Model T rally to make stop in North Bend
June 27, 2009
By Michael Rowe
The rally started June 14 at New York City Hall, when 55 Model T Fords rolled away from the Big Apple on a trip due west.
On July 10, the historic rally will stop at the Meadowbrook Farm in the Snoqualmie Valley, and residents will have a chance to see the vehicles and meet the drivers.
The rally commemorates a 1909 race — the Ocean-to-Ocean Endurance Race — that ended in Seattle at the Alaska-Pacific-Yukon Exposition. The Model T’s stop at Meadowbrook will be part of the final leg of the 3,900-mile cross-country Centennial Run.
The race started June 1, 1909, when President William Howard Taft pressed a golden telegraph key in Washington to signal the start of the race. The telegraph signal also started the exposition in Seattle. The 1909 race was completed on June 22, 1909, at precisely 12:55 p.m.
The endurance race was a showcase for early automobile technology. In addition to the Model T’s, cars from rival automobile makers tried to make it across the relatively undeveloped roadways of America. The Ford Model T overshadowed the other cars in the race, perhaps hinting at the fate of those carmakers, whose names include Stearns, Acme, Shawmut and Itala.
Participants in the 1909 Ocean-to-Ocean Endurance Race make their way across dirt roads en route to Seattle.
Henry Ford was convinced that his durable, cheap, and lightweight car could make it over the 1909 roads. The Model T’s rivals weighed between 3,500 – 4,600 pounds, whereas the Model T weighed less than 1,000 pounds.
The route of the 1909 race made the course 4,106 miles, and the racers experienced tough driving conditions leading to many breakdowns and interesting stories from the road. For some in the plains of Mid-America and the West, it was their first time to see the automobiles that would reshape American life in less than a generation’s time.
The driving conditions during the race required drivers and mechanics to be self-reliant and creative in solving the problems the racers encountered.
Among the obstacles were miles of mud created by summer rains. Cars were lost in the deserts and badlands. At one point, the two Model T’s in the race were both stuck in quicksand. An observer of the race in Prosser, Wash., who obviously had not been around automobiles much, inadvertently set one of the Model T’s on fire after striking a match on the side of the Ford’s gas tank. Not far from North Bend at Snoqualmie Pass, one of the Ford’s became stuck in four feet of snow until a railway gang came to dig it out.
The winner of the race was a matter of debate at the time. A Model T was the first to cross the finish line, and was declared the winner, with Henry Ford standing by to celebrate the victor of his brand. However, some months later, the Automobile Club of America declared that the Shawmut was the winner of the race, even though it crossed the finish line 17 hours after the Ford.
The Model T that finished the race first had apparently substituted its engine for a new one, an act that was caught because the engine of the car that left White Plains, New York, was stamped by the ACA. Still, an advertising campaign by Ford was largely successful in convincing the public that the Model T was the Winner of the Ocean-to-Ocean race.
Ford’s Model T was in production from 1909-1927, and 15,007,033 of the cars were manufactured.
The route of the 2009 rally mostly follows the original race, with cars stopping in the same towns along the way that they did a century before. In some places, the old roads have disappeared, and participants in the modern rally will use interstate highways. For the most part, though, the original route is the same.
The historic automobiles are scheduled to be at Meadowbrook Farm from noon to 2 p.m. The Pony Boy All-Star Big Band will play music of the era, and there will be a performance by the Snoqualmie Tribe Canoe Family Drum Group.
The event is free to the public. However, there will be a salmon bake lunch catered by the Canoe family. Tickets for the salmon bake are available through July 1 for $10 a person. The tickets can be purchased at North Bend City Hall at 211 Main Avenue North, Snoqualmie City Hall at 8020 Railroad Avenue SE, and at businesses throughout Snoqualmie and North Bend.
Sponsors of the event include King County’s 4Culture, the City of North Bend, the City of Snoqualmie, the Meadowbrook Farm Preservation Association, the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Society. A flyer for the event can be found at the city of Snoqualmie’s Web-site www.cityofsnoqualmie.org. The Model T Ford Club International Centennial Run’s Web-site is at www.oceantoocean.ning.com. The Alaska-Pacific-Yukon Exposition Centennial Celebration’s Web-site is at www.ayp100.org.
Information for this article was gathered from a description of the race on www.oceantoocean.ning.com.
Reach reporter Michael Bayless Rowe at mrowe@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434, ext. 248.
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