Hoosier Tour: A 1913 Indiana to Pacific Journey

By Terri Horvath and Dennis E. Horvath

Hoosier Tour examines how the 1913 Indiana Manufacturers' Association Indiana-Pacific Tour helped generate interest for building good roads. This pioneering effort was essential to help the automotive industry grow.Today we tend to take for granted the convenience of our road system. We zip along interstates and four-lane highways at speeds carrying us 50-70 miles in about one hour. In 1913, a distance of 100 miles took nearly six to eight hours. Now our roads are generally well-marked, with signs denoting the distance between towns and the turns that take us in the right direction. In 1913, these signs were rare. Plus, although you may gripe about the pot holes forming every year in the street in front of your house, we have nicely paved byways that save on the car's wear and tear. In 1913, motorists traveled a lot on gravel and dirt, which turned to mud during a rain storm. In 1913, the inconvenience of our road system was obvious.But, an intrepid group of Indiana auto makers saw what could be. They envisioned a national system of good roads that could tie the country from coast to coast. They only had to convince the rest of the country.So, they embarked on a month-long trek from Indianapolis to Los Angeles to promote the Good Roads Movement as well as show that these Indiana-made cars had the stamina to make the trip. They traveled on some decent roads, some completed the night before they arrived, and some that presented some perilous twists.This book chronicles their journey

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1490403264
• ISBN13: 9781490403267
• Release Date: August 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 114 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.3" x 5.0"