At first, the Lincoln Highway through Iowa consisted mainly of dirt roads that were fine when dry but impassable when wet, and motorists were advised against trying to cross Iowa in rainy weather. The Lincoln Highway Association sought an all-weather concrete highway and created the seedling mile program to entice communities along the route to pave mile-long sections with donated concrete. Linn County supervisors authorized construction of Iowa's seedling mile in 1918, and work began in August 1918 on a section beginning two miles west of here, equidistant from Mount Vernon, Marion, and Cedar Rapids; it was completed in June 1919 and actually fell short of one mile by about two hundred feet. Seedling miles were meant to build pressure for further improvements by being placed at least six miles from any town, so motorists traveling through mud to reach the pavement would see the value of paved roads. Between 1914 and 1920, six seedling miles were built in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. The earliest were only 10 feet wide, but the standard soon rose to 16 feet and eventually 18 feet; Iowa's was 16 feet wide. Cement for Iowa's seedling mile was donated by Northwestern States Portland Cement Company in Mason City, with private subscriptions and county funds completing the financing. Although the seedling mile was intended to spark demand for more paved highway, its east and west connections were not completed for another six years. The connecting road to Marion-Bloomington Road was never paved, and by 1924 the Lincoln Highway bypassed that city. The connecting road from Cedar Rapids to the west end of the seedling mile was paved by October 1921, but the segment east to the Cedar County line was not finished until July 1925; by then, the Lincoln Highway was paved all the way from Chicago to Cedar Rapids. In 2002, the Linn County Engineer's Office reconstructed Mount Vernon Road from Mount Vernon to the western terminus of the seedling mile, destroying vestiges of the historic roadway while incorporating design and material choices intended to pay homage to its historical significance.