more than a wagon with a 12-horsepower engine. But Temple and his passengers—Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Cabler of Denver—drove it into history. Facing a multi-day journey over uneven roads, with no maps or
gasoline stations, in an open motorcar with no windshield, the three adventurers left Union Station on July 21, 1899, and rolled into the mining town of Victor six days later, where the streets were literally paved with low-grade gold ore. During the days in between, the vehicle passed through dying
towns and pine forests, across railroad trestles, along the edge of an unfenced precipice, and over a steep mountain pass—a feat that preceded Henry Ford’s Model T by nearly a decade. “It is an illustration that the East is not ahead of the West,” the
Post opined. “Mr. and Mrs. Cabler undertake the trip to show the automotive experts in Gotham and around the Atlantic Coast, where roads are smooth and level, that a Denver-manufactured automobile can go up a mile or two in the Rocky Mountains without any trouble whatsoever.”
Automotive museums Cussler Museum
Author Clive Cussler’s classic collection includes 1936 Pierce-Arrow V-12 Berlin with Travelodge trailer, a 1932 Stutz Town car and a 1955 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn. Mondays and Tuesdays, May through September. 303-420-2795,
cusslermuseum.com.
Dougherty Museum Collection
This collection of restored antique automobiles in Longmont includes steam and electric cars as well as vehicles built with some of the first internal combustion engines. 303-776-2520,
www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace/dougherty.
Forney Museum
Located in Denver, it houses 500 antique cars, locomotives, buggies, bicycles, motorcycles and some rare and exotic vehicles, including Amelia Earhart’s Kissel Gold Bug and Prince Aly Khan’s Rolls-Royce. 303-297-1113,
www.forneymuseum.com.
Gateway Colorado Auto Museum
Located south of Grand Junction, the collection is displayed in a time-line that represents 100 years of automotive history, from the 1906 Cadillac Model H Coupe to the modern era. 970-931-2895,
www.GatewayAutoMuseum.com.
Shelby American Collection
Based in Boulder, it features the rich racing heritage of Carroll Shelby. 303-516-9565,
http://shelbyamericancollection.org.
In the early 1890s, the
automobile was still a quirky novelty, unreliable and widely scorned. The first U.S. “horseless carriage” had been built only six years earlier and most people in America had never seen one. The first car built in Denver was the Carpenter Electric in 1895, though there is no record of it having been driven in public. Born and educated in England,
Temple moved to Denver in the 1880s, returned to England during World War I to help develop weapons systems, then moved back to Denver in 1927, where he died four years later. Cabler, a salesman whose
territory stretched from Denver to Waco, was involved in the project for business reasons. “I will now say goodbye to the
railroads,” Cabler told the Post before the trip. Work on the car began on
March 17 in Temple’s shop. Using plans drawn up by Cabler, who commissioned the job, Temple acquired a chassis, installed a gasoline motor under the floor of the wagon, and hooked up a three levers: one for slow and one for fast speed, and another for guiding the vehicle. “The motor is what is
technically known as a hydro- carbon motor, with double cylinder,” the Post article said. “Two engines coupled together in order that if one gets broken the operator can rely on the other. Each of the rear
wheels...is driven independently by the agency of a heavy steel chain, the principle being the same as that of a bicycle.” Top speed was about 25 mph.
Final cost was $2,000. “The style is that of a good
heavy road wagon. As Mr. Cabler explained, it was built more for long distance work than for speed,’’ the Post reported.
34 EnCompass January/February 2012
www.AAA.com
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