From left are Trey Pitsenberger, vice-president of the Lincoln Highway Association California chapter; Joel Windmiller, president of the Lincoln Highway Association California chapter, CHANT Neighborhood Area Three board member Andrew Saunders and Lane Gonick representing California state assemblyman Josh Hoover. Courtesy photo

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Imagine the sound of a Ford Model T rumbling along a dusty portion of Auburn Blvd., looking to turn at Sylvan Corners, heading toward San Francisco. Back then, Greenback Lane, named for the federal “greenback dollars” it was built with, had yet to be built.

Before 1913, a patchwork of country roads crisscrossed Citrus Heights as well as much of the country, until businessman Carl G. Fisher began an effort to unite them into the first transcontinental highway, allowing drivers to travel from San Francisco all the way to New York City.

Fisher’s vision for a transcontinental highway, which became known as the Lincoln Highway and named after President Abraham Lincoln, began in 1913 and lasted until the mid-1920s. The original transcontinental route ran from San Francisco to New York City, with Lincoln Park in San Francisco as the western terminus.

The Lincoln Highway’s special place in Citrus Heights history was recognized at an Oct. 7 public ceremony in front of the Sylvan Cemetery where a historical placard installed officially recognizing Auburn Boulevard as part of the Lincoln Highway was dedicated.

The city of Citrus Heights, in partnership with CHANT Neighborhood Area 3 board member Andrew Saunders and the Lincoln Highway Association California Chapter, identified four historical route points along Auburn Boulevard that are now officially marked as points on the historic transcontinental Lincoln Highway.

Regina Cave, director of General Services for the City of Citrus Heights, pulls the covering off the new Lincoln Highway placard. Saunders said his vision for installing historical placards along the route only became a reality because of the help of the city and Cave, who he said helped to bring the idea to fruition. Photo by Thomas J. Sullivan

Multiple city leaders, community members, City Council members and Kelsey Nelson, the CHANT president, attended the unveiling of the placard at Sylvan Cemetery, along with the Lincoln Highway Association California Chapter’s president and vice-president.

Saunders said his vision for installing historical placards only became a reality because of the help of the city and General Services director Regina Cave, who helped to bring the idea to fruition.

“Visions and dreams don’t happen without a date put on it,” Saunders said at the start of the dedication ceremony.

Lincoln Highway Association California Chapter Joel Windmiller said, “The chapter really appreciates the efforts of Andy here.”

The new placards have since been added to a national Lincoln Highway map, which is accessed through the Lincoln Highway Association’s website.

Each rectangular placard design has a brown, red, white, and blue color scheme, with “HISTORIC” written on top across a brown banner, and a large L in the center of the words “LINCOLN HIGHWAY.”

The 12-Mile House is a landmark in Citrus Heights. Photo courtesy of Andrew Saunders

Cave said two more historical placards have also been installed along the old Lincoln Highway route, including one on Auburn Boulevard adjacent to the 14-Mile House near Donegal Drive and another on Auburn Boulevard close to the 12-Mile House near Devecchi Avenue, south of Greenback Lane.

There were once six “mile” houses located in the vicinity of what is now Citrus Heights used as way stations where people who traveled the two-day route between Sacramento and Auburn could spend the night.

One of those old country roads, now known as Auburn Boulevard, ran along a path in Citrus Heights that was used by freight wagons as far back as 1849. At that time, the road ran straight to the city of Auburn until 1864 when the Central Pacific Railroad reached Roseville, according to Citrus Heights Historical Society President Larry Fritz.

The city also plans to install a fourth Lincoln Highway placard at the northern city limits when a gateway arch into the city is completed, Cave said.

The Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) first published maps and travel guides to encourage drivers to venture out across the United States. Many did so and became the early residents of the community of Sylvan, now incorporated Citrus Heights.

While the concept of connecting existing county roadways, which Carl G. Fisher envisioned, to form a transcontinental highway worked, historical records show it left drivers with a confusing maze of road names and highway markers.

The Lincoln Highway transitioned into Highway 40 in the mid-1920s when the government dropped “named” highways and transitioned to a numbered highway system.

To this day, a sign at the intersection of Antelope Road and Auburn Boulevard denotes both names, according to the Citrus Heights Historical Society.

In 1926, California Department of Transportation numbered the highways and Lincoln Highway became Highway 40.

Highway 40 was then replaced by Interstate 80 in 1956 when Caltrans built a new roadway from the Marconi Curve to the Atlantic Street overcrossing in Roseville, bypassing Auburn Boulevard completely.

At that time, the trail that began as Auburn Road, then Lincoln Highway, then Highway 40, was finally renamed Auburn Boulevard. The bend in the road, however, remains.

Today, the bend in that old country road is known as Sylvan Corners and marks the geographic center of Citrus Heights. Auburn Boulevard, Old Auburn Road and Sylvan Road, which all come together at the intersection.

Concrete benches installed by the City of Citrus Heights in the early 2000s bearing the lettering “Lincoln 40” at the intersection of Auburn Boulevard and Antelope Road, commemorate the city’s own section of the first transcontinental highway and mark an important piece of history in the city.