Locomobile in the Yukon

[wayne sheldon]

About four years ago, a partial computer meltdown erased more than a thousand bookmarks, and hundreds (maybe a thousand?) photos that I had saved. From time to time, I wander through the old archives (old being computer relative?) of websites that many of those were from. Looking at hundreds of pages last night, another one I stumbled across. Thought it also might be appreciated here.

Comments indicated it may be a Locomobile, but I didn't confirm that. (That is what discussing them is about!)

The excursion was said to have taken place in the Yukon in 1912. Car was thought to be a 1910 model.

 

 

[mike6024]

 FIRST AUTO and its CREW. DAWSON to WHITEHORSE and RETURN.

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by mike6024 (see edit history)

[wayne sheldon]

NICE! An uncropped photo with some of its original information!

Thank you for adding that.

 

I like the what looks like a locomotive headlamp on the front of the car. Must have really lit up the road ahead?

[mike6024]

You're right! Locomobile.

 

George Black completed the first automobile trip between Dawson City and Whitehorse in December of 1912. It took three days. The Yukon automobile wasn’t yet ready for the Yukon roads; the return trip took a week, and Black had to complete the final leg of the journey in a horse-drawn sled. (Submitted/The Firth Family collection)

 

The dream of an automobile road that connected the two cities was a long time in coming. Joe Boyle, the Klondike mining millionaire attempted the trip from Dawson to Whitehorse with his wife Elma in a heavily laden 20-horsepower automobile in December of 1912, but he had to give up and transfer to the regular stage coach. White Pass Superintendent Herbert Wheeler sent an auto from Whitehorse to meet them at the Takhini River crossing.

 

Commissioner George Black bettered his arch-rival Boyle when he attempted the same trip. Accompanied by Chester A. Thomas, the assistant manager for the Yukon Gold Corporation and driver George Potter, Black left Dawson City at 3:20 a.m. on the same day the Boyle arrived in Whitehorse, and arrived in Whitehorse three and a half days later. The last leg from Carmacks to Whitehorse took them a mere 12 hours. The total running time for the trip: 35 ½ hours.

 

Fulfilling an election promise, the government had relocated the overland road to pass through the active mining on Black Hills and Scroggie Creeks. Despite wet weather during the summer of 1912, the road was completed. Black’s trip was made to dispel criticism about the condition of the road, and to demonstrate the viability of travel by automobile. But it was not without its perils.

 

The 60-horsepower Locomobile ran out of gas short of Wheeler’s Roadhouse, just south of the Stewart River, and had to be pulled by horses for the last five kilometres. This should come as no surprise as the automobile consumed gasoline at the rate of one litre for every 1.7 kilometres traveled. The trip almost ruined the automobile: “The big machine was considerably ‘racked’ when it reached here (Whitehorse),” reported the Star, “the tires being worn down to canvas and nearly everything loose that was not riveted.”

 

https://www.yukon-news.com/opinion/hard-travel-over-the-yukons-winter-trails/

 

 

[wayne sheldon]

I always enjoy reading of some of the early incredible journeys in those early days of the automobile when in most places there were NO real roads!

Whether it is Dr Jackson's Winton? The New York to Paris race? Maybe the 1909  New York to Seattle that included to very early model T Fords? Or any of several dozen other 'first' drives of great distance or considerable no road hardships. The tales of those tough adventurers and the cars that carried them are inspiring.

Thank you mike6024

[mike6024]

Here is another good story.

 

When Governor-General Byng came to town

 

When the car bogged down between May and Keno City, the governor-general rolled up his sleeves and lent a hand. Gold commissioner George P. Mackenzie is to the left. (Courtesy/Yukon Archives, Finnie family fonds)

 

 

There have been many governors-general who have visited the Yukon since its creation as a political entity June 13, 1898. None was more heartily received by Yukoners than Julian Byng, Baron Byng of Vimy.

 

The following day, Byng, M.P. George Black and others, mounted their vehicles and departed for the silver mines at Keno Hill. The governor-general mixed easily with everyone he met, and, when his automobile became bogged down in a boggy patch near Keno City, he rolled up his sleeves and pitched in to help extract the wheels from the greasy mud.

Byng toured the mines, twice descending into the depths for a hands-on exploration of the mine workings. That evening, before retiring to his bunk in the mining camp, he made a point of talking to each and every miner. Returning to Mayo, he was feted by the residents in the Pioneer Hall, where he was made an honorary member of the Mayo Pioneer lodge. Miners from every creek in the district descended upon Mayo for the occasion.

 

 

[wayne sheldon]

Mike, that was a good article that you linked to. Very interesting. Although I was not familiar with Governor-General Byng, I was surprised the number of references to places in the Yukon (as well as Europe!) that I had previously read enough about to recognize them. From the war-torn trenches of Europe, to the depths of the gold mines, He sounds like a fascinating person, and a good man.

[Peter Gariepy]

Adjusted for more detail...

 

[Brass is Best]

I love the rope on the tire for traction.