Evening star., 1941-08-21
Richardson Party
Reaches Jumpoff
Port for Cape Horn
Auto Expedition Soved
From Seq of Mud
By Sudden Freeze

BACKGROUND
The Pan American HighUay
Expedition, led by Sulliuan c.
Richardson Detroit newspaper
man, nearS its goal as plans are
made to carry the explorers BY
boat to the Straits OF Magellan.
Since the party left the United
States in a specially built auto
mobile, more than 10000 miles
haze been coUered through Latin
american countries. This is
another in series iUritten by
Mr.. Richardson for The Star.
BY SULLIVAN c. RICHARDSON.
WITH THE RICHARDSON PAN
AMERICAN HIGHWAY EXPEDI-
TION IN MAGALLANES, CHILE,
IN MAGELLAN STRAITS (via Air
mali The slogan of this expe-
dition, From Detroit to Cape
Horn" is to be completely realized.
Through the courtesy and co-opera-'
tion of Senor Commandante Don
Guillermo Arroya, commodore of the
Chilean Navy stationed in Magal-
lenes, the expedition will be taken
on a naval boat from this city down
through famous Beagle Channel and
out around Cape Horn.
All mail going north from the ex-
pedition will be carried around the
Horn. On the day the island is
actually passed the mail will be i'm
printed with a specially made stamp
saying. This envelope carried
around Cape Horn by Chilean naval
boat Micalvi." The captain will
then sign each piece. Upon arrival
again in MagallaneS the comman-
dante will stamp the envelopes with
the seal of his Office and sign them,
as we'll the American Consul in
Magallanes. This will officially verify
completion of the "194041 Pan
American Highway Expedition from
Detroit to Cape Horn"
To Sail to Buenos Aires.
Arrangements are also complete
10 put the expedition aboard an In
teroceanico boat, sailing direct from
Magallanes to Buenos Aires, arriv-
ing there about September g. From
there the expedition will again take
to car wheels, driving to Lima, Peru,
via La Paz, Bolivia.
We left Santiago July II, with
letter in our pockets from Senior
Pinochet, chief of the trans-Andean
Railroad, giving us permission either
to drive across the railroad pass
in the tops of the Andes, or if that
proved impossible, to take fatcar
without charge for the trip. We
reached Los Andes at the foot OF
the great peaks in cold rain. That
mean snow and storm in the passes
$4,000 feet above us. The operating
manager at Los Andesesaid we were
welcome to try the drive If We
wanted, but that he had only one
snow sweeper which he used ahead
of each train; also, that Immediately
after the trains passed snow drifted
back across the track so deep 1t
would be impossible for us to travel
through it. He said further that
the tracks would be filled to level
with ice and consequently very dan
gerous since there were many places
they climbed 8 per cent grades on
the mountain sides. And finally, he
hoped if we did try the drive, we
wouldn't get stalled somewhere and
tie up the railroad. We appreciated
his concern for us and for the line.
The automobile road had been closed
with ice and snow for weeks.
Safety Factor Fails.
In the dark, we went out and
measured the narrow gauge rails.
To our great disappointment they
were inches too widely spaced to
straddle with a rail just inside each
wheel. We had counted on that
as safety factor to keep us from
slipping off the icy grades. Then
we discovered the bridges and high
tressels were built, not with cross
ties, but with longitudinal steel grid
ers sitting just under the rails, moth
ing outside or in between. That
stopped us. We took the f1atcar.
In the early morning light, as we
sat in our freezing car and climbed
those ice-covered mountain sides
behind the comforting power Of an
electrlC locomotive, we were sldu we
had made that decision.
From Mendoza, Argentina, at the
eastern foot of the Andes, south to
Magallenes is approximately $500
miles. The first two days were good
weather and fair roads. Then came
the tremendous stretches of Pampas
and Patagonian mud. 1t got worse
and worse as we Travelled south.
Fevre & Basset, automobile i'm
porters in Buenos Aires, had sent
another car to Mendoza to meet us
and act as guide south to the Straits.
But the car was low wheeled and
without chains Half dozen times
we ourselves slid off the road. But
more than II times in one day we
either hooked onto that guide car
with a tow chain, or took our SHOW
els and dug trenches into solid
ground through which we could push
and pull him back up onto the
road. We finally left the car, AZ