Henry Bourne Joy and the Lincoln Highway
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 41° 42.797 W 107° 47.110
13T E 268295 N 4621692
This marker has the same title but different wording as another marker at the Interstate 80 (Lincoln Highway) summit southeast of Laramie.
Waymark Code: WMFAXY
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 09/22/2012
Views: 13
Henry Bourne Joy and the Lincoln Highway
This was the original location of the Henry B. Joy Lincoln Highway Monument placed in 1938 following Joy’s death. Henry Bourne Joy was president of the Packard Motor Car Company and the first president of the Lincoln Highway Association. The Lincoln Highway, established in 1913, was the nation’s first transcontinental automobile route. Joy said his effort to establish it was, “The greatest thing I ever did.”
The old Lincoln Highway occupied the roadbed just north of this sign, now a service road for I-80. The coast-to-coast highway existed as a private enterprise, managed by the Lincoln Highway Association and financed through memberships and donations from automobile and road building industries.
Joy was camped near this spot in 1916 when he saw the most beautiful sunset he had ever witnessed. He told his traveling companions that he would like to be buried in this wild, wide-open western landscape that he loved so much. Following his death in 1936 his family elected to have him buried closer to home, but did create and place an impressive monument here as a memorial to his life. The monument, in its original location, is pictured above. The inscription notes Joy’s realized dream to establish a continuous improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific and repeats his statement, “That there should be a Lincoln Highway across the country is the important thing.”
The Joy Monument was moved to the I-80 Summit Rest Area east of Laramie in 2001 in order to protect it from increasing vandalism at this remote place. The new location is within sight of the highest point on the 3,500-mile coast-to-coast route of the original Lincoln Highway.