .
-Nate
Wow, add me to the list praising the selection of photos Paul – fascinating lunchtime reading!
I was most captivated by the gorgeous art deco Little America building, so decided to try to find out where it was and if it still existed. A bit of sleuthing revealed it was Covey’s Little America, in Granger, Wyoming. Sadly it wasn’t long for this world when Allan Grant photographed it, as it burned down in 1948. Its site is now a carpark for the current Little America. The matching deco service station part lasted a few years longer. More details about its story here: http://www.thedearies.com/2010/02/stephen-mack-covey.html
Fascinating look through a window into another time, thanks for posting these amazing photos. When my family attended the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto in the 1960’s, we pulled off the QEW to camp each night as did many others. No one bothered us, not police nor miscreants, other than the constant traffic noise, slept soundly. We camped beside the road well into the 1970’s, you can still do it in various rest-stops and trucker havens inside your vehicle.
The third to last with the Kaiser or Frazer driving into the small town is my favorite, it’s like looking into an alternate world through modern eyes, everything in it has ceased to exist.
Looking through all of these is interesting, so much of this could be interpreted as either archaic or nostalgic, back when a long road trip was a true adventure – car loaded to the brim, camping out in non designated areas, sitting in non NHTSA proved seating positions(I know it’s a safety advocate’s nightmare but come on, that feet on the top sitting in the rumble seat looks fun as hell!). My childhood roadtrips in the 90s-00s were uneventful, we got to our destination as planned on time, had no car issues, had plenty of luggage space in said car(minivan on most), and stayed at hotels along the way. So seemingly uneventful in a good way, yet few of those trips destinations were memorable, and the mostly interstate drives hardly felt like an adventure.
We still had some adventure in the 70’s. Counting out the whole family’s change for gas money so we wouldn’t have to use travelers cheques, Sandwiches off the back of the camper trailer in a cemetery. At least it was quiet.
It hasn’t change very much in large swathes of the West, mainly in the Great Basin Area (Nevada, Eastern Oregon, parts of Utah and Idaho). One can ramble for days, see very few folks, camp almost anywhere (much of the land is public), and the towns are living time capsules.
We love rambling in that part of the world in our camper for just those reasons.
I remember through the 70s the semis having the multiple plates. always thought it was cool looking but then the industry was deregulated.
What a beautiful collection of photos!
Being born in the late 70’s, I only hear stories of the open roads back then… more dirt and stone in the southeast. I wonder if these people knew how much of an adventure they were taking place in when driving across multiple states… or was it commonplace?
I would love to be able to drive across the country on near empty roads without stores and billboards every half mile, no gps, no radio (maybe an old timey radio show on the AM dial when you got within a couple of miles of a town), no cell phone, absolutely nothing digital – just a car with no electronics and all the windows down.
I was born in the wrong era.
I would love to be able to drive across the country on near empty roads without stores and billboards every half mile, no gps, no radio (maybe an old timey radio show on the AM dial when you got within a couple of miles of a town), no cell phone, absolutely nothing digital – just a car with no electronics and all the windows down.
Well, not across the whole country, but if you head out West, there’s still lots of highways where it looks a lot like this. (Nevada Route 50 in image below). Nevada and Eastern Oregon are the two most obvious places that come to mind. The last time we drove from Utah up through Nevada and back home through central Oregon, there were stretches that we saw no other car on the road for surprisingly long periods of time. the towns are tiny, and like living time capsules. No bill boards. One can turn off the electronics…it’s like stepping back in time, with very few reminders to tell you otherwise.
Unless one has experienced rambling in the Great Basin or other remote parts of the West, one hasn’t really experienced the best driving in the US.
That 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr has two-tone paint which wasn’t a factory offering but looks professionally done. Note a 1938 Zephyr with sealed-beam headlight conversions speeding by the photo of the Jeep with the kids in the back.
I didn’t know ’38 Buicks drank beer, wonder if it was Grainbelt Beer?
I’m thinking it’s pond or creek water scooped up using an empty beer can.
Too bad it wasn’t a Champion instead of the Frazer in the image. Could have been “75 years of Studebaker Progress”.
Wonder if the cop is pushing a car owned by two families, painted like their two-family house…
Thank you, Paul, for posting these great photos. I had to chuckle at the photos of the children in various vehicles. One time I didn’t completely fasten the safety belt to my daughter’s car seat, and my wife gave me a disapproving look when we stopped the car and she discovered that the safety belt wasn’t securely buckled.
Too bad I didn’t have this article to show her the photos of a baby riding in a motorcycle sidecar – or two children in the trunk of a car! – to remind her of how things were in “the good old days,” and thus earn a temporary reprieve.
I am from Wyoming and I love billboard sign, the one about Little America, and the Cheyenne, Wyoming tidbit. I love your pictures. I grew up traveling with my parents and going camping and visiting relatives in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and of course Wyoming
Being a USAF brat, I remember that we were discouraged from traveling more than 300 miles a day when moving from one SAC base to another, mostly because the roads were like these. We received a daily stipend, we used Motel 6 a lot because of that. The USAF would pay for our furniture to be shipped, we used Mayflower mostly. We moved every two or three years. Seeing roads and cars like this brings back memories of trips in a VW and open windows letting in farm smells. The worst was a giant cow farm west of Amarillo…which had a rest stop nearby. That smell would still be with you an hour down the road! Phew! Cadillac Ranch is nearby now.
