Page 65 - 2003 DT 12 Issues

Wha t’ s Insi d e !
Featured Articles
Great Auto Race..........................................1
Boot Tracks.................................................5
Special
Quiz............................................................7

Departments
September 2 0 0 3 News & Notes............................................2
Programs & Hikes........................................4
Desk Schedule............................................6
Bulletin Board.............................................8

The Great Auto block moter, [sic] model 83, and two with teamsters from the lumbering com-
model 75 light touring cars. Prices $795 panies on Charleston. The volunteers
Race: 1916 and $695 delivered in Las Vegas . . . The labored in the cooler morning hours while

cars are fully equipped. “ Mom and Sis sat in the shade of the fam-
by Jack Ryan
The Rhyolite Herald, May 26, 1905: ily car. Their work would begin when the
“Dr. J. E. Burton, of Los Angeles, came males returned from road building,
abor Day was always an exciting
Sunday from Las Vegas in a Thomas tapped a barrel of beer and began a rec-
holiday in the railroad town of
L Las Vegas, but the Sports Carni- Flyer motor car, making a trial run to in- reational afternoon.
spect the route between Las Vegas and Meanwhile, E.W. Griffith, leading
val of 1916 had the population of the
Rhyolite, over which a regular auto line politico and entrepreneur who had bought
valley particularly feverish. On Monday
will shortly be established . . . [I]t requires a large tract of land on Charleston in an-
there would be the traditional competi-
about 10 hours to make ticipation of summer
tions, but on Tuesday something new and
momentous would take place—the great the trip of 120 miles, tourism, had hewn out a
but over the regular road from where the
auto race.
auto road . . . the trip lodge now stands and
It’s impossible for 21st Century gen-
over the hot sands will joined with the Las Ve-
erations to imagine how the development
require only six gas contingent around
of the automobile a hundred years ago
turned around the culture of big cities and hours.” Tule Springs in time for
The auto brought a July 4 jamboree.
small towns worldwide. The auto revo-
people together in The road had its
lution grew faster than the Industrial 1911 Thomas Flyer
terms of miles and glitches. Water barrels
Revolution and lasted longer than our
sprit. In 1915, with autos firmly were spotted since boiling radiators were
own Computer Revolution. Distances
grew shorter, hundreds of businesses like established among the Las Vegas elite, common in gaining a mile in elevation.
attention turned to Mount Charleston. Its Some wives insisted on abandoning fam-
service stations were born, and every-
cool beauty had long enticed sweltering ily autos with their children and letting
thing from economics to geopolitics to
Vegans in the summer, but by horse car- husbands navigate the precipitous
sexual mores was turned topsy-turvy
Newspapers of Southern Nevada re- riage it was a daylong trip to Kyle washes. And Model T Fords caused driv-
flected this. The Bullfrog Miner, May 8, Canyon. But horseless carriages could ers’ legs to cramp because they could hold
1905: “Mr. Oscar Rohn, mining expert, make it in as little as three hours, accord- low gear only by pressing the clutch pedal
recently made a trip to Beatty via Gold- ing to enthusiasts—if they could drive on to the floor while ascending. William
field in an automobile, running the 100 bladed roads instead of wagon ruts. Pike, a Las Vegas insurance broker,
miles in about eight hours. He thinks it In the spring of 1916, Las Vegas de- solved this by contriving a notched
can be made in five hours over good roads cided to build a road to the mountain as a broomstick which he placed between the
. . . Mr. Rohn has run about 200 miles community project. Each Sunday, Mom seat and the clutch pedal. The “Charles-
over Nevada roads and had only one would pack a picnic basket and load the ton pogo stick” became de rigueur for
breakdown.” kids in the Franklin, which Dad had Ford owners who could relax while their
Las Vegas Age, April 1916: “A car- rigged with hoe, rake, and shovel. Thus sticks held down the clutches.
load of Overland cars left Toledo March armed, families drove to the lumber road
6. Shipment consisted of three large 1916 (roughly US 95) and men and boys joined Great Auto Race, continued on page 6