Road Conditions

Road conditions varied depending on location. The further from city centers, the more difficult became the way--when there was a road at all. Dirt roads, which turned muddy with every rain, proved especially challenging to motorcars, although high-wheeled vehicles like the Model T could proceed through the mire with relative success. Nonetheless, tales of trips out west are rife with incidents of being pulled out of ditches by horses, falling into holes with enough force to snap the axle, and waiting in towns for needed parts to arrive by train.

Here we see a 1909 Ford Model T Roadster stuck in the mud on a country road during an endurance race from New York to Seattle.