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Allegedly Jackson made a $50 bet that he could drive from San Francisco to New York in less than 90 days. Learn about the driver, the mechanic and the sidekick who took the epic journey. Mr. Crocker is a devotee of the new machines and expert as a chauffeur. Kesling's entourage will roughly follow the route taken by Jackson through the Sacramento Valley, past Mount Shasta into Alturas, through Oregon and then swinging eastward toward the Rockies. He also writes about the cannabis industry, outdoor adventure, Native American issues and the culture of the West. The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental motor route, created in 1913. Louise Davis wrote of their attempt, The automobile is a treacherous animal for a long trip.. Early life and medical career [ edit] Crocker made repairs, but a fuel leak caused them to lose all of their available gasoline, and Jackson rented a bicycle for Crocker to travel 25 miles (40km) to Burns, Oregon, for fuel. This article about a historical documentary film is a stub. Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip TV Movie 2003 TV-G 1 h 47 m IMDb RATING 8.0 /10 546 YOUR RATING Rate Documentary Adventure History The saga of Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first man to cross the United States by automobile--in 1903! They often [1] He married Bertha Richardson Wells, the daughter of William Wells, a Medal of Honor recipient and one of the richest men in Vermont as a partner in Wells, Richardson & Co., manufacturer of Paine's Celery Compound, a popular patent medicine. They have been very short & dear ones to me. Churning dust irritated Buds eyes, and Jackson purchased this pair of goggles for him. Here they prepare to light the acetylene gas headlamps. When Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson wagered in May 1903 that he could drive from San Francisco to New York in 90 days, there were only 150 miles of paved road in the entire country. The trip began after a discussion in a San Francisco mens club as to the feasibility of a transcontinental auto crossing. The only mishap happened just east of Buffalo, New York, when the Vermont ran into a hidden obstacle in the road and Jackson, Crocker, and Bud were thrown from the car. You have done everything in the world to make me happy.I shall just tear up the ground until I can be with you. Jackson is a "wealthy Vermont gentleman" who bet $3,000 on trip. H. Nelson Jackson (Vermont physician) In the spring of 1903, at a time when many people thought that the automotive industry had no future and that cars were merely an invention aimed at fun, Jackson accepted a $50 bet to prove that it was possible to drive a car from San Francisco to New York City. more than 30 times. I want to celebrate here by getting my new parts. Even before roads stretched across the nation, well-publicized cross-country automobile trips advertised car manufacturers, promoted political causes, and proved Jackson's bold adventure in a horseless carriage in many ways created the America we live in today, filled with a network of highways, thousands of motels, fast-food joints at every intersection and SUVs. At 4:30 a.m. on July 26, 1903, Jackson and Crocker crossed the Harlem River into Manhattan to their final destination of the Holland House Hotel. 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Let's share the joy of discovery together. The rough trek towards Oregon required them to haul the car across deep streams with the block and tackle. [1] Another brother, Hollister Jackson, served as Lieutenant governor of Vermont. At their next stop, Jackson had to wire his wife to send them money to Cheyenne, Wyoming. His wife, though supportive of the trip, opted for a much easier train ride home to Vermont. The automobile was about to transform American life. Many days of travel are lost as they sit waiting for repair parts to arrive via train or stagecoach. Jackson chose a cherry red 1903 Winton Company touring car. What roads did exist, were holdovers from the wagon train trading routes of the 1850s, 60s, and 70s the Old West of cowboy and Indian lore. Browse letters written by Horatio Nelson Jackson to his wife while on the road, and newspaper articles written about Jackson's epic trip. They were also given a 108-mile (174km) misdirection by a woman so that she could send them to the spot where her family could see an automobile.[6]. Sponsored by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the trip began and ended in New When the Winton needed repairs, they telegraphed the factory for parts and awaited delivery by railroad. Jackson was possessed of a deep thirst for adventure, and his remarkable story chronicles the very beginning of the restless road trips that soon became a way of life in America. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States. Many days of the journey, especially in the beginning, were spent parked in a town awaiting replacement parts to arrive via stagecoach or train so they they could continue on. [8] Jackson had wanted a dog companion since Sacramento. The state of Vermont was so alarmed that it passed a law requiring every auto to be preceded down the street with a person waving a red flag. Constantly working in the face of heavy machine-gun and shell fire, Major Jackson was most devoted in his attention to the wounded, always present in the line of advance, directing the administering of first aid, and guiding the work of litter bearers. Jackson and Crocker set off from San Francisco at 1 p.m. on May 23, 1903. Sign up to get updates about the film and future projects from Ken Burns and Florentine Films. At the time there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire country, all of them within city limits. she drove a Maxwell touring car from New York to San Francisco in 59 days. The fateful bet was made during a club room discussion on May 19, 1903, when Jackson and his wife were on a