Creston
The first of our towns on the westbound drive: a farm village where the old road leaves IL 38 for a loop down Main Street.
- Lincoln Highway mural. One of the painted interpretive murals that tell the road’s story town by town.
Northwest Illinois · Since 1913
Lincoln Highway Main Street Across America
In 1913 the Lincoln Highway became America’s first coast-to-coast road, Times Square to San Francisco. Its Illinois miles still run straight through Northwest Illinois: two-lane blacktop, brick main streets, and the Mississippi River at the end of the line.
Creston to the Mississippi · 8 stops
- 1913Route announced
- 179Miles across Illinois
- ≈70Miles in our corner
- 2000National Scenic Byway
Westbound
Eight stops to the river
About 70 miles, Creston to Fulton. The old road mostly follows IL 38 and IL 2, then US 30 for the last stretch, and leaves the highway for a loop through nearly every main street on the way.
Pull over for
Rochelle
A railroad town, and the place etiquette writer Emily Post found herself stranded on her 1915 drive west.
- 1918 Standard Oil station. Restored filling station at Lincoln Highway and Lincoln Avenue, billed as the first on the Lincoln Highway in Illinois, with four commemorative concrete posts at the corner.
- Rochelle Railroad Park. Watch Union Pacific and BNSF trains cross the diamond from the viewing pavilion at 124 N. 9th St.
- Lincoln Highway Heritage Festival. Mid-August at Atwood Park, with a car show and a parade.
Ashton
A short hop west, where the old alignment swings off the highway and through the middle of town.
- Lincoln Highway Buy-Way. Every August the road-long yard sale runs right through Ashton and every other town on this page.
Franklin Grove
Headquarters for the whole highway. The Lincoln Highway Association runs its national office from this village.
- H.I. Lincoln Building. An 1860 store at 136 N. Elm St., built by a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, now the Lincoln Highway National Interpretive Center.
- Original signpost. A Lincoln Highway signpost still marks the way into town.
- Lincoln Highway Car Show. Chrome fills the center of the village on a Saturday each May.
Dixon
The highway ran right under the arch. Dixon first raised its Memorial Arch over the Lincoln Highway in 1919 to welcome soldiers home from the First World War.
- Memorial Arch. Over Galena Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets.
- Lincoln Monument State Memorial. Leonard Crunelle’s 1930 statue of Lincoln as a young Black Hawk War captain.
- Nachusa House. An 1853 hotel on the National Register, where Lincoln stayed in July 1856.
Sterling
The old road follows the Rock River west on IL 2 and loops along East 3rd Street. Rock Falls, just across the water, sits on today’s US 30.
- Lincoln-Manahan Home. Lincoln slept here on July 18, 1856, the night after Dixon. Free guided tours on weekend afternoons in season, at 607 E. 3rd St.
Morrison
Back on US 30 and into the Whiteside County seat for one last main street before the river.
- Lincoln Highway mural. The 1921 Whiteside County Fair, painted at 208 E. Main St.
Fulton
The end of Illinois. The old road ran down 10th Avenue to the toll bridge over the Mississippi to Lyons, Iowa.
- De Immigrant windmill. A working Dutch windmill on the riverfront, about 100 feet tall, built by millwrights from the Netherlands and grinding grain since 2001.
- Lincoln Highway mural and gazebo. On 10th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, picturing the old Fulton–Lyons toll bridge.
End of the line:At Fulton the Lincoln Highway crossed the Mississippi into Iowa and kept going, all the way to San Francisco. You can turn around and do it again eastbound.
Plan the trip
Pick your stops, then fill in the rest: a place to sleep, somewhere to eat, and whatever is on this weekend.