Published: June 18, 2009 09:34 am      

Military convoy will be in Clinton on Sunday

CLINTON — The Military Vehicle A Preservation Association is retracing the route of the first U.S. Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy across the United States and along the famed Lincoln Highway.

The convoy will make a scheduled stop in Clinton on Sunday.

Marsha Smith, Convention & Visitors Bureau chairwoman, expects as many as 100 military convoy vehicles to be in Clinton. The vehicles will be on display on Riverview Drive from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There also will be vintage cars on the drive for viewing. Vendors will be selling food on Riverview Drive.

In 1919, the U.S. Army decided to plan and execute a motor convoy of various vehicles across the country on the newly formed Lincoln Highway.

The route began at the White House in Washington, D.C., and ended at Lincoln Park in San Francisco — some 3,250 miles and 62 days later. This was the first motor transport convoy ever to cross the U.S. This original 1919 convoy passed through Clinton on its way west.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of this pivotal convoy and the 200th anniversary of the birth of its namesake, Abraham Lincoln.

As many as 150 historic military vehicles will retrace the original convoy route.

The start from Washington, D.C., begins on June 13 and it will arrive at the San Francisco destination on July 8.

The original convoy objectives were to put the equipment through as grueling a trial as could be devised; study how the varying road conditions affected each branch of the service; be a transcontinental recruiting drive for the Army; demonstrate the need for good roads; and to say thank you to the American people for their support during World War 1.

“The Convention & Visitors Bureau has continued to work with the motor convoy planners since January to host this wonderful event in Clinton,” Smith said. “The veterans’ organizations in the area have been supportive of this and many other events that commemorate the part that our soldiers have played in securing our freedoms.”