The Lincoln Highway was the original road-tripping route across the country. Dedicated on Halloween, 1913, the Lincoln Highway stretched 3,389 miles from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Square in San Francisco. It was really the first transcontinental route designed specifically for automobiles and became known as The Main Street Across America. The stretch of the Lincoln Highway that crossed Nevada was planned along a well-trodden path. This route had previously served as a stagecoach route, the main trail for the Pony Express and the transcontinental telegraph also ran along this path. Many years after the highway was built, in 1986, Life magazine called this stretch of road across Nevada “The Loneliest Road in America”, and that wasn’t meant as a compliment. Nevadans, however, loved it and set out to make it a state scenic byway, erecting signs, creating a passport and marketing it to outsiders as The Loneliest Road. It connects fascinating old mining towns like Austin, Ely and Eureka and passes by old Pony Express stations, vast expanses of desert and the ruins of Fort Churchill (now a state park). I’ve made this run across Nevada several times and always really enjoyed it. There’s a lot of history out there and some great bars along the way as well. I hope you enjoy these photos from my time traveling down Nevada’s section of Route 50, The Loneliest Road in America.
