Old journey that changed, america how did it change america . Well this is the first time that an official convoy has driven across the country and it attracted a lot of attention, along the route thousands of people came out to cheer the convoy on and look at the vehicles and talk to them and who were in the convoy and a really spurred a lot of interest and travel by motorized vehicles over just coming in at this time, we are going to watch the film but didnt get a lot of attention in the press . It did get a lot of attention, they had a major standoff at the white house, the president was in europe at the time but the secretary waved them off and they were speeches to press results there and there was really quite a scene at the white house before they took off to drive up through the district to federica marilyn where they spent the first night, you explained how it changed the genesis and why the vehicles is part of this convoy. You have to look at it in the context of the, time world war i and just concluded a few months earlier and the American Military leadership realize that in future warship that they played a very Important Role now they had a number of different motorized vehicles and what they want to know is their capabilities, how they perform under difficult circumstances, could they get up, hills could they really drive a cost country, if it was necessary to move troops are equipment from one coast to another what they be able to do it and how long would it take and so there really were interested in the conditions and which ones performed well in which did not, they were also looking at the conditions of the road, because west of chicago there was no paved roads at the time, so they want to know how long it will take and what there be some difficulty across the country. Lieutenant colonel would go to serve and what was his role in this . Its an interesting story because at the time he was very disappointed that he didnt get to europe during both marijuana, and most of his classmates to get to europe so he was disillusioned and he was actually contemplating resigning from the military and then you heard about this trip, he read about it at the lastminute so he had to rush to join the trip and he couldnt even get to the starting, point he had to go to the place where they spent the first night but he really kept him in the military and of course that changed his life and the history of the u. S. So lets watch this film and who had the idea of filming this and turning it into a documentary, the u. S. Military wanted to film and because they wanted to show people back in washington here is the condition of the, roads here is the condition of the vehicles and watch vehicles perform well and they wanted to recorded for history because they realize that this would be an historic trip so they wanted to have a record of it for anyone who would be interested. As we watch this film what did you first hear about it, i watched an article and it peach my interest, ive been fascinated by it ever since but it wasnt until i retired from my first career that i was able to take the time to fall in the front steps of it. So what are we looking at right now . This is the Zero Milestone marker, the cameramen his standing was faced in the white house and muted baker there he was the secretary of war at the time and president wilson was in europe so he kind of waved them off and dedicate the zero mile marker and install there today. You see it in the backstop of the washington monument. Thats right, yes so now where are the camp, and no longer exist but it was a military camp up on florida avenue and all the vehicles were assembled there so they drove from there to the white house and then took off. Again its important to understand just how primitive the roads and bridges were as we see right here. Yeah there were item number of bridges and those were fairly precipitous and these bridges were built for horse and buggy so some of the bridges had to be reinforced and the portion was in large enough to allow the trucks to go through it had to be modified, so the engineers you can see there they take off part of the bridge so that the trucks can come through so the engineers were very busy at each of those. So what was the operation of they drafted in the Service People who said that they could so some of the men are more familiar but they learned that they got better but some of the drivers were bit erratic, so these are really primitive tracks, how did they train on, that kind of they learn how to operate the trucks so we were not able to train very much and they did some training there but they had not drive Long Distances, it was a big deal all across the country people along the roads and country and hear them on and virtually every newspaper of the day and people really found this a source of National Pride and in the aftermath of the war sort of like a victory lap, so they are making them up through this part, goes from concrete and asphalt to dirt roads as we see. Yes once they got it illinois just west of chicago the concrete and it and then they were on dirt roads all the way to San Francisco or to california and you can see the problem was the dust that was really troublesome, so it was one or the other. And the roads were really built for a horse and by gay so they were very narrow and the drivers were not always the most experienced, this driver lost control of his vehicle in a rolled over a landed upside down off the road, but they were able to write it and get it back up onto the road. You know today when you travel across the country, there are hotels and restaurants and a lot of gas stations, what do these do . They had a couple of kitchen why again so they cooked all of their own meals, their orders, marching orders were to be self sufficient so they try very hard to be self sufficient and they didnt have to stop for gasoline what they had to take or trucks that head gallon so they were pretty well prepared, so this is a pretty oppressive bridge and iowa. It was a Wooden Branch and the engineers with the convoy were very concerned that all of those trucks to be too heavy for the bridge so they set him off one or two at a time so took several hours to get everyone across the bridge. So explain the genesis of your research. I was interested in a trip and it wasnt a brand trip in history of the u. S. And i was interested in the fact that eisenhower went along, because he was only 20 years old and he, later partially because of his inspiration from this trip was the driving force behind the interstate highway and so i just