"OILFIELD DODGE" – In this highly entertaining promotional film for Dodge Brothers automobiles, a 1920s vintage sedan takes us on a wild ride down deeply rutted muddy roads, negotiating its way over very rough terrain on the way to its destination at a gushing oil well. In 1920, out of the three million miles of road across the continent, only 36,000 miles were considered “auto-friendly” (and that is not to say that those were paved, just “friendly”). Even the famous Route 66 wasn’t completely paved until 1937. Today, according to Wikipedia, there are 2,605,331 miles of paved and still 1,375,486 miles of unpaved roads in the U.S. In contrast to our modern autos (with all their features and technology unimaginable in 1920), cars of that era were crude. But they had advantages that let them negotiate rugged terrain that would stop a modern car in its tracks. Their comparative ultra light weight, extremely high ground clearance, large-diameter wheels with narrow tires, very long suspension travel, and low gearing allowed them to plow through deep mud, climb over low obstacles, and ford shallow streams, as well as to climb steep grades and even flights of stairs. Even in the 1950s and 60s, cars still had the ability to go where some SUVs today can’t. I recall my father and his older brother having gone off on an afternoon “expedition” to the Devil’s Nest – a wild area of high bluffs, deep ravines and dense brush that overlooks Lewis and Clark Lake on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River behind Gavins Point Dam at Yankton. When suppertime came, and they hadn’t, my mother expressed concern that they may have gotten stuck somewhere. “You never know,” laughed my aunt Edna, “They drive their cars where you and I wouldn’t ride horseback!” Here’s a link to the 1920s promotional film for Dodge (courtesy of YouTube)… youtube/watch?v=nq2jY1trxqg
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 23:23:30 +0000
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