Most of us love slot cars either because we love cars, or because we love racing. Maybe both. From the very beginning, automobiles were about racing, and challenges. Invented by a variety of individuals, mostly buggy and bicycle mechanics, they immediately invoked a spirit of adventure. One hundred years ago, two men and a dog started and completed one of the most daring trips ever made on four wheels.
In May 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a Winton touring car, and would become the first person to cross the US by automobile. Keep in mind that there where only 150 miles of paved roads at the time, and the path took him over what is now highway 80, across the Sierras. Also remember that there were no gas stations.
Traveling with his co-driver Sewall K. Crocker and a bulldog named Bud, who wore goggles, just like his master, to keep the dust from his eyes (the dog wouldn't go if the goggles weren't put on properly), Jackson had the adventure of his life. He encountered pioneers in wagon trains, cowboys who used their lariats to tow him out of sand drifts, ranch wives who traded homecooked meals for a brief ride on the "Go-Like-Hell Machine," and people who deliberately sent him miles out of his way just so their relatives could get their first glimpse of an automobile.
Unlike the meticulously planned Lewis and Clark expedition, Jackson took off from San Francisco on a whim after betting $50 at a gentleman's club that he could drive to New York in under 90 days. At the time, he didn't own an automobile.
Four days later, after purchasing a 1903 Winton touring car for $3,000 and hiring a driving companion, mechanic Sewall Crocker, he set off to do what several accomplished motorists before him couldn't. He arrived in New York on July 26, exactly 63 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes after leaving San Francisco.
His car, which he christened the Vermont in honor of his home state, splashed through streams, got stuck in buffalo wallows, bounced over railroad trestles to cross major rivers, and frightened horses on the dusty trails. And as he moved eastward, his quest slowly became a national sensation, with huge crowds (tipped off by the telegraph of his approach) lining the streets of town as he whizzed through at 20 miles per hour. "It Startled the Natives," one headline proclaimed; another announced "A Real Live Auto."
This was America's first transcontinental road trip, and like all road trips that would follow it included the usual mix of breakdowns and flat tires, inedible meals and uncomfortable beds, getting lost and enduring bad weather — and having a truly unforgettable experience crossing the nation's vast landscape. Throughout it all, Jackson's indomitable spirit and sheer enthusiasm was as indispensable as the fuel for his car.
Partway through his improbable journey, Jackson learned that his spur-ofthe-moment trip had turned into something of a race. First the Packard company, and then the Oldsmobile company dispatched their own autos from California in the hopes of passing him and gaining the publicity of being first across the nation. Sixty-three and a half days after leaving San Francisco, Jackson arrived triumphantly into New York City and claimed the honor for himself.
Jackson's 1903 Winton, nicknamed ``Vermont'' after his home state, was donated to the Smithsonian in 1944. It's currently being restored and will be displayed as part of the ``America on the Move'' exhibit that opens in November.
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