America’s First Cross-Country Auto Race

Thank you sir!

Old Scout is out there somewhere, she'll be one heck of a barn find one day.

It really is amazing seeing the progress. In the old pioneer days, a healthy man could walk 15 miles a day, later a train could go 25 miles an hour. Pioneering in a car in 1905? Mind boggling. In 1905 my Grandfather was a rear brakeman on the LA&SL.

"Its great to be crazy and ride around in an automobile" -Percy Megargel

Hmmmm... Anyone ask Jay Leno if he has Old Scout? He seems to have every other car...

Yay! A new Peter Dibble video!!

If you want a great book on an early race in the US see Julie M. Fenster’s Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race.

1/4 of the way across and the roads have 10 ft of snow… then… past Iowa/Ohio there are no roads until California.

Amazing quality video. Photos and film all look like you spent time finding the best sources and digitizing them with skill. Great story to match!

Another great video. Thank you ❤

Man what a great channel

Thanks for this fascinating documentary. Now I want to re-watch "Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip" by Ken Burns.

Peter, this is your best yet! What a fascinating story, I had never heard it until now!

Peter Dibble is fuckin gangster. Thanks for another banger my g

Superb video, not that I expected any different! It's kind of amazing that an artifact which rode on "The Freedom Train" just up & vanished afterward. My money's on "private collection," honestly.

Another incredible production!
And tied into the 'Freedom Train', too!
Hoping the missing car is in a mislabled box at some massive GM storage facility waiting to be found

I thought that the Henry Ford museum had Old Scout, but I'm mistaken (they do have the 1903 Packard "Old Pacific"). I expect what's left of GM still has it somewhere (I did spot a 1997 article saying they still owned it), but have lost track of it in all the chaos that unfolded 20 years ago. Perhaps they sold it off by mistake after they killed off Oldsmobile.

Babe wake up a new Peter Dibble video just dropped

what about the 1903 cross country trip by Horatio Nelson Jackson?

Another awesome documentary - loved it!

This is so fascinating to me.

Never knew about this and I’ve in the Portland area all my life.

Would love for you to do a video of the Columbia River Highway in the gorge.
I love that road so much. Its history is so amazing.

This is Americana which deserves more exposure since these men put their lives on the line to map out I 80, US 20, and many others over a three month period in all weather conditions.

Thank you for bringing this wonderful story to us, Peter.

Wow! Those expo grounds look incredible. Is there anything left of them?

What an amazing piece of history to have only learned about today.

The first car race across the continent was tough, but the first car race across the incontinent was worse.

Me: I wonder what Peter has been up to lately.
Wife: ?
Me: Peter Dibble!!! He has a new video!!
Wife: I'll see you in about 30 minutes.....
Me: Can't hear you, Peter is talking.

Why did they take Santiam Pass through the Cascades? Why not old Barlow Rd?

"I do belong to the freak family." 😂

Amazing history, thank you again for such a wonderful video 👍🏻🙌🏻🍻

A Cannonball a decade before Cannonball's first Cannonball.

So basically like roads in Russia today.

All this old footage of Model Ts with basically wagon wheels and 20 horsepower engines going through muddy ditches and over rocky mountains, meanwhile in 21st Century everyone's got Jeeps and 4x4s that never leave pavement in their lifetimes.

I learned something new thanks. I was familiar with the road race but I can't believe a car without much historical significance got lost in the 1970s by this point America was truly in love with the automobile especially the early cars... I mean hot rods and street rods and original restorations from the brass era were all being done in that time frame. One thing that's almost a guarantee is it's sitting somewhere in somebody's garage or basement waiting to be rediscovered.

Top gear before top gear existed

I wish that someone had inspired the country to invest in decent public transit. But all that aside, it was a great story and it's not their fault that the tire companies wanted to make money. I love my car just like everyone else, but I wish I didn't have to sit in rush hour traffic

Antique Car, men painfully drive across the U.S.A, with breakdowns, mishaps, and triumph, and become a national history. This is a great story. It could’ve been on a true documentary of Modern machines of the American era.

I didn’t see this in my subscriptions feed last week. Glad for the reminder as I’m generally a loyal viewer due to to consistently high quality content.

Another beautifully produced, written and narrated documentary. It was very entertaining and highly educational; thank you!

Fantastic editing of a historic event! I appreciated the maps and the simple but elegant graphics introducing each segment. I can't imagine completing that trip.

Someone better make a movie out of this

why haven't this story been turned into a tv series ? it would be historic .

Looks like the Govt Building on guild lake was torn down, and guild lake was filled in? That entire expo and lake Guild deserve their own video!! Fascinating.

Not sure if you touched on this in the video, I watched a month ago and only just remembered to look up what happened to that crazy expo building.

Peter, thank you so much for all your amazing documentaries!

Somehow I missed this video! I really enjoy your videos

I like to think that Old Scout is sitting somewhere now, retired and at peace in its natural habitat…several feet of midwestern mud.

@Peter Dibble Is there a story to be told about Guild’s Lake/Lost Lake in Portland?
Wish there was More of this type of content, absolutely love your PNW video topics!
Thank You Peter!

IIRC there was a PBS documentary on this some years ago. Amazing story. I tried to get Top Gear interested in doing a modern day reenactment on the route using vintage vehicles but no joy.

Thank you sir for an amazing documentary. Great imagery, writing, music, editing, and narration. This deserves a million views!