wanted to see the actual route that they followed that i was able to follow their exact route, this is west of links into nebraska, again these roads, obviously there is been rain and say are difficult to make their way through, yes you can see the track slipping and sliding and they had one artillery track and military that was able to pull them out in most places but sometimes he was really slow going, if the broke down and they have they stopped and military bases to replenish those parts but they had to make do sometimes just the best they could, out of the 81 vehicles they started and media through so its a pretty good track record considering the conditions, and in the state in the army at the time there were some civilians that were there for part of the way and there is a civilian who led the way in he had actually undermined that route several times before so he led part of the way, did anyone right a diary about what was happening at this time . Several kept diaries but the most complete one was cant buy all lieutenant and he was from the east and lived in pennsylvania new jersey and he had never been to the west so this was quite an adventure for him but he kept a very detailed diary and thats how i was able to follow because he said precisely which times they came through along the way. As you mentioned there are selfsustaining and we dont have any film of them camping out but how far when they travel on any given day and what were their evenings like, what was a routine like . Well it varied pending on the Road Conditions, with Road Conditions like that as i said on sundays it was only 30 or 40 miles, when they were on a concrete they went quite a bit farther but still it is very limited because they were breakdowns with vehicles, the experienced drivers cost them brought, so he brought the best they did it go more than 100 miles. So you told the story about how they thought they were ready forces instead of operating vehicle. That is something eisenhower rosen right about he said that some have more experience with worsen baggy and hes in some of them when, giddy up and go and some of the drivers he was discovered didnt know what a clutch was which is why they kept stalling out. Do you know how many vehicles and cars were in this area in the u. S. Many more horses and there were horse and buggy, the time in the convoy there about 400,000 moderate vehicles, so that quickly in the mid twenties they were. There is a lot of National Pride usa just come out of the First World War playing a victorious role, there was a feeling like america had because of a world power, there is a lot of curiosity but other parts of the u. S. It only a handful of people had actually driven in their individual automobiles from one coast to the other and this is the first real across the country convoy that was saying she end and it was front page headlines of all the News Headlines along the way and it is big for americans and its estimated that a lot of people on the route about 3. 5 Million People actually witnessed the convoy firsthand and that was about three and a half percent of the entire population at the time. Again this journey took place from july 7th until september 7th but he mapped out the journey had it they know what room to go. There was a highway and watch some civilians who were enthusiastic or modern trips had mapped out everyone from times square and new york all the way to lincoln park in San Francisco and that road was established by in many places especially west of chicago it wasnt much more than two wraps across the territory so it was a difficult route but who is something they can follow and they tried to follow with a few minor details along the way. And you wonder if the train is moving faster than the convoy. They had been there for over 50 years and they shows you p tracks because they wanted a slap flat surface so it made sense that he would be close to the tracks. What were the conditions like for them on the . Trucks who is hot and sweaty and they had to exert a lot of effort along the way and it was difficult and it was hard to know what was worse the heat or the sweat and you can see with the dust that they decided to space out the convoy so there is a Long Distance between vehicles because it was so bothersome. This is wyoming any gives you the condition of some of the bridge is out west and as i said earlier the bridges were bald for a horse and buggy and never designed to hold a truck so a lot of them had to be reinforced or rebels and the engineers to their credit did a great jobs and if any of the bridges were damaged they rebuilt them. Do you know who made these tracks and where they were manufactured . Packer made a lot and forward made a lot so you had some manufacturers it or no longer in business that were big automobile and truck manufacturers at the time. These men have a sense of what this mission was about and what they were trying to accomplish . Well they did in some of the diaries i read suggested it was only at the end when they got to california that they realize what they done and they saw the headlines and said gosh this is really something and i right in my book that i wondered years later if some of the man looked back and said that was the greatest experience of my life. Because youve obviously been celebrating the first man on the moon and Neil Armstrong and i wonder if in this generation he was comparable to what they saw 1969 . That was news the moon shot of 1919 or 20 20th century. We often associate the highway but explain how it all came about as we look at these films and see just how antiquated it was 100 years ago but it did start with eisenhower . Now there are different ideas and the fdr promoted the interstate highway system and he had specific ideas about what it should look like and they should be a transcontinental row that everyone could travel on from the east coast to the west coast but it wasnt until eisenhower was president that actual education was passed and the interstate highway really lobbied very hard for that to be passed and be considered one of his major accomplishments so the bill passed in 1956 and construction started pretty soon after that. I look at these tires they look so thin and i wonder how they were able to sustain the weight of the vehicle in track and also the journey from washington to San Francisco. Well the man by the name frank wrote a very significant in part of this trip along with the convoy and i think you learned a lot and he later wrote that he learned a lot about the need for a better tire so i think better tires came out as a