Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

In 1903, a dinner guest at the prestigious University Club in San Francisco, Vermont Dr. Horatio Jackson, took up a bet that said that he would not be able to drive one of those newfangled automobiles to New York City in less than three months. Now, this was in the days before expressways or highways or even descent roads! But, Horatio Jackson was a man of limitless energy (and deep pockets), so in four days he got himself a car (a Winton touring car), supplies and an assistant-driver, and he was off! Facing bad road, no roads, no maps, sharp rocks, deep rivers, rapacious store owners and bad directions, Jackson and compatriots (he picked up a bulldog in Idaho) overcame all obstacles and won the bet!This is a surprisingly good book! I mean, you may not believe it, but the authors succeed in taking this subject and making a positively gripping book. I absolutely loved the many pictures of early automobiles, and the story carried me along, watching each of Horatio's adventures unfold. This is a great book, one that I highly recommend.

The authors narrate this own companion to the PBS documentary about the first 1903 automobile trip across the US. There were only 150 miles of paved roads in those days - but Horatio Jackson bet fifty dollars that he could drive his 20-horsepower auto from San Francisco to New York City - and his endeavor comes to life in this vivid audio memoir.

As the great grandson of Horatio Nelson Jackson and knowing the story intimately, (Used for many a book report in school) I must say what a wonderful job done by Dayton Duncan. To see all the letters and photographs so beautifully displayed initially took my breath away. He has shared the history of the time so well and I also enjoyed his travelling experience with his own father and son. Thank you Dayton. Be sure to watch the Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan PBS movie that is scheduled to air in early October.

The sprint of American adventure and our love affair with the automobile are captured by Dayton Duncan's in his new book, "Horatio's Drive." Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson sets off in 1903 from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled "horseless carriage." Duncan retraces Horatio Nelson Jackson's journey from San Francisco to New York, which personifies the individualistic spirit that Americans admire most. Duncan, himself spent 10 years, while on family vacations, retracing Jackson's momentous journey. The details are presented very well and so vivid that it allows you to ride along. You will meet "Bud" and discover a new meaning for the term "optimistic."If you enjoy history and love a good story, this book has everything. Good Read!

Horatio Nelson Jackson was an intrepid explorer. His exploit should not be ranked, perhaps, with those of Lewis and Clark, or Scott, or Livingstone, but nonetheless, this year we should be celebrating the centennial of his epochal achievement. In 1903, Jackson took the first automobile trip across the United States. The commemoration will include a Public Broadcasting documentary on the trip by Ken Burns, who was persuaded to make the film by his friend Dayton Duncan. The two of them have produced a book to go along with the film, _Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip_ (Knopf), and it is a good-looking and entertaining volume. A hundred years later, anyone can take a car and perform Horatio's Drive in a few days, but in 1903, there were about 150 miles of paved roads in the entire nation, and most of those did not link one town to another. Jackson was a real pioneer.Jackson was a thirty-one-year-old doctor from Burlington, Vermont, and an automobile enthusiast. On 19 May 1903, he was with a bunch of well-to-do men at the University Club in San Francisco. A wager was made; fifty bucks said that no one could drive from San Francisco to New York in less than three months. Jackson accepted immediately; he was on the road four days later. He hired a mechanic, and acquired a mascot, a bulldog named Bud who got his own automobilist goggles. His owner said that Bud was "...the one member of [our] trio who used no profanity on the entire trip." Jackson bought a used Winton for $3,000. It had a two-cylinder, 20 horsepower engine, a chain drive, and top speed of thirty miles an hour. It had no windshield and no roof. Jackson named it the _Vermont_. They bounced along the road, losing important items sometimes, and often they were mired in thick mud. The solution was generally to get a farmer to hitch his horse to the _Vermont_, and then pay the farmer by giving him a ride in the car. Stagecoaches had to bring spare parts. Blacksmiths had to weld parts together. Whenever the car came into a rural town, it caused a sensation. People liked to have their pictures taken as they sat at _Vermont_'s right-sided wheel. It took 63 days, but Jackson made it to New York, and was a sensation.Jackson went on to become the owner of Burlington's first radio station and a bank president. He got ex-president Teddy Roosevelt to get him into the Army for World War One, even though he was too old to enlist. But he loved telling his story about his great drive as the proudest of his accomplishments. In 1944, he donated the _Vermont_ to the Smithsonian, where it will be forever on display, gleaming without a speck of the dust and mud that it picked up in its historic 6,000 mile journey. Bud's goggles were donated, too. For better or worse, we can drive all over our nation now, with little of the trouble Jackson went through, and with little of the adventure or need for his sort of pluck. _Horatio's Drive_ in pictures and words brings back a time