The Lincoln Highway was not a nationally funded highway, but, instead, was a collection of locally funded and maintained roads put together as a single route marked by the Lincoln Highway Association. State construction started about 1920.

The result was that originally the codition of the highway ranged from being a fair set of ruts to absolutely abysmal, nowhere coming close to the description given by Laramie Studebaker dealer Elmer Lovejoy in his 1914 Guide. Lovejoy claimed that one could cross the state in 26 hours with the vehicle singing a sweet song and the wheels whir as they roll over the hard surface of well-marked trail." Although by 1916 the road had improved, in areas it remained a mite bit rough. Nevertheless, in 1916 Amanda Preuss was able to cross the continent 11 days, 5 hours, and 45 minutes, beating the prior record of Cannonball Baker. Near Rock Springs, the highway followed an old railroad embankment on which the only improvement was the removal of the ties, leaving regular indentations where the ties had previously been. Amanda Preuss managed to damage the brakes on her Oldsmobile roadster on such an embankment and had to pause at the Oldsmobile dealer in Cheyenne. But the indentations in the roadbed were not the only cause of damage to her vehicle. Just to the east of Egbert, the front of her vehicle was indented. She described the incident:

Running along at aout 45 miles an hour I saw standing loose in the road ahead of me a beautiful bay horse. Immediately I slowed down to about 25 miles an hour and sounded my horn. By this time I was close upon it, and as it did not move, I swerved sharply to the left to pass around it. Unfortunately, as I swung, the horse decided to swing also, and leaped squarely in front of my machine.
I hit it with a crash, bowling it over, and, before it had a chance to recover, I rolled upon it with the front wheels of my car. There I hung, with the neighing, kicking horse beneath me.
I would never have been able to get off the horse, had it not been for a couple of men working on the road who came to my assisance. Our combined efforts, however, finally managed to extricate the car.

To put the horse out of its misery, it had to be shot by the workmen. Miss Preuss reported the incident to the police in Pine Bluffs. As a result of the collision, the radiator of the car sprang a leak. Another Oldsmobile owner gave up his radiator so that she could continue. Nevertheless, in Nebraska she was again stopped until she posted $150.00 to cover the cost of the horse.