It was a dark and dreary day when we crossed over the Missouri River on a nondescript bridge into Iowa. The rain had let up a bit when we came to the Iowa Welcome Center in Logan, Iowa, which is also the Harrison County Historical Village, and were greeted by Juanita Johnsen who spells her last name with an 'e' instead of an 'o' as she was married to a Swede. Juanita didn't seem to take the recession too seriously as she said, "We were in trouble before the recession."

Juanita Johnsen, Iowa Welcome Center, Logan, Iowa

When I asked Juanita if there were any Lincoln Highway markers nearby, she told me how one was moved from its original location to sit just the other side of the log cabin Preston Niles had moved from its location along with three cases of artifacts, a rope bed and an 1870 cultivator back in 1937 which became the basis for the current Historical Village. I asked her where the marker was as I hadn’t seen any and Juanita said it couldn't be easily seen from the highway due to some trees and led me through part of the museum to a side door where I could see it, just to the side of Preston Niles' log cabin. The rain had started again but I was able to get a shot which shows the marker, the log cabin, and the highway behind the trees.

On my way back to the welcome center I noticed some curious paintings. Juanita said Mr. Niles had collected all kinds of things over 31 years and had painted those paintings -- in the style of Grandma Moses -- to show how they were used. The Harrison County Conservation Board bought the village in 1969 which contains over 10,000 things in five different buildings including an Iowa standard rural school.

BEFORE I STARTED ON THIS INFORMATION-COLLECTING ROAD TRIP, I’d already done what I called the Red States, Blue Road where I traveled US 89 from Mexico to Canada during the last 20 days of the 2008 presidential election. Trying to get a handle on the genre, I'd already read more than a dozen books including the following:

• "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat Moon
• "American Dreams: Lost and Found" by Studs Terkel
• "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by Walker Evans and James Agee
• "Denison, Iowa: Searching for the Soul of America Through the Secrets of a Midwest Town" by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson.

And there I was in Denison, Iowa!

I'd already talked voice some time ago with one of the main characters in the book, Geogia Holllrah, who'd done her best to help Hispanic meat-packing workers get up to speed with their English, but all I got was the answering machine. So I went over to the Information Center at the Chamber and Development Council of Crawford County and talked with Nancy Bluer who was new to the job and hadn't read the book yet -- it was on display in the corner -- but was helpful in explaining what vintage barn quilts were. I'd mentioned that I'd seen a small, graphic American Flag painted on the side of a building and she said this was an example of a barn quilt where people painted geometric designs on the sides of the their barns or other buildings. There were various barn quilt tours from time to time where you drove around the back roads viewing particularly well done quilts.

Don Luensmann, the Executive Director, came out of his office and was heading for the door as it was closing time and talked with us about what had happened to the various revitalization projects designed to bring Denison into the 21st century that had been the subject of the book. In sum, "Good ideas, bad execution." While the conference center, the street scape and a new hospital were now in place, there are ongoing arguments as to how they were done and whether they should have been done.

When I asked Don about how well Hispanics were integrating into the predominantly white community, he said they are more transitory than migrant as with field workers: "Some stay as short as six months and then move on to other places; some stay for 20 years." The current problem is a lack of housing for those who want to settle in Denison because loans are hard to come by during the recession. But "the recession improves the quality of the workforce."

As for illegals, Don said this doesn't only have to do with Hispanics as he'd read that when New York City began to check the status of people more closely after 9-11, many Irish illegals began to flee the city and return to their native country.

We stayed overnight in the Denison WalMart and went back to the Information Center the next morning when the Tourism Coordinator, Jan Jacobsen, was supposed to be there so we could ask her about Lincoln Highway markers. She was, along with Pat Flashner. They said that Jefferson, Iowa, further on to the east had a Lincoln Highway Welcome Center but didn't know of any markers in Denison.

Instead, we talked about the town and what it was doing to get up to speed with the 21st century. They said that many young people leave Denison to go to either the east or west coast but the Job Corp is helping them learn skilled manual labor and high school students are encouraged to volunteer for various projects for which they receive credit.

After talking about this and that for a while, one of them -- forget which -- suddenly remembered there was a Lincoln Highway marker on the front lawn of the McHenry House. As with other markers, it had been moved from the highway to serve as a lawn ornament. The house itself was built in 1895 for a wealthy farmer, W.A. McHenry and had six fireplaces and a ballroom on the third floor lit with gas but converted later to electricity. Altogether, this must be more than 30 such houses in Denison: the McHenry was only a few blocks away.

Lincoln Highway marker, McHenry House, Denison, Iowa

Before we left the Information Center, the location of another Lincoln Highway marker had come to mind. I'm not sure if we found the same place they were talking about, but we found John and James Petersen's farm, a great example of how Your-House-and-Farm-is-Art in Iowa.

Petersen Farm east of Denison, Iowa

To be noticed is the lawn that, except for a few shrubs beside the front steps, goes directly from the house to the highway. (The same goes for the never-ending fields of corn and soy beans: neatly cut grass goes directly from the field to the highway.) There are not one, not two, but three ornaments on the lawn: an original cement Lincoln Highway marker, a newer metal red-white-blue "L" sign in front of a small tree, and behind the tree a larger than life pig.

Larger than life pig, Petersen Farm

A sign on the side of the barn says, "Petersen, John & James, INDEPENDENT PORK PRODUCERS and Damn PROUD OF IT!"

Who would have guessed.

This series of reports by David McLane documents life in small towns along four major highways in the United States during these hard times. It is NOT a survey but an attempt to come a fuller understanding of the land and the people which comprise significant parts of America but are typically un-represented by main-stream media. This is the third section and reports on traveling from San Francisco to New York City on the Lincoln Highway. The list of reports for the first section (US 95) can be found here. The list of reports for the second section (US 395) can be found here.

Related Articles

• Lincoln Highway:Part-1:Rolling Clouds and Fog at Start of Lincoln Highway
• Lincoln Highway:Part-2: Clickety-click, WHAM, BAM, BAM, BAM
• Lincoln Highway:Part-3: Each of the Summits has a Lincoln Highway Marker
• Lincoln Highway:Part-4: I Began to Lose Interest in Getting Back to Reality
• Lincoln Highway:Part-5: Evanston, Wyoming Still has the Small-town Feel
• Lincoln Highway:Part-6: Disaster Strikes: The Van Won't Start
• Lincoln Highway:Part-7: Van Runs, May-Chan Lives
• Lincoln Highway:Part-8: Walls of Corn to the Left of You