Wisconsin Stories: Car Show

"	The Buick was averaging 14 miles per gallon on the roads. Across the country the price was 15 to 20 cents a gallon, so when the storekeeper said $3.75, I naturally looked astonished."

by Norman E. Brokaw

The early days of motoring were a challenge for drivers, who faced all manner of difficulties. Norman E. Brokaw wrote about his experiences driving an automobile cross-country with his wife, Theo, in 1914. The following essay contains excerpts from his travelogue.

I had owned the automobile for three years. The Model 16 Buick of 1910 had been purchased from a local agency, and shipped by boxcar together with two others from Milwaukee to Appleton, Wis., where I lived and was attending Lawrence College. The new car price was $1,700, but it cost me $1,200 for the unsold, year-old model.

Just as young fellows of the present times work over their cars, the Buick was "modernized" and equipment added. A canvas and iron frame top was purchased, a windshield — not standard equipment — was secured, a presto-light tank and new headlights attached in addition to the front frame bracket and rear kerosene illuminators, and eventually the body was rebuilt to make a roadster out of the two-seater.

Naturally, the four-cylinder engine was the object of further attention. A Stromberg carburetor was installed. A wet battery was bolted on the frame; it replaced the two dry cells. One use made of the equipment was to start the engine by cranking to the top of the compression, then quickly advancing the hot spark lever. That lever (and) the gas control were on a quadrant attached to the dash in a place just below the right side steering wheel. Also, a foot throttle was added for better accelerator control. With the rework the automobile was capable of high speeds.

The American Automobile Associate (AAA) first published the popular Blue Book maps in 1906. The full-color regional maps gave detailed information for travelers seeking adventure on the often-confusing roads of early 20th century America.

Theo and I had spent weeks planning the cross-country trip. A map, "Transcontinental Main-Traveled Routes," and a thousand-page publication of the Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, Chicago, entitled " The Automobile Blue Book, 1914, Volume 5, Mississippi River to Pacific Coast" were the chart and bible of the Trail to Sunset and other routes.

We decided to take the country roads from Edgerton across Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien, there to ferry over the Mississippi, then at Marshalltown, Iowa, to get on the newly named Overland Trail and go west to Big Springs, Nebraska, thence southwest to Denver, and southward to Trinidad, where the trail to sunset came in from Kansas City way in conjunction with the Santa Fe Trail. The rest of the route was the recently mapped trail to Sunset through the scenic southwest to San Diego and Los Angeles.

The road directions given in the guidebook were in great detail, stating the miles and fractions and places to turn. On our journey over much of the route, Theo was too busy as navigator for much indulgence in dozing and daydreaming. She had to keep an eye on the speedometer distances and interpret the instructions and mileage from the ever-open Blue Book, informing me when and where to turn, and calling out "Stop!" when the routing became confused. Sometimes a red house identification had been repainted or burned down, or a washout had caused numerous confusing detours. Then it was anybody's guess.

A traveling couple finds themselves mired in mud. Photo by O. C. Payne, Texas.

WHS Cf File 5116, Whi(x3) 21387. Not to be reproduced without written permission from the Wisconsin Historical Society.

A few excerpts will illustrate the value of the Blue Book, and the necessity for an assistant to aid an otherwise bewildered autoist chugging along on strange, mostly unmarked dirt roads.

0.0 Omaha - 15th & Farman St. Go west with trolley on Farman.

1.9 40th St. Turn right with branch trolley around drug store for 1 block.

7.0 Bear left with macadam curving right around hill 8.5

16.6 Elkhorn brick saloon on far left. Turn left with poles curve left across long bridge 19.0 & 19.2

31.3 Diagonal 4 - corners; bear left, picking up military road. Through diagonal 4 — corners 33.3

42.6 Ames, elevator just ahead. Jog left across R.R. and immediately right along same on fair dirt with some sandy stretches

46.0 End of road; turn right across R.R.

First Day — Sept. 11, 1914
Edgerton to Madison, 40 miles via Stoughton
10 p.m. to midnight — average speed 20 miles per hour. Roads quite muddy, mostly clay and dirt. Stayed at New Park Hotel.

Second Day — Sept. 12
We drove 95 miles in five hours from Madison to near Bridgeport, Wis., and camped out that night.

Third Day — Sept. 13
It rained hard all day, and we traveled on 16 miles to Prairie du Chien. Stopped at the Old Sanitorium Hotel for three days until the end of the storm.

Seventh Day — Sept. 19
Denison, Iowa., to Columbus, Neb. — 158 miles, 21 miles per hour.
Roads - dirt & fair in Iowa, cement & macadam & well turn-piked in Nebraska. Crossed Missouri River on bridge at Council Bluffs to Omaha. Evans Hotel. Very good. Nice town, spent Sunday here. Got first mail. (Before leaving Edgerton, certain mailing points were outlined for receipt of letters. At Omaha on into Denver the route was called the Platte River Road.)

