Colorado entered the automobile age just before the turn of the 20th century. Driving in Mesa County began a few years later. However, car ownership increased rapidly. Complaints about the dangers of new machines were similar.
Colorado’s first automobile arrived in Denver by train in May 1899. Owner David W. Blanton had ordered a Columbia electric car from Boston. On May 10, Mr. Blanton wrote in his diary that he “ran an electric horse-drawn carriage on the streets of Denver.”
Eight months later, Washington, D.C., postal officials predicted that mail carriers would be using cars in Denver “in the near future.” He also said there were 10,000 cars in Europe at the time, but fewer than 2,000 in the United States.
A decade later, that number had swelled to about 500,000 cars in the United States, according to a federal report.
The first recorded motor vehicle visit to Grand Junction was April 23, 1901. The Daily Sentinel reported that he visited Grand Junction at the time, “which was a promotional attraction for a minstrel show.”
The first automobile owned in Mesa County was purchased by John Beard, a pharmacist from Fruita. He purchased it in partnership with his father, James Beard, a Fruita physician and inventor. A few years later, James Beard worked with a local mechanic to build his own electric car.
At least six other prominent Denver residents purchased cars within a year of Blanton’s purchase. Electric cars, steam-powered cars, and by 1901 gasoline-powered internal combustion engines appeared. Usually the driver sat on the right side.
One of the most popular early automobiles was the steam-powered Locomobile, manufactured in Connecticut. A bicycle shop owner in Denver, W. B. Felker, he began selling bicycles in 1900, and on May 1, 1900, he was responsible for the first automobile advertisement to be published in the Denver Post. He offered his two-seater locomobile for $750.
In September 1900, Locomobile founder John Brishen Walker traveled to Colorado and attempted the first ascent of Pikes Peak by car. He reached an altitude of 11,000 feet before turning back. The following August, Felker reached the top of Pikes Peak in one of his locomobiles.
Although steam locomotives were powerful, they were prone to catching fire. So in 1904, Locomobile abandoned steam power and switched to gasoline. A famous photo from 1905 shows Apache leader Geronimo and other Indians sitting in a 1904 locomotive rather than a Cadillac.
New developments occurred rapidly in the early 20th century. Colorado’s first internal combustion automobile, the Oldsmobile, was purchased by a Cannon City doctor in 1901. On its first trip through town, it spooked the horses, causing the buggy to overturn and injuring the driver.
Also recorded that year was the first car trip to Estes Park, and another man took the car to Leadville by train before crossing the Continental Divide.
On January 15, 1902, the Rocky Mountain News reported that E. S. Matheson had achieved questionable accomplishments. He became the first motorist in Denver to be fined for driving at a speed that endangered the lives of pedestrians.
Although automobiles were not common in Grand Junction by 1902, concerns about them were prominent in local newspapers. There were concerns that cars would spook horses, cause accidents, and interfere with people’s ability to walk. Still, in July 1902, the Sentinel declared that, despite its problems, the automobile “continues to exist” and that no law “can check its fate.”
Additionally, in 1901, construction began on a “state highway” from Denver through Glenwood Canyon to Grand Junction.
There were also articles about the achievements of automobiles. Felker won the first race from Denver to Colorado Springs in May 1902 with a locomotive. The first trip from Denver to Pueblo in September 1902 took 7 hours and 45 minutes. A 1902 list of Denver women who owned or drove automobiles.
The Sentinel reported in January 1903 that a Denver man named D.T. Clark traveled by car from Denver to Grand Junction. He went through Cañon City, but broke down between Buena Vista and Leadville. He sent his car by rail to Palisade.
Also in 1903, a man asked the Grand Junction City Council to approve a franchise for an automobile painting service (known today as a taxi). Not approved.
In July 1903, three men traveling from San Francisco to New York in a Packard stopped here. Thompson, Utah The trip from Springs to Grand Junction took him 18 hours.
In May 1904, two Grand Junction physicians, Knud Hanson and HR Bull, became the city’s first car owners. The Sentinel said they “each purchased a Rambler runabout vehicle that they will now use to visit patients.”
Two months later, the Sentinel reported on the first automobile accident. When a horse pulling a carriage driven by local merchant CD Smith encounters Bull and his car, he is frightened. Mr. Smith and his wife were thrown from the carriage and suffered minor injuries.
In 1903, a new law in Denver required car owners to “obtain a license and display their motor vehicle plates in large numbers.”
Over the next few years, many local governments followed suit. However, it was not until 1913 that Colorado instituted a statewide automobile registration. Money earned from licenses was used to improve roads.
Building better roads was critical to the future of automobile transportation. In December 1904, D.T. Clark, who had taken an automobile trip from Denver to Grand Junction in 1903, abandoned his second trip. “The nature of the road took away any enjoyment that could have been gained from the journey,” the Sentinel said.
The Colorado Automobile Club, organized in 1902, said one of its goals was “to promote good road traffic.” The club held statewide meetings in 1905 and 1906, calling for road improvements. The 1906 convention created the State Highway Commission and drafted legislation to establish a state road system.
Congratulatory telegrams were sent to Colorado from officials in Washington, D.C., including President Teddy Roosevelt. The president may have had personal reasons for wanting good roads in Colorado.
During a hunting trip to the Western Slope in 1905, Roosevelt brought a wireless telegraph to his hunting camp so he could contact his team in Washington. “Army motor vehicles carry field equipment as far as roads will allow, and then the machines are transferred to the backs of horses,” the Sentinel reported.
Although the first attempt to create a state highway commission failed, auto clubs and their allies continued their efforts. Approved in 1909 with $50,000 for road construction.
A 1913 law provided additional funding through license fees for more than 13,000 cars, motorcycles, and trucks in Colorado at the time. The fee was split in half by the county where the vehicle was registered.
In Mesa County, the first year’s revenue was only $987.50, the county’s share of license fees for 211 cars and 52 motorcycles.
source: “The Arrival of the Automobile and Road Improvements in Colorado,” by Leroy R. Hafen, Colorado Magazine, January 1931. “Motor Vehicle Registration by State, 1900-1995” Federal Highway Administration. Historic newspapers can be found at www.newspapers.com.
Bob Silbernagel’s email is bobsilbernagel@gmail.com.