Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-09
BLUEBIRD MADE RUN
TO THE OWENS RIVER

The Chalmers Detroit Bluebird made
a run to Owens river and return last
week. The object of the trip was to
take Joe Desmond to the aqueduct
camps Several fast runs were made.
On the trip up the car went from here
to South Port camp in the San Fran
cisuuito camp in two hours and twen-
ty-five minutes. Another fast run was
the return from Mojave to Los An
geles. The car. driven by Lawrence
Knapp, left Mojave at noon Thursday
and was back in Los Angeles at
o clock that night.
Near Fairmont the car ran into a
large mud hole caused by a cloudburst.
When Knapp drove down the hill to
the Tunnel camp he saw a large pond
before him. He looked 1t over the
best he could in the dark, and seeing
that it was apparently very shallow
undertook to cross. All went well for
a distance of about thirty yards. Then,
just as he was giving her the gun,
the occupants of the car were sur
prised to see the front of the car sud-
denly disappear and water rose over
the seats. The rush of water had
washed the road away at that spot and
the Bluebird was deep in hole. They
were right at the aqueduct camp, ana
it was but small job to get the car
out. The only trouble which resulted
from the sudden dip was in the mag
neto In the morning Knapp was
forced to spread this instrument out
on the ground to be dried by the sun.
By 8 o'clock they were off for Mo-
jave with a hot desert drive before
them. The road was by way of Willow
Bend The last eighteen miles into
Mojave was made in twenty-five min
utes. After luncheon they pulled out
of Mojave at o'clock.
In Red Rock canyon the party had
it's first experience with quicksand.
Knapp had started across an innocent
enough looking wash, when suddenly
the car began to go deeper and deeper
in the sand and did not stop until the
running boards rested fiat on the sur
face. This meant a hard job of jack
ing to get boards under the wheels, but
after a while the car was on its way,
throwing sand high in the air as 1t
plowed it's way through the treacher-
Gus soft going.
One of the best demonstrations of
what a motor car will really stand
was the run from Coyote Hole to the
north fork of the Owens river, a dis
ldIlCc VI lWGlly -SlA iIlllSS. hIldpp
says that this is by far the worst road
over which he ever tried to make
speed. The ruts are foot deep, the
sand is deeper, and in many places the
road is covered with sharp rocks. The
run was made in an hour and a half
each way, and people who have been
watching the performances of automo-
biles in that country pronounce this an
unusually fast trip.
The run to Lone Pine was in the rain
all the way. Throughout an entire day
the car battled over the rain-soaked
roads, but Knapp said it never fall
tered, no matter how difficult the go
ing. In places there were mud holes
which seemed absolutely impossible,
but putting the car in the low Knapp
would give her the gun and shoot
through.
After a couple of days running back
and forth between the different towns
and camps the Bluebird was headed
once more for Mojave. Several hundred
mile trips were made from there, and
Thursday noon the car started for
home with Knapp, H. Hudson and R.
Ellis in the machine. Mr.. Desmond
went to San Francisco from Mojave.