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| ADDITIONAL INFORMATION | ||||||
| If you have any additional information about the history or whereabouts of additional Futurliners, we would like to hear from you. Our objective is to capture as much of the history of these vehicles as possible. | ||||||
This
is "Old Scout" and the exhibit is called "Pioneer of
Progress." On the left is Leo Berg, Mayor of Akron, Ohio and Joe
Anderson, General Manager of A.C. Spark Plug. (Note:
the handwriting on the back of the photo is very poor and I may have
misspelled the names.)
The
1902 Olds, affectionately called "Old Scout" won the first
transcontinental race for motor-driven vehicles. The Olds crossed the
country in 44 days in 1905. It traveled from New York City to Portland,
Oregon at a 100-mile-a-day clip. Dwight B. Huss grappled with the tiller
as he steered the on-cylinder Olds through wheel-deep mud and water and
bounced over rough mountain trails. This journey proved beyond all doubt
that the automobile could provide dependable transportation. Huss and
Milford Wigle, his mechanic and relief driver, arrived in Portland in
triumph to the cheers of approximately 350,000 people. For his
record-establishing journey, Huss received a prize of $1,000.
Twenty-six
years later, in 1931, Dwight Huss repeated the New York to Portland trip
in Old Scout, equipped precisely as before. Instead of muddy cattle
trails, he found hard surfaced roads and service stations everywhere
along the route. During this second trip, a newspaper account estimated
that some 10 million people inspected the Olds, which was displayed
under the auspices of every major automobile club along the route.
In
1936 Old Scout was a feature of the General Motors display at the
Century of Progress Exposition at Chicago. Huss once more was at the
tiller of his famous runabout. He made the Lansing-to-Chicago trip
carrying a letter from the governor of Michigan to the governor of
Illinois.