Before Cannonball Baker: Coast-to-coast in 1903

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Hands up, all of you who have ever driven coast-to-coast. We're thinking of the great American road trip from NY to LA or the other way ’round, but there have of course been numerous incarnations of this grand journey after Erwin ‘Cannonball’ Baker drove his Ace motorcycle from LA to NY in a very impressive 6 days, 22 hours and 52 minutes in 1922.

He’d tackled the same trip in a car before. That was in 1915, when Baker drove a Stutz Bearcat – believed to be the works prototype – in 11 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes over the same route. And there were several further record attempts by the legendary Baker, most notably in a Graham-Paige in 1933, when he set a 53½-hour record time, which lasted for over 30 years (when it was beaten by a Hillman Imp!).

But before Cannonball Baker there had been the car seen here: a 2-cylinder 20 hp Winton, driven by Horatio Jackson and Sewall Crocker from San Francisco to New York in 1903. Born out of a bet, that must have been a real challenge. This earliest recorded coast-to-coast road trip saw few paved roads and even fewer filling stations, but many punctures and even more amazed bystanders. As a matter of fact, they were misdirected at an early stage a grand total of 108 miles when they asked for the road (mind you – there were no good maps available either) and a lady sent them in the wrong direction so that her family could see a car.

After they bought a bulldog as a travelling companion in Idaho, the press got to know of this intrepid trio. Jackson, Crocker and their dog, named Bud, soon became celebrities, being awaited by reporters at every stop, one of these shown here. Eventually, it took them 63 days to reach New York. Jackson later donated his car to the Smithsonian Institution, and it is still on permanent display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: source unknown

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