stopover in San Francisco after they had traveled to Mexico and Alaska looking at potential mining investments. In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the . Nelson Jackson, a physician and businessman from Burlington, Vermont, captured the nation's attention when he and Sewall K. Crocker, a mechanic, drove from California to New York. Jackson described the mostly unmarked paths he was forced to bounce over as "a compound of ruts, bumps and thank-you-marms.". Sign up for my occasional email updates! York City. The trip, sparked by a $50 gentlemen's wager, took 63 days. Funding provided by General Motors, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, and the Park Foundation. In honor of its achievement it was decorated with tiny flags and draped with national standards. At one point, Bud drank bad water and became ill, but survived. It took five months, and covered more than 10,000 miles. This article related to a made-for-TV documentary film is a stub. Bud was a young, light-colored bulldog who immediately added life to the journey. Horatio's Drive America's First Road Trip In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled "horseless carriage." [1] His siblings included John Holmes Jackson, who served several terms as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. The journey was arduous and slow, but their trip made headlines wherever they went. Doctors were outnumbered by blacksmiths and most Americans rarely traveled than twelve miles from home because that was the distance a horse-and-wagon could cover to take them out and back home again in a single day. Jacob Murdock and his family drove from Pasadena to New York City in just 32 days. Yesterday the framer drove in for miles to see my machine and there has been a hundred people around the livery stable since our arrival. Jackson and Crocker were en route, but could not overtake them. Horatio's Drive is the first chapter in our nation's great romance with the road. "Why did you send us way down there?" 5 at three this afternoon, but a message this noon from the train agent says that he has nothing, so it is another day. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States. From there on, they were able to use a few paved roads, and their trip was much easier. All attempts heretofore to go overland in an automobile have come to grief either through the machines breaking down or because long stretches of sand were encountered through which the horseless carriages could make no headway. His two brothers, each driving his own automobile, came to help him get going again. Wilson Alwyn Bentley was born on February 9, 1865, in Jericho, Vermont. Explore the Winton touring car, which Jackson took on his historic trip. It has been an awful long time to us and I shall be mighty glad when we are on the way again and unless another serious accident happens we ought to be able to make good time across these plainsWell, tomorrow is our anniversary & I wish I could be with you. Nell Richardson, Alice Burke, and the Golden Flier, 1916. In 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson, a doctor from Vermont, was in San Francisco with his wife when he made a bet. We left Caldwell at eight oclock and after running a few miles out of town I found that I had forgotten my coat. Soon enough though, while traveling though the alkali flats of eastern Oregon and Idaho, they noticed that the harsh environment irritated Buds eyes. I asked her. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States. The Jackson party left Chicago at noon Saturday and arrived in Cleveland at 5:00 p.m. Monday, remarkably good time for notoriously bad roads which had been rendered worse by continued hard rains. Except for its heavy coat of mud and dilapidated front tires, the car is little the worse for its rough usage. Take good care of yourself & dont worry. "A few people saw it as the wave of the future," Duncan said. I came pretty nearly having cold feet. Dr. Jackson left his practice after a diagnosis of tuberculosis. Driving an automobile from coast to coast in 1903 was a difficult and daring achievement. It started with an animated chat and a $50 bet over drinks at the University Club in San Francisco 100 years ago and culminated in a bumpy cross- country car trip on rudimentary roads with a bicycle mechanic and a dog wearing goggles riding shotgun. (You can see a few clips on the PBS website.) So many windmills! Challenged by a sales manager for Maxwell automobiles, There are no maps, no roads, no repair shops. Having resupplied the best they could, they struck back out onto the open roader,open range. It is Near Soda Springs in Caribou County Idaho, 3. The jaunt will not only be a trip back in history, but a clash of early 20th and 21st century technologies. They left from New York and traveled so slowly that a one-armed bicyclist who started 10 days after them passed them before they made it to Syracuse at which point they abandoned the attempt. 2023 Behind Every Day - WordPress Theme by Kadence WP. Here we were advised to changed our course a little and take the left hand road of the R. R. One old fellow said keep to the left road. Horatio Jackson's Winton in the Smithsonian. Traveled at 40 mph, and "said they sometimes spurted up to 60 miles an hour.". Dr. H. Nelson Jackson and Sewall K. Crocker (and Bud!) They left San Francisco on May 23, 1903, loaded with gear and enthusiasm. While crossing the Rocky Mountains, they were moving boulders by hand out of their path. Both the Packard and Oldsmobile companies sent their respective automobiles from California with hope of passing Jackson and claiming the title for first automobile to travel across the U.S. , It took 63 days to complete the journey, during which the trek merged with present-day Highway 30 near Pocatello, Idaho, and followed it into Soda Springs, Idaho, and finally into Granger, Wyoming. Somewhere along this route, Jackson lost a pair of his glasses. Horatio Jackson's