I-80 largely follows US30 through Nebraska. With so many changes as the Omaha street grid has overlapped once rural highways, a major street near me is known as 204th St Omaha, NE HWY 6 and US 30 all at once. It leads to an interchange with I-80 near Gretna Nebraska.
A few sections of old US30 near my home are celebrated as the Lincoln Highway, sporting its original brick pavers. Until about a dozen years ago, it still served as a transportation route for locals, but has largely been supplanted by the Omaha street grid, enough so that the city now closes the sections in winter to preserve the brick surface.
I’ve been near that interchange! I never knew there was a brick section still standing. I’ll have to seek it out next time I go to Lincoln.
I think English 3 speed bikes showed up just about 1948 as a friend got one for Christmas along about then and took it around to the various elementary school classrooms to show off its nifty shifter and multi-speed hub. Probably part of the British export push of the period, and the a sounds like better idea to me than a Hillman.
Don’t forget to note the paralleling tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad, visible in several of the photos. It remains one of the busiest freight railroads in the country, and is still an integral part of the US 30 experience. Going west, exit I-80 just past Grand Island, Nebraska, and take a much more relaxing drive across Nebraska, while watching the non-trucking part of American commerce. This photo was taken east of North Platte, US 30 is just to the right.
Try this again, resized photo.
Somehow missed this back when it was originally posted. I think it’s my favorite CC post yet. Just wonderful.
Awesome pics/article!! Thanks much. Soo thankful I didn’t have to do a trip like that!!
Great article, evocative photos; thanks for running it again!
My family used US 30 or US 22 to travel east out of Pittsburgh, and the college I attended near Philadelphia was right on 30 as well (Lancaster Avenue).
Travel before the interstates was a real adventure. The “long trip” we made most often was from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, WV to visit relatives. Even though the distance was only about 60 miles, it must have taken us 3 hours on US 19 and 40, most of the rural sections only 2-lane, with tractor trailers laboring at perhaps 10-15 mph up the steepest grades, followed by long lines of cars.
Great history! Thanks for the re-presentation.
What about that pickup with the improvised RV addition being a Dodge, 1931 or so?
“Its success, especially in large troop and supply movements during WW1, directly led to the government’s increased funding for highways, and the eventual interstates.”
Even right after WWII, they also used trains; in fact my Father was in the Pennsylvania national guard in 1950 and his regiment was federalized and prepared to go to Korea when the conflict broke out (apparently never ended). He went ahead to Camp Atterbury in Indiana, but the troop train for the rest of his regiment ran into mechanical problems and stopped in West Lafayette, Ohio (on a parallel path to both route 30 (north) and 40 (south)) where it had stopped for repairs and was hit by another train. Apparently quite a few veterans of WWII who’d reenlisted afterward were killed in the wreckage. My Father went back to Ohio and was part of an honor guard escorting the bodies back to Pennsylvania. It seems the powers that be thought they’d gone through their hazardous service in the states, and instead of going to Korea he was sent to Germany, along the Czech border which had only recently gone behind the iron curtain.
Less than a decade later, my Father had gotten a chance to go to college (on the GI bill) and graduated with a chemistry degree; by then he’d married my Mother and my sister and I had been born. My Father drove his ’56 Plymouth with flathead 6 and manual transmission out to California from NE Pennsylvania; I know he took route 66 from Chicago, but don’t know what route he took from NE Pennsylvania to Chicago…might have been route 6 and 6N in PA, not sure which roads in Ohio, and Indiana, I think route 30 would have been a bit south for him. He’d gotten a job in El Monte, Ca at Hoffman Electronics, where he briefly worked on solar cells (the only time he ever worked on them, briefly, about 1959-1961, some of his work went up on Explorer 6 satellite in 1959). When he decided to get a job at Westinghouse in Pittsburg area in 1961, my sister and I were deemed old enough to drive with him and my Mother back across country to our new home in Monroeville. Can you imagine moving from California to Pennsylvania in 1961? Well, my Father and Mother did just that, they weren’t trend followers.
Ironically, my youngest sister married a guy from central Ohio, sadly she died of Ovarian cancer in 2008, so we return there to visit her grave (we live in Texas last 40 years). In 2010 we happened to be visiting around the 60th anniversary of the train wreck, and we drove through West Lafayette (my Father remembered the town wrong, he thought it to be nearby Coshocton). We met one of the guys from the town who was looking around for out of state plates, and our Texas plates stood out, he figured there might be others who travelled there on the anniversary…he sent my Father some documents about the accident and we talked awhile. It was a nice coincidence, we only heard about the anniversary as we got to Pennsylvania, so we detoured back to be there as it took us little out of our way, as we’d driven 1670 miles from central Texas and still managed the right timing despite it being unplanned.