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Alan Todd is a 35-year newspaper veteran who lives in Ouray County. He can be reached at alanrosstodd5@yahoo.com.
Alan Todd is a 35-year newspaper veteran who lives in Ouray County. He can be reached at alanrosstodd5@yahoo.com.
While motoring through the work week, a couple from Kansas City walked into my shop in Ouray. They told me that they had taken one trip in their Jeep into the high country earlier this week when they heard a funny noise coming from the engine.
They limped into the local mechanic, then rented a Jeep so they could have wheels.
Your average mechanical problems these days don’t draw attention. In the early days of the automobile in Colorado, however, just driving what we consider a short distance was a big, big deal.
The automobile was gaining ground in the state in 1899.
“Denver at last has an automobile factory. Mr. Robert Temple, of the Temple machine shops on Wazee street near Fifteenth street invented and built the first Denver automobile. It is an advertising and band wagon and will hold about twelve people. It is run by two gasoline engines of six horse power each, the power being furnished by the combustion of the gas. Mr. Temple will soon be turning out a large number of them,” wrote The Avalanche in Echo.
The automobile was beginning to transform the West.
“The Santa Fe railroad has made a contract with a local manufacturing company for the construction of a number of automobile stage coaches to be used in transporting sightseers from its station at Flagstaff, Arizona, to the neighboring canons. The coaches will have a capacity of eighteen passengers each. A fourteen-horse power gasoline engine will furnish the power and it is claimed will propel the vehicles up the steep mountain grades with ease,” reported the Rocky Ford Enterprise
The acquisition of an automobile was cause for big headlines, especially when it arrived in poor condition.
“A doctor was called. Machinist necessary for the first automobile in camp,” blared the headline in The Morning Times.
“The poor thing is sick. Colonel Welty, of the Palace Stables, offered to feed it – Mr. J. Wolff, the well-known real estate man, brings an automobile to camp. The first automobile to arrive in Cripple Creek came in on the cars and for the present the brute is in the hospital. Colonel Welty, of the firm of Welty & Faulkner, of the Palace Stables, tried to have it stop at his barn in order to feed the poor thing, but the owner would not have it, and it must be hungry still. It was made in Kokomo, Ind., and cost an even $1,200, with freight added. The little engine the machine carries was thrown out of position on the journey, but most capable physicians are now in charge, and the horseless buggy will most likely be moving before noon today.”
Cross-country trips were being attempted by automobile at the end of the 19th Century, and reported on with the attention given the sailing ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean centuries prior. In 1899, the report of an automobile trip by Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Cabler from Denver to Cripple Creek was reported in dozens of newspapers across the state.
“Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Cabler started from Denver yesterday in an automobile for this city, and were to arrive today – at least that was the calculation, but it will not arrive. It is stuck in the sand somewhere about Sedalia. The horseless carriage started bravely, but at last accounts it had only reached Sedalia, and it is presumed that the sandy wastes on the road interfered with its progress,” wrote The Morning Times.
Still riveted, the Times reported on the progress the next day.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cabler are still trying. They will doubtless succeed if perseverance and gasoline hold out, and eternity doesn’t set in too soon.”
As much as the automobile was somewhat of a novelty in the beginning, it didn’t take long for the public to give in to its eventuality. With its acceptance also came hatred for the dreaded big oil company.
“The automobile is pushing to the front. It is yet an imperfect vehicle, just as was for many years the bicycle; but it will be improved and perfected and ultimately it is bound to drive the horse entirely off the streets of our cities and become a usual means of locomotion even on country roads. It is not pleasant, however, to reflect that when this has been achieved the automobile will be simply one more luxury or prime necessity in civilized life in which the owner or operator will be entirely in the grasp of that soulless monopoly, the Standard Oil company,” wrote the Greely Tribune.
And, along with acceptance came the common, yet reluctant, acceptance of the word “automobile” into the daily lexicon, according to the Park County Bulletin.
“‘Automobile’ is indeed a mongrel word, half Greek, half Latin, but having come into general use, it has gained nine points of the law, and may be looked upon as a fixture in the language. It is included in the Century Dictionary, which gives examples of its use in Greer’s Dictionary of Electricity, and the Scientific American. The disposition to shorten it to ‘auto’ is nearly as vulgar as the degradation of bicycle to ‘bike.’”
Sources: The Avalanche, Echo, July 13, 1899; Rocky Ford Enterprise, Jan. 26, 1899; The Morning Times, July 22 and July 23, 1899; The Greeley Tribune, Aug. 24, 1899; Park County Bulletin, Oct. 6, 1899.
Alan Todd is a 35-year newspaper veteran and board member of the Ouray County Historical Society. He lives in Ouray County and can be reached at alanrosstodd5@yahoo.com.
Alan Todd is a 35-year newspaper veteran who lives in Ouray County. He can be reached at alanrosstodd5@yahoo.com.
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