Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I'm a writer working on a narrative nonfiction book about a cross-country auto race in 1909 that Ford cheated to win as a way to market the new Model T. One of the key scenes occurred at the Union Pacific crossing of the North Platte River in Fort Steele, Wyo. I'm trying to visualize that location and learn more about the UP operations at that site at that moment in time, and I'm wondering if anyone here might have insight or might otherwise be able to point me to a good source (museum, historian, digital archive, the right book or pamphlet, another forum, etc.) who could help.
To elaborate: the race ran from NYC to Seattle, with the finish line at that year's World's Fair (Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition). Once they got to Wyoming, the racers more or less paralleled the Union Pacific main line from Cheyenne to Granger, then followed the Oregon Short Line into Idaho.
Approaching Fort Steele, a relative-underdog entry called the Shawmut found itself with an unlikely lead over the rest of the field two weeks into the race (6/14/1909), particularly two Model Ts that had been leading most of the way across the country. The Shawmut crew had picked up a good guide in Laramie (Elmer Lovejoy, a Wyoming automotive pioneer) who planned to take them all the way to Rawlins, then hop the train back. Lovejoy knew that the wagon bridge at Fort Steele had recently washed out but that the UP bridge tender was letting motorists who came through (and there weren't many in those days) bump along the ties over the railroad bridge as an interim means of crossing the river.
Except when Lovejoy and the Shawmut crew reached the east bank of the North Platte, they found their way blocked. The bridge tender was joined by an enterprising Ford manager named Charles Hendy (incidentally, or not, a former UP clerk) who'd brought along an armed guard to restrict crossing to drivers with permits from UP headquarters in Nebraska. The Shawmut crew telegraphed for permission ... and then waited 16 hours for a reply. In between, both Fords came up from behind and crossed the bridge -- with their own permits secured in advance by Hendy -- to retake the lead.
I've pieced together my understanding of this scene from multiple newspaper accounts and a frustrated letter sent home from Fort Steele by one of the members of the Shawmut crew. Still, I'm trying to square it with the smattering of photos and drawings I've found of the UP bridge and the UP infrastructure at Fort Steele. I gather there was a small depot, a bridge tender's house, and a water tower -- but all on the west side of the river. Yet the racers would have been coming from the opposite bank. Might there have been a bridge tender or UP employee of some kind on both sides of the river? Or would the one man have gone back and forth between the two banks of the river as needed, perhaps by a hand car or something? (Or was there a pedestrian way alongside this bridge? It's hard to tell from postcard views.) I'm trying to visualize how it came to be that the UP employee there (and is it indeed correct to call him a "bridge tender"?) stopped the Shawmut on the east side/approach before they could cross over the North Platte River into Fort Steele. And this might be dreaming, but is it possible that there are surviving employment records that would indicate who was stationed at Fort Steele for the UP at this point in time?
Also, I'm wondering about the permitting process for crossing a bridge like this with a car, if it would have been standardized and/or if it might indeed have been the kind of thing where a railroad man at a rural outpost would have waved the occasional motorist across as long as no train was coming, with or without a permit. And as egregious as the 16-hour wait seemed in the context of the race, I'm curious how quickly a telegraphed request like that might otherwise have been processed at UP HQ.
For what it's worth, even as this (and a couple of other similarly suspicious episodes) smacked of foul play to the Shawmut team and to locals -- the Laramie newspaper decried it -- this was not actually the way Ford got caught cheating. Instead, the crews were not allowed to replace any major components on their automobiles, and all of those key parts had distinct wax seals/stamps that were going to be inspected at the finish. At some point -- most likely Cokeville -- the Ford that eventually "won" suffered a breakdown; instead of laboring over the engine repair indefinitely, the Ford team swapped out the engine for a new one and sent the car on the road. Then they took their time repairing the original motor and shipped it ahead to Weiser, where it could be swapped back into the leading Model T, so that everything would appear to be kosher when that car crossed the finish line in Seattle. (It took months to sort out what actually happened -- an OSL special agent assisting the Shawmut appeal eventually tracked down the smoking-gun shipping receipt for the Ford engine -- by which point Ford had reaped so much publicity from the victory that scarcely anyone noticed when the company was quietly stripped of the title.)
