| history
image courtesy Ludwig/Svenson Collection
WLM
looking at our beautiful city, for the turn
is easily seen from a long distance on the
highway. During the past four years at
least seven cars have been wrecked on
the turn.
We have often wondered just why a man
will load his family in a car for a two
weeks [sic] outing, and from the minute
he drives away from his home he tries
to break a record on the highway. The
other night we walked down to the local
camp ground and listened in on some
of the conversation that was being had
around the camp fires.
Said one: ‘Do you know, I drove from
Umpty-dumpty Nebraska today in
fourteen hours. Of course, I didn’t have
to stop for a tire change, but if I had I
would have made it almost as quick, for
I have all the latest things with me that
54
makes [sic] a tire change a matter of only
a few minutes. And with my outfit, we
can patch the inter [sic] tube while we are
going along.’
Historical accounts of Wyoming life
glimpsed from the bouncy seats of early
vehicles are shared as well. Motorist Effie
Gladding wrote in 1914 as she headed
toward Wamsutter in Sweetwater County:
“Old tin teakettles, pieces of worn-out
campstools, piles of tin cans; these are
mute and inglorious monuments to the
bivouacs of other days. These immense
Plateau States are very dependent upon
canned foods, and all along tin cans
mark the trail.”
Of particular note in Mr. Franzwa’s book is
the 1919 first Army transcontinental motor
convoy. Then Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D.
Eisenhower accompanied the convoy, which
Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Winter 2013
traveled across Wyoming. The 258 soldiers
and 39 officers outfitted in 73 vehicles, plus
the Goodyear Company band, civilians
and leaders of the LHA were delayed
for a series of days by mud in Nebraska.
Mr. Franzwa shares that while Wyoming
newspapers’ anticipated dates of arrival
of the convoy came and went, the people
were nonetheless happy to see what must
have been a great spectacle pull into their
town. People flocked to hear the band, and
many public dinners were held. In Rawlins,
dozens of local fishermen volunteered
to provide a fish fry, with Red Cross
volunteers manning the fryers. In Medicine
Bow, a large barbeque was to be held,
with “…the most prominent characters in the
Virginian” reproduced, reported the July
31, 1919 Rawlins Republican. Even though it
was delayed, the event was a smash across
the entire state.