consequence of this trip just like some of the other things became a consequence of this trip. Now we headed further west past the rockies and the utah and as this film depicts right now they are going very slowly. They are, i have been on that road and there is a precipitous vertical drop off on the left side there, even though there is a small guardrail, a truck that size would breakthrough a guardrail of somebody lost control, so they went very slowly there, on the road is on the one elena so, and they had to stretch it out a little bit because of the dust, but fortunately they got through that and close to a high pass going over and then down into california, i think the top of, it they were able to get over the past and back down there now mishaps, for their other vehicles they had to be aware at this time . And this stretch, the police in the Highway Patrol didnt allow other vehicles on the highway while they were crossing, so that was fortunate because they wouldve had a difficult time passing a vehicle as narrow as the road was. What are they doing here . This is in the utah, the road was very bad there, and actually cutting sage brush to put underneath the vehicles to get some traction for the vehicles because they were in this deep sand, they had difficulty getting through the sand and in fact they said some of the vehicles were so heavy that they knock down two feet into the sand, so theyre putting in sage brush to get some traction to get going, again i journey the last of the couple of months, you said they were selfsustaining, how did they wash their clothes, how did they make sure they had an affinity, what about medical issues, how did they deal with all that . They had a couple of medical cars with medical supplies and as i said really remarkably there were very few serious injuries, a few people had to drop out because of injuries but no lifethreatening injury along the way, in terms of keeping clean i think they stayed pretty dust especially wednesday go west of chicago, when they got to San Francisco there was a big washed down. And now we are even further west almost in San Francisco, this is a very bearing part of utah. Yes it, is no service, stations no towns so this is why they had to be self sufficient, they brought along, with course they had a couple of kitchen wagons and you see one there on the left and you can see a little bit by other preparing a meal, pretty primitive way to cope with that so they did it and of course cooking for anyone on a contraction like that was not easy. They had to be hungry. They did, they had a lot of complaints about the food in the beginning and that is in part because the person who is doing the cooking was also a supply officer and in omaha they got a fulltime cook and the food improved quite a bit there. How are they selected for the journey . They asked for volunteers and they selected people who said that they had some college of vehicles and were prepared to take the time to drive across the country, as i said earlier turned out some of the drivers really had a very limited experience with driving. We are so connected today was cell phone technology, how did the leaders of this convoy communicate with the military, as former supplies, what was that like . The person who kept the diary, whenever possible, once they got to the camp site he would go back to the nearest town if he could reach it and sit in telegram back to washington reporting on the days progress in how far they had come, the difficulties, how the vehicles were so jackson was the one staying in touch and those submissions are really make up a key part of his daily log. In terms of the timeline, did they have a certain schedule that they were determined to meet, did they want to be in San Francisco by early september, how did that work out . They had an open ended commitment, they wanted to get there as quickly as possible, part of the goals they said, the objective of the trip was to see how difficult it would be since no one tried or Something Like this before and see the the military wanted to see how quickly could we get trains and trucks out to the west coast if we needed to get them there. Have any of these trucks been preserved . These particular ones i dont believe they have, they were at the end of the line once they got their, once they got to San Francisco they were cleaned up and refurbished and send off to Different Military bases over the western part of the u. S. , so they were separated then. But they had to deal with every type of terrain and weather condition, heat, rain, probably no snow at that time of year, but a lot of potential storms. Yes, and they write and complain about the dust but wasnt aware and the alternative to dust was heavy rain in which they wouldve sunk down and had to drag vehicles out of the, matter so the dust was preferable to the rain in the month. What surprised you the most in researching this journey . I think the thing i was most surprised by was so few people knew about this trip, it seemed to such an important part of American History and really sort of lay the foundation for motorized travel in the u. S. But the very few people knew about it and i stopped in the library in every town along the way and looked up in the log of the newspapers, of the newspaper that was published the day after the convoy had been there and it was always front page headlines in each of those newspapers along the way but few people nowadays really know about this trip. They averaged in the west about six miles an hour so pretty slow. Do you know who shot this film . They had publicity people who took them because they want to have good records of the film. And so if you grew up in the eastern youre headed out, it some spectacular sights. Thats right you can see like tahoe back in the background and today its so spectacular sites but that was a milestone because they knew they were right on the border but sooner be paved roads. So they almost reached the finish line, and they were aware of that so west of california, how far is this from San Francisco. But right along from here they got on pave roads and in fact, lets see but various you know beyond paved roads. This is in california, eastern california, very small town for nowadays and and we can see some of the flags and people as they arrived. Here on paved road so they knew would be paved all the way and it was recently paved all around San Francisco. And Lieutenant Colonel eisenhower was he one of the leaders . He is not, he was one of the officers, there are only about 30 or so officers but the leader, the Commanding Officer