On This Day

Wednesday 9th June 1909

111 years ago

Alice Huyler Ramsey (22), housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey began a 3,800 mile journey from Hell's Gate in Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California in a green Maxwell 30. On her fifty-nine day trek she was accompanied by two older sisters-in-law and another female friend, none of whom could drive a car. They arrived amid great fanfare on August 7 1909. The drive was originally meant as a publicity stunt for Maxwell-Briscoe, the carmaker. At that time, women were not encouraged to drive cars. The group of women used maps from the American Automobile Association to make the journey. Only 152 of the 3,600 miles (244 of the 5,767 kilometres) the group traveled were paved. Over the course of the drive, Ramsey changed 11 tyres, cleaned the spark plugs, repaired a broken brake pedal and had to sleep in the car when it was stuck in mud. The women mostly navigated by using telephone poles, following the poles with more wires in hopes that they would lead to a town. Along the way Ramsey received a case of bedbugs from a Wyoming hotel, and in Nevada they were surrounded by a Native American hunting party with bows and arrows drawn. Ramsey was named the "Woman Motorist of the Century" by AAA in 1960. In later years, she lived in West Covina, California, where in 1961 she wrote and published the story of her journey, “Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron”.