Written By: Ben Cosgrove, Liz Ronk
In the summer of 1948, LIFE photographer Allan Grant set out on a trip from Omaha, Neb., toward Salt Lake City, Utah, traveling west through Nebraska and Wyoming along one of the most storied stretches in America: Route 30, part of the early transcontinental Lincoln Highway.
For reasons lost to time, none of Grant’s marvelous photos from that epic post-war road trip were published in LIFE. Now LIFE offers a series of Grant’s pictures from Nebraska and Wyoming made more than seven decades ago, in tribute to the human desire to get up and go.
Route 30 in Nebraska, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30 in Wyoming, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Motel along Route 30, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30 in Nebraska, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Family sleeping outside by a billboard alongside Route 30 in Wyoming, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene along Route 30, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene after driver fell asleep at the wheel on Route 30, Nebraska, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Motel along Route 30, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Cars pulling out of a trailer camp onto Route 30, Nebraska, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The 1733 Dance Hall—reportedly 1,733 miles from both Boston and San Francisco—in Kearney, Neb., 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A driver filling a water bag at a gas station alongside Route 30, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, Nebraska, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A couple and their five-month-old daughter heading home to Cheyenne, Wyo., after a visit to Omaha, Neb., 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Motor lodge along Route 30, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Route 30, 1948
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Motor lodge along Route 30, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Charles Corwin White, who bicycled from Los Angeles to New York in 1948, was photographed west of Rawlins, Wyo.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
