The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1919-06-12
DRIVES MAXWELL FROM LOS
ANGELES TO COMFY ISLAND
Western Scout, Sixty Years of Age,
Drove Sturdy Car From Coast to
COast-Tells of Trip.

Inc Desert KAT, through the Ned
reloe & Morgan Motor Co., will now
address you on the subject Of Trans.
continental Touring, incidentally con-
veying the news that it has busted the
Southern Trail to the Pacific wide open.
This message, received by the local
Maxwell dealers yesterday, is timely,
as several Thousand tenderfoot tour
lists have for many weeks been hiding
behind their maps, waiting for the
roads to open. In the meantime the
Desert Rat has oepned the Southern
Trail and is now opening the Northern
cross-continent route via the Yellow
stone and the Bad Lands.
Everybody who understands any.
thing about crossing the continent in a
motor car, knows that none of the
roads are open before the middle of
June. But the Desert Rat "hopped
off" from Los Angeles, CAL, March %,
and headed east across the deadly
ella desert, while the mud was hub
deep and the cloud bursts were play
ing havoc along the Mexican borders.
"The seemingly impossible venture
was, the result Of a dare thrown out
to Scout King Stanley and James NJ.
Drake. King Stanley is one of those
w CStClh plOHScIS WIN HeVSE LOOk d
dare in his life. He is now past sixty
years of age and nearly half century
ago he crossed the continent on the
back Of a pony. He prospected all
over the Pacific slope and roamed the
plains with Buffalo Bill. Two years
ago the old scout gave up his pony and
climbed into 1917 Maxwell Touring
Car. Since then he and his young
partner have been beating up the des-
ert, having done 10000 miles, in his
Maxwell, dubbed the Desert Rat.
ION March %, according to informa-
ton received here yesterday, the Des-
ert Rat was fitted with an extra gaso-
Inc tank, a five gallon water bag, q
piece Of rope, a frying pan and sin
gave Mr.. Stanley just before he left
the West. The back of the front seat
was hinged, so it would drop down and
form bed; few army blankets were
thrown into the tOnneau and away the
Desert Rat went.
On one of those soft spring morn
ings bunch Of yellow mud rolled up
to the Maxwell Chalmers sales rooms
in New York. elbow in the world do
you ever run in that condition ?" ask
~ VIZ AVE-" Vim uColCIs
"Well," said the old scout. "mavbe
she does need bath, but we Just thot
we would wait until we got back to
the Little Colorado River and let her
soak for few days. We did stand
her in the Mississippi as we came
across but the water was so dirty it
only made her worse.
I'VE came through without stopping
Qf nr h0to1
she is bit dusty.
March %. There was cloud-burst in
the desert that day but we did not
know it until Tuesday when we ran on
bunch of eight cars which had been
caught. They were all stuck fast and
we pulled them out one by one. We
were ten hours making fifteen miles
that day.
After leaving Tucson, Ariz., we hit
the Mustang Mountains. We were
bound for Bisbee but old Mac hasn't
bit of use for regular highway. In
Texas, we went through San Antonio,
Houston. Beaumont, Orange. across
the Sabine river to Winton, La,
where we faced a $500 trip on the
canal to get back to hard ground or a
run across the mud dumps of 2h
miles. odd Mac refused to go on the
canal boat and away she went for
the mud, and when we hit dry land
they told us that car had not crossed
the mud for six months. There was
a good road from Lake Charles to the
Atchafalaya River, but when we
reached the cypress swamps we heard
that no car had gone through in nearly
year. We tackled the lob, however.
and ran for 81 miles on low gear.
"The total distance to New York
via Jacksonville, Fla, was 1921 miles
and we used just 275 gallons of fuel,
giving us good average of more than
10 miles to the gallon. As we did not
stop at garage or hotel during the
entire trip we had to carry bedding
and cooking outfit. We did not stop
minute for mechanical reasons. When
we ran out of money we stopped and
painted few signs. Having decorated
the store fronts along the Mexican
border pretty we'll, we are now going
back bv the Northern route and scat
ter bit more art"
Without wasting any time in the
canyons of New York City, King STAN
ley Immediately pointed the radiator
of the Desert Rat toward Niagara
Falls. He expects to spend the rest
OF the summer negotiating the North
ern Trail, touching at Yellowstone
and the Bad Lands.
AS soon as we land home, he said,
we're going to come East again, in
an air ship. You see have made over
a thousand balloon ascensions' and
having crossed the continent on horse
back and by motor want to finish the
job by air."
Welty Makes Money From Cows and
Chickens.
J. s. Welty, we'll known Sawyer
farmer, was in the city Tuesday. Mr..
Welty is giving his attention mainly
to his poultry and cows this summer