Conceived in 1913 as a direct motor route between the West Coast and the East Coast, the Lincoln Highway became the first cross-country roadway. At conception, the road traversed California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. A designation of an alternate route, or loop, from Cheyenne to Denver, then back up to Julesburg was also included in the initial route.
Lafayette was on the route of the Cheyenne to Denver leg, but in 1915 the Lincoln Highway Association formally withdrew sanction for the “Denver Loop.” Colorado’s Gov. Ammons protested the delisting, but the association prevailed.
The short-lived northbound route of the Lincoln Highway through Lafayette followed Public Road to Baseline Road; left on Baseline to 111th; right on 111th to Isabelle Road; left on Isabelle to 109th; north on 109th and then left at Lookout Road (at the time was called “Six Mile Corner”), then right onto what is now U.S. Highway 287.
Unfortunately, Lafayette boosters never got the memo detailing the unlisting of the Denver Loop. Undaunted, the community designated Public Road the “Lincoln Highway,” and the moniker stuck for several decades.