Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-20
GREAT AUTO TOUR
IS COMPLETED
PERILOUS JOURNEY OF REQ
CAR ENDS
Percy MegargeI Reaches New YorI
After Twelve Hundred Mile Trip
Through Mountains and Over
Desert

Percival Megargel is back in New
York. on August 10, 1905, he left Her
aid square with David f. Fassett in q
REQ automobile of 16 horse power to
ride to the Pacific coast and return.
In ten months they had crossed four
teen states and territories and half a
dozen mountain ranges, had been en-
gulfed i'm snow and swallowed In quick
sand, had fought mountain lions and
shot coyotes and wolves, and incident
ally had Travelled more miles in the
United States on one continuous
journey than any other automobilist.
The same engine that had pulled
them through snow drifts, over noun
tain passes and desert trails and
through rivers that were without
bridges brought them on the last stage
of the journey from Yonlkers to Herald
square as lively as IL it had just come
out of the shop.
The tonneau of the machine had been
so, designed that at night 1t could be
turned into sleeping quarters. The en-
tire car was covered with appliances
for estimating speed, distance Travelled,
altitude and directions. Firearms, a
camping outfit, camera and typewriter
were also carried, everything being put
aboard that would give the travellers
pleasure in connection with tour Of
exploration.
The Route Followed
Leaving New York state the trav-
elers went through Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska,
Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, California,
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and
back to Omaha; thence over the route
70 q
fifteen hundred mile trip down the Pa
cific coast to Los Angeles. In the Great
American desert they passed ten miles
south of Death valley, and in Santa Fe,
N. M, met governor Hagerman, the
youngest governor in the United States.
1t is the first automobile that ever
crossed Mount Hood, Ore. 1t is the
first to cross the California desert east
of Bagdad. 1t is the first to cross the
Great American desert, in Arizona, and
the first to cross the Ration mountains,
in New Mexico, $4,000 feet high.
Wyoming offered the first serious OBJ
struction to the progress of the little
car. The Bear river, Continental di
vide, Sierre Madre, Aspen, Wasatch
and Snowy Range mountains, all MEM
bers of the Rocky Mountain system,
were successfully covered. Two days
rain caused a creek to rise nine or
in three inches of water it rained and
when Megargel attempted to cross
thirty miles further down stream he
found more than seven feet of water at
the ford, necessitating a delay Of five
days.
After the rain the REQ "mountaineer'
took the trail several days before
freighters or emigrants came out, and
the tourists had to build the road.
IL
use. The windlasS hauled them up
the almost perpendicular sides of clay
gulches, in several cases washed out
to a depth of thirty feet. Once they
crossed clay canyon fifteen feet deep
and five feet wide on two railroad
ties. A slip of a few inches in either
direction meant wrecked car and an
injured crew.
Through Cascades
The trip through the Cascade noun
tains of western Oregon was full of
hardships. The tourists tackled blindly
trail that for weeks had been i'm
passable by wagons. They chopped
their way through dense woods where
logs had fallen across the path, built
bridges over streams too deep with
melted snow for fording, and slept iii
the snow ON hemlock boughs. Last,
they were obliged to go three days
without food, provisions having given
out.
Early in December the trip across
the Great American desert was begun.
On December IL Peach Springs, Ariz.,
was reached. With smashed mud
guards, twisted steering gear and
broken lamps the car pulled into the
town, showing plainly the battle put up
by machine and men. Word had been
received in Peach Springs of the in
tended crossing, but natives did not be-
lieVe they would see the machine, so
many false alarms had been sounded.
All one Friday the little car battled
against the fury of a desert sandstorm.
Sand all but blinded the tourists. At
noon the rays of the sun were COM
pletely hidden from view. The sand
plains were as dark as night. The
wind increased and the fine sand and
pebbles driven before the gale stuns
the faces of the travellers until they
We're in agony. Through 1t all they
struggled and at night eighty-nine
miles had been Travelled through the
storm.
Lost In the Mountains
In the mountains of Arizona the tour
lists were lost for several days without
food or gasolene. They drove into
Winslow, Ariz., with a cowboy as
guide. They had spent all day Christ
mas in hauling the car out of Padre
canyon, cable and windlass equip
rnent being the only means by which
they could hoist 1t up the walls of lava
rock. There Megargel abandoned his
idea of reaching New York in time for
the automobile show, depth of snow
making progress almost impossible
For three weeks preceding January
20 the car was in the quicksand of the
Rio Puerco river. 1t was raised on the
28th by band of Apache and Navajo
Indians. The motor was taken apart
adm cleaned, the bearings were secured