I searched did not see it posted, if it was sorry Cool video ! http://vimeo.com/14422648 http://brianbutko.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/amazing-1959-film-of-iowas-us-30/
HOLY SH_T! Can you imaging being perched on that ladder zipping through those girder bridges and meeting Diamond T's pulling a load of hogs heading to market at 60 miles per? BTW, why does Route 66 get all the attention? US 30 (Lincoln Hwy) and US 6 (the red line across America - as stated by Jack Kerouac in "On the Road") are longer and older!
Cool find! I love all the old gas stations & the car haulers full of Ramblers and Caddilacs. I just realized how long this video was - better hit pause & grab a beer.
Cool video! I love driving all the old U.S. Highways. I grew up alongside US 67 "The Broadway of America." You can still find some old relics from the time when 67 was the main road before I-30. I love to find old road alignments also.
You can still drive that section of road. They restored that gas station and restaurant by Colo and its cool !! Maybe if I get a chance this summer I can go reshoot the video.
That was one of the coolest parts of Hot Rod Drag Week, we took lots of old routes including US 30 from PA... oops "Penna." to Columbus
I am enjoying watching it as I am old enough that I can remember when there were still alot of 50s cars still on the road,its almost like I am about 4 years old and watching the scenery through the windshield in my dads 55 Ford.
The Tip Top Tavern is still on the North side of Lincoln Way in Ames. Nevada looks about the same today. Lots of these towns are recognizable but today show more than 50 years of aging. Thanks for posting. Cool stuff.
unfortunately, that isn't the case. The livestock facilities are gone, you seldome see cattle grazing and the trees/fencelines have been bull-dozed. That is due to the specification of the farmers. Many of the small towns are almost ghost-like. Without a strong livestock industry with the operations being small, there is not much commerce at the local crossroads. Progress, I guess.
The truckloads of new Ramblers and Caddys are great, and that railroad underpass right at a curve reminds me of the deadly one described in Felsen's "Hot Rod".
I don't recall anybody ever writing/recording a song about U.S.30 And U.S.6. Now "Route 66" is another story. I get a kick out of the narrator going on about how all these planned improvements will allow towns to better plan their expansions. Time has proven that to be B.S.-all those relocations and by-passes killed all the little towns and their business districts. What I wouldn't give to be able to drive thru some of those places now with all the gas stations, garages, restaurants, bars right onthe main drag-the highway thru town.
It's because of what 66 represented at the time of the great depression. It was an excape route out of crime ravaged "slum town" Chicago, shocking poverty thru the farming communities of the mid-west, and the dust bowl of the south west... Following 66, you could excape all that to sunny southern Cali where the streets were paved with gold. No coincidence that from the 20's untill the 60's, the population of so-cal went from a few million to somewhere around 20 million!
very cool ! i live in marshaltown and used to travel that road to ames every day and still drive it quite often ! there are still several of the buildings i recognize from the video in state center ! and a few years back i was involved with the restoration of the signs for the motel , cafe , and gas station in colo as i am a sign maker by trade and redid all of the neon for the signs ! anso have done alot of neon repair for the tip top lounge located in ames ! very cool to watch this as i am young in age at only 34 but can totally recognize stretches of road and buildings
Thanks for sharing! if you look at the sides of most roads there is a "curb" and the shoulder of the road is maybe 6 inches higher than the road surface!! I remember this engineering blunder! when it rained this held all the water, running to the low areas. so you had a road surface that had 6 inches of water in it.. hydroplane!!!!!! I had big "meats" on the back of my car, when you would meet a car you had to run the rear wide tires up on the shoulder!! when you came back down at 60 MPH it threw you all over the place! memory says it was in the 1970's that the removal of the curb was completed and the roads were made wider
wow just watched a little farther ahead ! wish we would have seen this video durring the restoration of the signs in colo ! the top of the sign w the ice cream cone was no longer there and instead of eat it is nilands cafe w the word cafe in neon instead of eat ! i believe the motel one is correct looking at it , and there is also another motel one right as you come over the bridge which rotated at one time but they didnt want to spend the money to make it function again so its stationary !
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