The Colonel Burns It Up On The Dixie Overland

[drivetheost]

Breaking All Records

 

 

Eighty years ago this week, Col. Ed Fletcher broke the existing transcontinental speed record by 11 hours and 56 minutes.

 

The cross-country race started as a dare by Fletcher's son, Ed Jr. But Fletcher raced for bigger reasons.

 

As the Moses of Southern California's good roads movement, Fletcher boosted almost any highway that moved cars toward San Diego.

 

The Dixie Overland Highway (DOH), a sunny diagonal between Savannah and San Diego, promised much but needed work to make it a sturdy all-weather highway.

 

The cross-country run presented a perfect publicity stunt to bring attention to the fledgling road.

 

The San Diego Chamber of Commerce offered to bankroll the trip, but Fletcher declined.

 

With cash from the sale of his Henshaw Dam -- they didn't call him the "millionaire water king" for nothing -- Fletcher underwrote the race, saying it was his "personal contribution to Southern California's development."

 

To make the run Fletcher looked no farther than his garage, selecting the old "family car," a Cadillac sedan with over 17,000 miles.

 

The car carrying Fletcher, his son, Milton Jackson, LaVerne Kingsbury, and mechanic G.E. Graves, left San Diego on October 20, just a few hours before dawn.

 

Wire reports of an approaching hurricane off the coast of Puerto Rico rushed them to early departure, and rain shadowed their trail all the way to the Atlantic.

 

Averaging 50 mph, the car reached Phoenix in eight hours, later to get caught in a big cloudburst that knocked out bridges between Tucson and Bisbee.

 

The race nearly came to a dead end when the racers hit the swirling San Pedro River near Wilcox. But with a telephone call four horses appeared to help the car cross the river.

 

Wiring ahead, Fletcher got the OK from state, county and local police agencies to break all speed laws. Fort Worth gave him the green light to streak through their city at the unheard-of 55 mph.

 

A crowd of 2,500 mobbed the Cadillac when it stopped in downtown Dallas for refueling. Three men pulled the crew out, and rushed them into a hotel for a shower, a rubdown and a meal -- all accomplished within 40 minutes.

 

Fletcher's "race against time" ended when the speed demon, escorted by a column of motor cops, roared into Savannah at 3:15 am on October 23.

 

Always willing to outsize his role in history, Fletcher believed the run brought federal attention to the DOH and led to its official recognition as U.S. 80.

 

The Cadillac corporation liked the story and offered Fletcher a new seven-passenger sedan in exchange for the record-breaking family car.

 

Fletcher, naturally, accepted.

 

JWKSM

[Alex Burr - hester_nec]

Breaking All Records

Eighty years ago this week, Col. Ed Fletcher broke the existing transcontinental speed record by 11 hours and 56 minutes.

 

The cross-country race started as a dare by Fletcher's son, Ed Jr. But Fletcher raced for bigger reasons.

 

As the Moses of Southern California's good roads movement, Fletcher boosted almost any highway that moved cars toward San Diego.

 

The Dixie Overland Highway (DOH), a sunny diagonal between Savannah and San Diego, promised much but needed work to make it a sturdy all-weather highway.

 

The cross-country run presented a perfect publicity stunt to bring attention to the fledgling road.

 

The San Diego Chamber of Commerce offered to bankroll the trip, but Fletcher declined.

 

With cash from the sale of his Henshaw Dam -- they didn't call him the "millionaire water king" for nothing -- Fletcher underwrote the race, saying it was his "personal contribution to Southern California's development."

 

To make the run Fletcher looked no farther than his garage, selecting the old "family car," a Cadillac sedan with over 17,000 miles.

 

The car carrying Fletcher, his son, Milton Jackson, LaVerne Kingsbury, and mechanic G.E. Graves, left San Diego on October 20, just a few hours before dawn.

 

Wire reports of an approaching hurricane off the coast of Puerto Rico rushed them to early departure, and rain shadowed their trail all the way to the Atlantic.

 

Averaging 50 mph, the car reached Phoenix in eight hours, later to get caught in a big cloudburst that knocked out bridges between Tucson and Bisbee.

 

The race nearly came to a dead end when the racers hit the swirling San Pedro River near Wilcox. But with a telephone call four horses appeared to help the car cross the river.

 

Wiring ahead, Fletcher got the OK from state, county and local police agencies to break all speed laws. Fort Worth gave him the green light to streak through their city at the unheard-of 55 mph.

 

A crowd of 2,500 mobbed the Cadillac when it stopped in downtown Dallas for refueling. Three men pulled the crew out, and rushed them into a hotel for a shower, a rubdown and a meal -- all accomplished within 40 minutes.

 

Fletcher's "race against time" ended when the speed demon, escorted by a column of motor cops, roared into Savannah at 3:15 am on October 23.

 

Always willing to outsize his role in history, Fletcher believed the run brought federal attention to the DOH and led to its official recognition as U.S. 80.

 

The Cadillac corporation liked the story and offered Fletcher a new seven-passenger sedan in exchange for the record-breaking family car.

 

Fletcher, naturally, accepted.

 

JWKSM

 

I don't have the exact times to hand but in September 1916, 90 years ago, Hudson set a transcontinental record with a new Super-Six model of 5 days and change from San Francisco to New York, much of it over what would become the Lincoln Highway. After a few hours rest, they turned the car around and drove it back to Frisco in about 5 days and change (seems to me it took them about an hour or so longer) WITH NO MAJOR REPAIRS TO THE CAR!!!!!

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

[Dave Reese]

Thanks Alex for another Hudson Highlight. And by the way, on 10.29.1954, the last 1954 Hudson is produced - many consider this the end of the “real” Hudson, although the marque continued to be produced until 1957 as a badge-engineered Nash

[drivetheost]

I don't have the exact times to hand but in September 1916, 90 years ago, Hudson set a transcontinental record with a new Super-Six model of 5 days and change from San Francisco to New York, much of it over what would become the Lincoln Highway. After a few hours rest, they turned the car around and drove it back to Frisco in about 5 days and change (seems to me it took them about an hour or so longer) WITH NO MAJOR REPAIRS TO THE CAR!!!!!

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

 

Alex-

 

Thanks for the tip. We've come across loads of cross-country road races, but not this one.

 

Claims of "first to" across the continent reached a high in the mid-teens. Skim any c.1915 newspaper and you'll be delighted to read about the first man to cross the country "witouth hands," etc. It almost reached the absurd.

 

Fletcher and company made the run relatively unscathed. The Cadillac ran on Kelly-Springfield Balloon tires that were punctured three times by nails, but no blowouts.

 

JWM