was charles who retired after the trip so he was at the mission in the military. So sacramento look like a parade of sorts. Yes they knew they were coming and they actually met them in rockland him and prepared welcome along the way so they had a big welcoming committee and even a larger one, so its about an hour and a half today from sacramento to San Francisco, and they had to take a fairy, no bridges so they had to take two ferries to get across from oakland to San Francisco, but you see there are power alliances they were back into civilization. You can only speculate, but what do you think they were thinking. I think they were thinking its almost over, weve done the worst part another in oakland and they knew the end was in, sight and they were excited about getting their, here they are getting ready to get the trucks ready across the bay there, again by now they had news and people who turned out, this is the ridge you are talking about a moment ago . These are the ferries i was talking about, went across from oakland, did somebody make this journey in advance just to get a sense of how they would map up the route. Different individuals drove in their automobile so they had some experience from them and one of the fascinating individuals was an etiquette group and it was hard to believe that she drove across the country so she had some experience. Explain what we are looking at now. This is the closing ceremony but thats the mayor there in the top, hat this was the Ferry Terminal there and San Francisco coming around that and dropping off towards linkin park and you can see them going towards linkin park, sort of the water going off what is now the golden gate bridge. Youre overall assessment of this film and its impact on history. The trip is what had the greatest history, so many people saw this and this was the dawn of the automobile age, it led people to think that automobile is the way of the future so i think that had a major impact, i think the film is interesting, the historic artifact in just remind us how far we have come because he was exactly a century ago, this they said the trip really led them to be interested in an interstate highway system so it had major impacts in that way. They wrote a summary so about two months after arriving, let me just share with you part of what he wrote, club part of these trips are impractical until roads are improved and then they should be used long house and the water transportation should pay more attention to officers and men and ill should be intelligent before giving them the responsibility of trust so two different points there. Well the first one eisenhower like all the other people saw how bad the words were, and i think they were shocked and i think they realized the army, the military is interested in fighting out, can we move trucks and equipment across the country and they said no its gonna be quite an effort so we need improved roads, not only for the military but for more civilians, on the second one eisenhower wrote about the lack of discipline early on, especially in the first few weeks of the convoy and i said earlier a lot of manned that are not used to driving vehicles and they werent able to follow orders, and some of the officers that didnt get the discipline that they should have had from the man. This is 1919 and the instant state highway system was in created until 1956, so nearly four decades later why did it take so long . There was interest but i think the Great Depression came along and there was no money for that and then world war ii came along and there are other priorities, but fdr did say, we need to have this crosscountry highway system and then after the war truman was interested and in fact under truman and there were some roads built but it wasnt until eisenhower came along that a First Interstate highway was passed it allocated the money necessary. Youre about to make the journey again for those who want to recreate the route, how can they do that. Well they can read my book first of all but the likened Highway Association has a couple thousand active members and they have annual conferences and theyve been very busy promoting the lincoln highway, keeping the knowledge of the lincoln highway active so i would say go to the lincoln Highway Association website, look at what they have for information and you can get a detailed map, in each of the states along the way the tourist bureaus have information on the lincoln highway as well. The roads are certainly better but what they see similar topography that they saw hundred years ago. Yes they see war buildings along the way but the topography is certainly the same, nowadays you have the interstate so if you want to do this fast you can get right out there in just a few days but i found it a lot more fun and interesting to go on the small roads because they still go right down main street just like the convoy did. Two final points they made their way through the communities and their reaction among the townspeople was what . The area through sciatic and they had the advancement saying that the convoy will be here and in three hours and they knew it was coming at some point but they had the precise notice so they could bring the people out and really have a parade as the convoy passed through so that was an important factor and you touched on this in a number of locations but the importance of this convoy was what . It shows that a trip like this could be down but it was challenging and if the military wanted to Cross Country quickly they needed to improve the roads and also there were a number of civilians and several start at the good roads movement and some of those people from the good roads movement drove a law and they use this as a means to recruit more people but also to press different state governments to allocate more money and improve their highways along the way so it was a concerted effort by a military and civilians to really improve the highways and you personally retired from the service . Yes it was a great adventure and i made a lot of people along the way and it was gratifying for me to tell the story because as i said so many people had never heard about this and the book is titled after icon a trail that changed america and michael owen our guests thank you very much for joining us on cnn cspan. We are at the Troy Historical museum, detroit has been the motor city capital of the world since at least 1915 when theyre over 42 Companies Making cars and another 75 Companies Making parts, so we have been like other towns, we build lots of cars, prior to 1900 the detroit area