The South Lake Tahoe Ties to Sunday's Indianapolis 500

Carl Fisher. Perhaps not a name you'll hear during the Indianapolis 500, nor, on any other given day.

Fisher manufactured acetylene headlights which were on every single car in 1904 which made him a very wealthy man. He owned the first automobile dealership in the United States which was located in Indianapolis. Fisher worked on developing a race track there since automobiles were gaining in popularity. After being injured in stunts himself, and following a safety debacle at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway, of which he was a principal, he helped develop paved racetracks and public roadways. Improvements he implemented at the speedway led to its nickname "The Brickyard."

Move to 1913. Carl Fisher conceived the Lincoln Highway, a road that would take the growing number of drivers from coast to coast. He had to get financing to build the highway, and the U.S. government tossed in the remaining amount to complete it. It was the first national memorial to Abraham Lincoln, thus the name, Lincoln Highway. It opened on October 31, 1913.

The highway resulted in economic boosts to towns across America, connecting people to parts of the nation that were previously only accessible by train, horseback or covered wagon.

The highway was marked by 2,400 concrete markers placed ceremoniously at 1 p.m. on September 1, 1928 by Boy Scouts along the route. One can find one of these in the Lake Tahoe Historical Museum where it rests next to a display about the Lincoln Highway, as well as in Carson City.

For the most part, the current Highway 80 follows the original Lincoln Highway, When designed, the route split near Fallon, Nevada, with one portion heading towards Donner Lake, and the southern portion heading to South Lake Tahoe. The road met up again in Sacramento, just as Highways 50 and 80 do today. When looking at a google map of South Lake Tahoe, you'll see "Lincoln Highway" in place of Highway 50 still today.

So, when you're watching the Indy 500 Sunday, you know how it is connected to South Lake Tahoe.

Excerpt from "Across the Continent by the Lincoln Highway" about travels on the Lincoln Highway in 1915, written by Effie Price Gladding: Leaving Sacramento, we drove across rolling plains, mostly grain fields, to Folsom. From Folsom to the busy little town of Placerville we had more broken country and a decidedly bumpy road. We found the drive from Folsom to Placerville uninteresting, the forest being scrubby, the road dry and dusty. As soon as we left Placerville we came into beautiful country. We had stretches of distant mountain views and magnificent wooded hills all about us. A mountain stream, the American River, green and foaming, roared alongside the road. The road was in excellent condition and ran on through the forest for miles, flanked by sugar pines, cedars, firs, balsams, and yellow pines. Squirrels darted back and forth in front of us. The wild white lilac was blooming at the roadside. Ascending hour by hour, we passed several pleasant-looking mountain inns and came at last to Phillips', a simple place where they gave us, outside the main house, a tiny cottage all to ourselves. It had one room and from its door we looked straight away into the forest. They gave us some beefsteak, some fried potatoes, some canned corn, carrots, cake, custard, and tea for our supper.

We left our door open at night, that the fresh mountain air might come in freely. I awoke early in the morning and saw the first lights on the hills. Away off in the forest I heard a hermit thrush calling. After breakfast we drove along through pine forest, the snow on the hills not very far away, and soon came to the summit of the Pass, 7395 feet. A party in a Reo car had been over the Pass three weeks earlier, toiling through the snow, and had posted several signs, painted in flamboyant red: "First car up May 25, 1914." Below us was the marshy valley surrounding the southern end of Lake Tahoe. We saw the exquisite green of these watery meadows and the lovely clumps of pines growing here and there in the valley. Beyond stretched the great lake surrounded by lofty mountains—a glorious view. We drove carefully down the steep hill on to the plain and past Meyers. The road was very sandy, and as we drove among the pine trees it was in some places so narrow that the hubs of our machine just cleared the tree trunks. We went first to Tallac, where there is a very pleasant hotel on the lake. But it was full and we turned back to Al Tahoe, a hotel in a great open space at the southern end of the lake, with pine trees scattered here and there, and a little colony of cottages outside the main building. We established ourselves in one of these cottages, a one-room house with three wooden sides and a long curtain across its open side. The fourth side of the building had been literally lifted up and was supported by wooden props. In this way it became a roof for the little platform of boards which stretched in front of the cottage, and a sheltered porch was thus improvised. At night we drew our calico curtain across the open front of our cottage, and so slept practically in the open air.From Al Tahoe one can make many excursions on foot or by boat. As there was still snow on the road we did not undertake the motor drive from Al Tahoe to Tahoe Tavern and Donner Lake. We did drive the nine or ten miles of mountain road to Fallen Leaf Lake, which is a most exquisite mountain lake right under the shadow of Mt. Tallac. The trails from the hotel at Fallen Leaf Lake are very numerous and attract many enthusiastic mountain climbers. The first rain that we had experienced in all our long journey we had at Al Tahoe. When we left our hotel early in the morning to drive to Carson City the rain was still falling, but it cleared within an hour after our start, and we had no more rain until we reached Ohio. Lake Tahoe on our left was wonderfully beautiful in the morning light. The rich manzanita and other bushes were shining with moisture, the tall pines were reflected in the clear depths of the lake, the shores were wild and lonely. The road rose high above the lake, and in one or two places ran along the edge of a precipitous cliff. After leaving the lake we came into a rather desolate mountain region where the whole character of the country changed. The road was a narrow shelf along a barren, rocky mountain side. There were but few trees. The color of the rock and of patches of brilliant yellow flowers, growing along the roadside, gave variety to the landscape. Otherwise it was somewhat dreary and forbidding after the rich forest foliage that we had just left along the lake.

As we rounded mountain shoulder after shoulder we began to look off into green cultivated farming valleys. Next we were coming down a steep hill and into Nevada's little capital town of Carson City. The Capitol building stands at the foot of this long hill road, and as one approaches from the top of the hill it looks as if one must drive straight through the Capitol. But the road turns sharply to the left as one reaches the Capitol street. This one long street with its hotel, its pleasant shops, and its Capitol is about all there is of the town. We drove through the town straight on to Reno.