Winton in the Smithsonian, 5. a tow. Yet the young retired doctor, along with a mechanical assistant and a dog, took up the . But only 15 miles (24km) into the journey, the car blew a tire. On their arrival, the mud besmirched and travel stained vehicle which had borne them so faithfully and sturdily over fifty-six hundred miles of roads between the Pacific and the Atlantic was housed in a garage in West 58th Street. Jackson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on March 25, 1872, a son of Samuel Nelson Jackson (1838-1913) and Mary Anne (Parkyn) Jackson (1843-1916). There had to be an easier way to win a $50 bet. Jackson and S.K. One hundred years ago, on May 23, 1903, an eccentric doctor from Vermont named Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car, hoping to become the first . In addition to owning and publishing the Burlington Daily News, he was head of the Burlington Trust Company, and owned and operated radio station WCAX (now WVMT). Watch me now come to you.Nel. Crocker of Seattle, both of whom are at the Palace ready for the journey. Subsequently, their mileage took a sharp increase andtheir rate of trail damage sharply decreased. On June 6th however, the car finally suffered a severe mechanical issue forcing them to stop all forward progress near Burns, Oregon for several days. History of Ballooning The first exhibit tells about the history of ballooning from 1783 to the current day. Explore a chronology of the invention of the automobile. By 1900, he had given up his medical practice and was happily spending his wife Bertha's money on property, travel, horses and, most recently, automobiles. The Vermont native had married the daughter of a decorated Civil War general who was one of the richest men in Burlington. He'd Have to Get Under Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile), "The First Cross-Country Road Trip Took 2 Men and a Pitbull 63 Days", "Three Transports in with Men and Supplies", "Col. Jackson, Legion's Father in Vt., Is Dead", "Persons from Many Parts of Vt. to Attend Col. Jackson's Funeral", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horatio_Nelson_Jackson&oldid=1135349527, Bertha Richardson Wells (m. 1899 d. 1954), first U.S. cross country trip by automobile, This page was last edited on 24 January 2023, at 03:30. At Hailey, Idaho, Crocker wired the Winton Company for more parts. When the travelers reached Omaha, Nebraska on July 12 they were able to stitch together a few paved roads in between the stretches of older wagon trails. The film features many old songs, framed by a popular number from 1914 called "He'd Have to Get Under Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)". Horatio Jackson, Sewall Crocker, Bud and the "Vermont", Photographed By Barry Swackhamer, October 19, 2018, 4. Horatio Nelson Jackson (March 25, 1872 - January 14, 1955) was an American automobile pioneer. "They've never seen an automobile. )[11], A longtime member of the Vermont National Guard when World War I broke out, Jackson was considered too old for active service, but he contacted former President Theodore Roosevelt (whom he had met at some point in Burlington), through whose influence Jackson was placed on active duty as a captain in the Medical Corps. But, 2 days after the bet, Horatiofinalized the purchase of his first car, a Winton that he dubbed The Vermont after his home state. "HORATIO CAM" DIGITAL FOOTAGE Allen Moore ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Susanna Steisel COORDINATING PRODUCER Pam Tubridy Baucom FIELD PRODUCER Craig Mellish NARRATED BY Keith David THE VOICE OF HORATIO. I had to know more! H. Nelson Jackson, a physician and businessman from Burlington, Vermont, captured the nations attention when he and Sewall K. Crocker, a mechanic, drove from The rough and tumble wagon trails which they followed, combined with the noisiness of their Winton, rendered them unable to tell when they would lose valuable items off the back of the car. He purchased a 1903 Winton Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Hi, Im Sheila laid-back, sometimes creative, a little curious, and always ready for a last-minute adventure. Thankfully, they could then manage about 250 miles a day. Besides his medical practice, Jackson was an auto enthusiast who differed with the then-prevailing wisdom that the automobile was a passing fad and a recreational plaything. Whether or not a bet was really made, it did happen rather suddenly. After suffering a flat tire on the bicycle, he returned with 4 US gallons (15L) of fuel (which Jackson complained cost him "nearly twenty dollars"), and they returned to Burns to fill up.[6]. Its subject is the first cross-country automobile journey in the United States, which occurred during the summer of 1903. Peter Fimrite is The Chronicle's lead science reporter, covering environmental, atmospheric and ecosystem science. My darling Swipes,Just a line to say that I am still alive Our things arrived this morning & we held divine services in the Blacksmith shop. After leaving New York City Jackson joined his wife and drove home to Vermont. I have lost 5 days. The finishing dash over the plains to the East Coast was as much a struggle with the "buffalo wallows" as it was with the car, but in the end Jackson was not to be denied. The public's perception of this newfangled conveyance took a deep public relations dive on Sept. 13, 1899, when Henry H. Bliss stepped off a streetcar in Manhattan and was flattened by an electric-powered taxicab, becoming the first automobile fatality in the country. This is a bad start for our first eleven days out. Thanks for stopping by my campfire to share a story. Everything that can break has broken already.". Somewhere near Caldwell, Idaho, Jackson and Crocker obtained a dog, a bulldog named Bud. Once underway again, it was only 3 days later that they ran out of oil. Before leaving, the machine will have a thorough overhauling and be put into condition for fast running.