Van Wert County, Ohio

The Lincoln Highway entered Van Wert County from Delphos on what is now Fifth Street.  Once leaving Delphos, it renames Lincoln Highway on to the City of Van Wert where it is named Main Street. 

On leaving the city, it returns to Lincoln Highway.  9.5 miles west of Van Wert follow US 30 through a tip of Paulding County to Indiana. Detailed Directions.

Woods Golf Course.  12083 US 127 South, (419) 238-0441

For more information, call 1-877-989-2282 or visit www.vanwertcounty.org/cvb.

Lincoln Highway ceramic plaques on the bridge nine and a half miles west of the city of Van Wert. Directions

Dutch Mill between Delphos and Van Wert.

Paulding County, at Indiana state line.  Photo by Lincoln Highway Collection, Transportation History Collection, Special Collections Library, University of Michigan.

Seedling miles:  Much of the funding of road building was secured from private persons and companies.  One of the more ingenious activities was the creation of seedling miles.  The Lincoln Highway Association solicited donations of cement from manufactures of Portland Cement who were eager to show off the road building properties of their product.

With the promise of free paving materials, road departments competed with bids, promising to supply the labor, engineering and machinery required to complete the project, which were usually in rural locations that had traditionally been problem spots.  Less than 20 seedling miles were awarded nationwide.

Paulding County has but one mile of the Lincoln Highway passing through it's southwest corner and was near no population centers and thus had been neglected.  A seedling mile was completed here in 1919 and  it was not uncommon to find crowds of locals walking, driving and riding bicycles on the new, hard road, similar as shown here.