3. Monumental Highway - 1917 Getting Ready To Go

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

(We are following a 1917 road trip taken by Dolph Andrus and Dr. W.C. Hopkins, with details provided by Berwyn Andrus, son of Dolph, from Dolph's memoirs.)

 

Previous “chapters” in this story are

 

1HERE

and 2HERE

in that order.

 

We return to the Motor Men of 1917 as they prepare for the blazing of the Monumental Highway, which is part of the Navajo Trail, and sections of today’s US160, US163, and US89 in Arizona and Utah.

 

In addition to being principal of schools at Bluff, Utah, Dolph Andrus may have been postmaster as well, because he persuades his wife, Irene, to “take care of the post office” in his absence, as he prepares for the trip to blaze the Monumental Highway.

 

When we launch an auto trip today, we don’t even think of carrying spare spark plugs or steering knuckles, but when the Motor Men of 1917 set off they carried:

 

“…..spare parts for every part of the car in danger of wearing out or breaking, extra front and rear springs, extra carburetor, two spare tires, box of patches, boots, and inner tubes, two five gallon cans for extra gas, axe, shovel, pick etc.”

 

The list is not unusual for the time, and resembles what transcontinental travelers were advised in period Automobile Blue Books to carry…..and like Dolph and Hopkins, they often needed everything! For example, one comment that frequently appears in early diving accounts is that a spring is broken and needs to be repaired or replaced. Take a look at the photo below provided by Berwyn Andrus, taken of the Maxwell on a grade along the Monumental Highway. Is it any wonder springs broke!

 

 

 

The photo above was taken (according to Berwyn) in 1916, in an initial effort by Dolph to determine if the Maxwell was up to the task of making the trip. Berwyn indicates that the photo was taken on Comb Ridge and that Dolph had “the Hyde boy” meet him with a team. If this was taken on Comb Ridge, I think it may be possible to determine a location for the photo, based on General Land Office Plat maps of the area. (We’ll come back to that in another post if I am at all successful.)

 

In addition to the spare parts, Dolph and Hopkins carried a PULL-U-OUT which Dolph describes as follows:

 

“The prize piece of equipment was a device called THE PULL-U-OUT. Dr. Hopkins insisted on calling it the PULL-ME-UP. It consisted of a drum turned by a crank. The drum wound up the cable of a block and tackle. One end of the cable was to be fastened to the front axle of the car and the other end fastened to three steel stakes driven into the ground. This was for bad places that we might encounter where there was no help.”

 

Elsewhere in his memoirs Dolph draws a picture of the PULL U OUT or the PULL ME UP in action:

 

 

 

The photo below is of the PULL U OUT in action.

 

 

In addition to the spare parts and the PULL U OUT, they had the assistance of a horse! Well that is two thirds true….for part of the trip they would be accompanied by a horseman familiar with the trail so that they would not get lost, and they also had the benefit of a team and buckboard between Mexican Hat and Kenyata. Dolph explains:

 

“Mr. Raplee sent his hired man with team and buckboard to help us as far as Kayenta. He left ahead of us and would meet us at the Oil Camp as previous experience had shown that we could go that far without help. A Mr. Harrison went along, on his horse so that if a question of the route to take came up he could ride ahead and scout a way to go. He also went as far as Kayenta. He also went ahead to meet us at the Oil Camp which was also called Douglas Camp.”

 

This “adventure” is as much one for me as it may be for those who read it. I am sharing this material as I receive, read, and appreciate it, so bear with me. There may be some backtracking and rethinking, or retelling as I learn more, and Berwyn fills in the blanks. My thinking is that if I wait to tell the story until it is all clear and polished, it may never get told, and it is too good to go unappreciated.

 

It will be helpful as we follow the Motor Men of 1917 to have maps, so as we take this trip with Dolph and Hopkins, I will try to provide more ASAP

 

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

[DennyG]

Definitely a fun follow even though I don't know the area at all.

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

Definitely a fun follow even though I don't know the area at all.

 

Denny,

 

I really appreciate your interest and come back! I have come to realize that many do not “recognize” the four corners area, Monument Valley, and the northern Arizona, Southern Utah area….not from first hand experience anyway.

 

I have struggled with how to present this auto trip. There is no parallel in your mid west, no venerable stone bridges, no white mile posts, no old taverns, or ancient brick pavement. And I doubt any forum member lives within a 200 miles of anywhere on the route of the Motor Men of 1917…. although a couple have visited.

 

Our images of the area come from John Wayne movies, or spectacular photos on calendars, or from our own Ara and Spirit. This country is so rugged the General Land Office surveyor who was assigned to map the township that includes Bluff left the western half of the plat blank, and scrawled the words “IMPASSABLE CLIFFS” in the blank space! The first photo above is of crossing one of the impassable cliffs (Comb Ridge) in a car in 1916! Good maps are very few and far between, if they exist at all.

 

This road is unlike any other we have discussed here. Instead of service stations, it had trading posts. Not an inch was paved. There was one bridge on the whole 300 + miles of the Monumental Highway. There were no developed camp grounds, and the auto clubs didn’t even recognize much of the area on maps until the late 1920’s! Yet, the roads the Motor Men blazed are major US numbered highways today.

 

We’ll just have to see who the story “grabs.”

 

Dave

 

[mobilene]

I am thoroughly enjoying following this story, Dave; unfortunately, I'm a bit overloaded personally at the moment and so have not been able to reply as usual. jim

[roadhound]

Denny,

 

We’ll just have to see who the story “grabs.”

 

Dave

 

You've grabbed my interest Dave. I've only traveled through the Monument Valley area once, and it was 20 years ago, but I've read enough Edward Abbey to have a good idea what the terrain is like. It is not hard to imagine how inhospitable the land would be to an early model automobile or present day one for that matter.