Anyway, I'd like to write about this as accurately as possible, but circa-1909 railroading is not an area of expertise for me. If anyone is able to offer any illumination, I'd be most grateful. Thanks!
To elaborate: the race ran from NYC to Seattle, with the finish line at that year's World's Fair (Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition). Once they got to Wyoming, the racers more or less paralleled the Union Pacific main line from Cheyenne to Granger, then followed the Oregon Short Line into Idaho.
Approaching Fort Steele, a relative-underdog entry called the Shawmut found itself with an unlikely lead over the rest of the field two weeks into the race (6/14/1909), particularly two Model Ts that had been leading most of the way across the country. The Shawmut crew had picked up a good guide in Laramie (Elmer Lovejoy, a Wyoming automotive pioneer) who planned to take them all the way to Rawlins, then hop the train back. Lovejoy knew that the wagon bridge at Fort Steele had recently washed out but that the UP bridge tender was letting motorists who came through (and there weren't many in those days) bump along the ties over the railroad bridge as an interim means of crossing the river.
Except when Lovejoy and the Shawmut crew reached the east bank of the North Platte, they found their way blocked. The bridge tender was joined by an enterprising Ford manager named Charles Hendy (incidentally, or not, a former UP clerk) who'd brought along an armed guard to restrict crossing to drivers with permits from UP headquarters in Nebraska. The Shawmut crew telegraphed for permission ... and then waited 16 hours for a reply. In between, both Fords came up from behind and crossed the bridge -- with their own permits secured in advance by Hendy -- to retake the lead.
I've pieced together my understanding of this scene from multiple newspaper accounts and a frustrated letter sent home from Fort Steele by one of the members of the Shawmut crew. Still, I'm trying to square it with the smattering of photos and drawings I've found of the UP bridge and the UP infrastructure at Fort Steele. I gather there was a small depot, a bridge tender's house, and a water tower -- but all on the west side of the river. Yet the racers would have been coming from the opposite bank. Might there have been a bridge tender or UP employee of some kind on both sides of the river? Or would the one man have gone back and forth between the two banks of the river as needed, perhaps by a hand car or something? (Or was there a pedestrian way alongside this bridge? It's hard to tell from postcard views.) I'm trying to visualize how it came to be that the UP employee there (and is it indeed correct to call him a "bridge tender"?) stopped the Shawmut on the east side/approach before they could cross over the North Platte River into Fort Steele. And this might be dreaming, but is it possible that there are surviving employment records that would indicate who was stationed at Fort Steele for the UP at this point in time?
Also, I'm wondering about the permitting process for crossing a bridge like this with a car, if it would have been standardized and/or if it might indeed have been the kind of thing where a railroad man at a rural outpost would have waved the occasional motorist across as long as no train was coming, with or without a permit. And as egregious as the 16-hour wait seemed in the context of the race, I'm curious how quickly a telegraphed request like that might otherwise have been processed at UP HQ.
For what it's worth, even as this (and a couple of other similarly suspicious episodes) smacked of foul play to the Shawmut team and to locals -- the Laramie newspaper decried it -- this was not actually the way Ford got caught cheating. Instead, the crews were not allowed to replace any major components on their automobiles, and all of those key parts had distinct wax seals/stamps that were going to be inspected at the finish. At some point -- most likely Cokeville -- the Ford that eventually "won" suffered a breakdown; instead of laboring over the engine repair indefinitely, the Ford team swapped out the engine for a new one and sent the car on the road. Then they took their time repairing the original motor and shipped it ahead to Weiser, where it could be swapped back into the leading Model T, so that everything would appear to be kosher when that car crossed the finish line in Seattle. (It took months to sort out what actually happened -- an OSL special agent assisting the Shawmut appeal eventually tracked down the smoking-gun shipping receipt for the Ford engine -- by which point Ford had reaped so much publicity from the victory that scarcely anyone noticed when the company was quietly stripped of the title.)
Anyway, I'd like to write about this as accurately as possible, but circa-1909 railroading is not an area of expertise for me. If anyone is able to offer any illumination, I'd be most grateful. Thanks!
