Northern Star DeKALB – At face value, driving down Lincoln Highway seems pretty standard. Local restaurants like Pizza Villa, 824 W Lincoln Highway, and Molly’s Eatery & Drinkery, 1000 W Lincoln Highway, are at the center of DeKalb alongside bigger restaurant chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill and Burger King. In the middle of it all is the Glidden Historical Center, 921 W Lincoln Highway, and the Homestead Barn, a site with incredible historical significance: the site of early barbed wire development. Barbed wire as an effective and patented device starts right at the Glidden Homestead with the inventor Joseph F. Glidden, said Robert Glover, the executive director of the Glidden Homestead Historical Center. Glidden first arrived in 1845, and lived in a wood cabin right where the Burger King, 913 W Lincoln Highway, is located. It wasn’t until 1861 when Glidden built the house, and the barn around 1870.