the Oregon Trail. Meeker was again advocating better roads, and gained the support of Henry Ford, who built him a Model A car with a covered wagon-style top, dubbed the Oxmobile, to be used in another expedition over the Trail to publicize Meeker's highway proposals. In October 1928, Meeker was hospitalized with pneumonia in Detroit. He returned to Seattle, where he fell ill again. Meeker was taken to a room in the Frye Hotel, where he told his daughter Ella Meeker Templeton, "I can't go. I have not yet finished my work." Ezra Meeker died there on December 3, 1928, just under a month short of his 98th birthday. His body was taken in procession back to Puyallup, where he was interred beside his wife Eliza Jane in Woodbine Cemetery. Under a plaque based on the Oregon Trail Memorial coin Ezra Meeker had inspired, their gravestone, erected by the OTMA in 1939, reads, "They came this way to win and hold the West." Legacy Driggs succeeded Meeker as president of the OTMA, and remained in that capacity at the association and its successor, the American Pioneer Trails Association (APTA), until his own death at age 89 in 1963. The year 1930, marking 100 years since both Meeker's birth and the first wagon train leaving St. Louis for the Oregon Country, was proclaimed the Covered Wagon Centennial. The largest event was at one of the landmarks along the Oregon Trail, Wyoming's Independence Rock, on July 3–5, 1930. This event included the dedication of a plaque depicting Meeker, embedded in the rock. For many years, the OTMA made it a practice to go out each summer and dedicate monuments along the Oregon Trail. Although the APTA no longer exists, that mission has been continued by state historical societies and organizations which share its purpose, such as the Oregon-California Trails Association. The commemorative half dollars were struck in small numbers in most years of the 1930s; after collectors complained about the lengthy series and high prices, Congress forbade further strikings in 1939. The first route across America, the Lincoln Highway, was completed in the 1920s, and others soon followed. Although Meeker's highway along the Trail was not built, U.S. 30 generally parallels the route of the Oregon Trail. A number of sites relating to Meeker remain in Puyallup. In addition to his gravesite, and the Meeker Mansion (now owned by and being restored