14th Day — Sept. 29
Trinidad, Colo., to Camp No. 2 between Wagon Mound & Watrous, New Mexico. — 110 miles, 20.8 miles per hour.

Roads fair but very little traveled, unimproved. Up over the famous Raton Pass to Raton is very beautiful. The Country is high plateau and is very dry and only used for cattle ranges. Camped in small canyon. 1 blow out. The wagon road over the Raton Pass had many sharp turns and switchbacks, requiring that at some places the car be backed to get the proper angle for the turn. The route that day was also through ranch gates, with a sign "Close Gate." Some fences had raised through over passages for autos. At a windmill was a sign to help yourself but if you turned on the power be sure to shut it off.

18th Day — Sunday, Oct. 4
Datil to Camp 3 via Quemado (a Mexican town) 57 miles, 14.3 miles per hour.
Road very rough and muddy but through pretty mountain country. Lots of scrub pines and cedars. Crossed Continental Divide at elevation of 7,600 feet. Camped in cedar woods with Dallas men and had 2 huge fires and fine rabbit supper. Fine time. Heard coyotes yell and also heard a timber wolf. Dallas men left us in the morning.

Post Card, photographed by RN Harris.

WHS CF file 51, no negative #. Not to be reproduced without written permission from the Wisconsin Historical Society.

19th Day — Oct. 5
Camp 3 to Camp 4 & 5 via Springerville, Ariz. 66 miles, 17 miles per hour.
Road rough and muddy. Held up nearly 2 days by impassable roads 18 miles from the nearest habitation. Country very wild. Heard coyotes and wild turkeys, saw deer and bear tracks at a nearby spring. (At Springerville, I purchased five gallons of gasoline to fill up the 35-gallon tank, installed behind the driver's seat when remodeled to a roadster. The Buick was averaging 14 miles per gallon on the roads. Across the country the price was 15 to 20 cents a gallon, so when the storekeeper said $3.75, I naturally looked astonished. Noting my expression the man explained that the fuel was hauled from Holbrook about 90 miles by mule teams. Some 18 miles out of the Mormon town, while crossing over a flat that looked like the top of a filled in volcano crater, the slimy road sank and the Buick was stuck. It was 4 p.m., and we thrashed around until near dark before quitting to get supper. That night we slept near the car.

As we got up the second morning, a wagon hove into sight, we almost sent up a cheer as a greeting. The driver was a Singer Sewing Machine salesman with his wife, journeying through the country. He hitched onto the front axle, and after some tugging got us to dry ground. Thanking them profusely, we quickly loaded our trappings and were happily on the way. But some distance along, the road, though appearing good on the surface, gave out and the car was stuck. Better luck this time as toward dark another adventurous autoist, a family driving to Los Angeles, caught up with us. They pulled us out, and both parties camped there for the night.

21st Day — Oct. 8
Camp 6 to Camp 7 via Whiteriver Indian School and Fort Apache. 46 miles, 10.5 miles per hour.
Road very rocky and badly washed out all the way. Left the other party at Fort Apache. From the Army post southward the route was over the old military road to Fort Thomas. There was a covered bridge over the White River, and luckily a newly constructed wooden structure made unnecessary fording the treacherous Black River as reported by the Blue Book. We camped high in the mountains near Cassadore Springs, named for a Chiricahua chief.

26th Day — Oct. 15
Yuma, Arizona, to El Centro, California, via Mammoth Wash, Brawley and Imperial. 94 miles at 18 miles per hour.

Roads — rough and very sandy. Crossed the wash in fine shape. Terribly hot. Uninhabited country till the Imperial Valley is reached. Awful desert. Imperial Valley is irrigated and very fertile. Stayed at rooming house, good. Crossed the Colorado River at Yuma on a cable ferry, then road wound along northwesterly past Ogilby, following the Southern Pacific Railroad for 20 miles before entering the sandy Mammoth Wash. Ogilby was only a train stop with a section hand living in an old boxcar. He said that high water was furnished once a week from the tank car of a freight train. The Blue Book instructions set forth: "...the only bad sand is crossing Mammoth Wash, and before attempting this be sure to deflate tires about 605, and before leaving Glamis see that radiator and water bag are full."

In the Imperial Valley region, the roads along irrigation ditches had high center ridges. By this construction, one side could be flooded to lay the deep dust and the dry side used for travel.

27th Day — Oct. 15
El Centro to San Diego vie Seeley, Coyote Wells, Mount Springs, Warren Ranch, Jacumba, Campo, along the Mexican border. 126 miles, 19 miles per hour.
Roads — pretty good, fine mountain grade work. All kinds of scenery — first level, irrigated fields of the valley; second, stretch of sandy desert; third, fine mountain scenery; fourth, fertile valleys leading to the Pacific; fifth, the ocean. Grant Hotel - fine. (We had traveled 2,622 miles in 27 days on the road, averaging a daily 97.1 miles, a cost of some $400.)