Thousands of people drive highway 38 through northern Illinois every day. They might not realize they are part of something bigger: a century-old road stretching coast to coast. The Lincoln Highway was the first to do that.
Kay Shelton is a DeKalb resident and national president of the Lincoln Highway Association. She says the group wants people to sign a petition asking President Obama to designate the highway as a national monument…all 3400 miles of it. She says "tell all your friends and tell your relatives they don't have to be from this area to sign it. Everyone I know appreciates President Lincoln and the original purpose was as a memorial to him, and he deserves it.”
Shelton says as a national monument, the highway would become more of a tourist destination and get promoted by the National Park Service. She says the designation would NOT affect anyone’s property rights.
The goal is to reach 100-thousand signatures on the petition at change.org.
