Wyoming's Tribute to Lincoln and His Highway

John A. O'Brien

Monday, October 12, 2026

Laramie, Wyoming

The 48-foot high image of Abraham Lincoln appears so suddenly looming over Interstate 80 just east of Laramie, Wyoming, that the unsuspecting motorist is likely to be startled. The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument stands on the north side of the roadway where the old Lincoln Highway used to intersect with the newer expressway. The towering bust of our 16th president was commissioned by the State of Wyoming to commemorate Lincoln's 150th birthday as well as to mark the site where the historic roadway that bears his name crossed the Continental Divide. The Monument then serves as a "two-fer" in Lincoln's honor: to celebrate a notable anniversary and to recognize the original great monument to him, America's first transcontinental highway.

The author at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument on the Lincoln Highway near Laramie, Wyoming.

The Lincoln Highway was conceived by early motor car enthusiasts as a way of honoring Lincoln's legacy by constructing an improved "rock" roadway to connect America's two coasts. Carl G. Fisher manufactured carbide-gas headlights and was a principal investor in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He believed that the popularity of automobiles was dependent on good roads. He established the Lincoln Highway Association in July 1913 to raise money to offer grants to local authorities to build "seedling mile projects" along a proposed route that would connect populated areas between New York City and San Francisco. President Woodrow Wilson was the first contributor. Others included Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Edison. One million dollars was soon raised toward the estimated $10 million needed to complete the project. The highway course through the Rocky Mountains followed the historic tracks of the Oregon, Mormon, and Overland trails, the Pony Express, and the first Transcontinental Air Mail Route.

By 1919, the highway was coherent enough to support a demonstration by a special United States Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy. Though bridges failed, vehicles broke and were sometimes stuck in mud, the convoy reached San Francisco after two months of travel. The LHA used the convoy's difficulties to show the need for better main highways. The convoy led to the passage of many county bond issues supporting highway construction. One of the participants in the convoy was Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower. This experience led him to encourage, as president, construction of the Interstate Highway System in June 1956.

The bust of the Lincoln Highway Monument created by University of Wyoming professor Robert I. Russin in 1959.

The Lincoln Highway was designated U.S. Route 30 when such numbers were assigned beginning in 1925. By then the name was well fixed in the public mind, and the project was a major promoter of Lincoln art and artifacts. At its beginning the LHA commissioned statues of Abraham Lincoln, titled The Great Emancipator, that were placed in key locations along the designated route. The last major promotional activity took place on September 1, 1928, when the Boy Scouts placed approximately 2,400 concrete markers at sites along the route to officially mark and dedicate it to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. Additionally, 4,000 metal signs for urban areas were erected during the 1930s. Each post carried the Lincoln Highway insignia, a directional arrow, and a bronze medallion with Lincoln's bust stating, "This Highway Dedicated to Abraham Lincoln." Nearly all of these statues and signs have been moved to museums or diverted to private collections.

The bronze Lincoln bust that dominates the mountain pass skyline on Interstate 80 was commissioned by the State of Wyoming in 1959. Sculptor Robert I. Russin completed his task in a remarkable 11 months. The likeness was cast in 30 pieces that were assembled on site. The monument was moved to its current location at exit 323 when I-80 was completed there in 1969. The Lincoln Highway has been largely disaggregated, like the other historic numbered routes that opened America's vistas to the traveling public. The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument still stands to remind us of the highway that connected our coasts in his memory and as a most impressive tribute to the great man alongside Mount Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

(Images by Marilyn O'Brien)