History - Seattle to Vancouver 1911

Six Finish Long Motorcycle Race On Time Limit  Seattle to Vancouver and Return Endurance Test Marked by Mishaps  Find Roads Very Dusty Riders Have Thrilling Experience With Canadian Police  Run Into Storms and Washout, but Finish With Colors Flying

June 6, 1911, Seattle P.I. - Their eyes, ears and hair filled with the dusty soil from two nations and half a dozen counties, and with tales of collisions, broken bridges, encounters with the crown gendermerle and “burn steers” as to the roads by yokels who did not see the need of haste, six men in the motorcycle endurance contest between Seattle and Vancouver, B.V. and return under the auspices of the Seattle Motorcycle Club stuttered into Pioneer Square yesterday and were recorded by J.T. Webber, who stood beneath the totem pole with the entries before him.

Six of Twenty Finish

Many were called into the contest, but few were chosen. More than twenty of the original entries hove into port and tearing their way through the crowd that had gathered to see the finish, caught the eye of the score keeper like a group about the posts of a stock exchange. But their scores were imperfect. They had tarried too long at the control stations en route, they were late under the wire and they had lost the road, so all the honors of a perfect score fell to Nels Christiansen, E.T. Hamilton, Harry Tousey, Carl Hassenpflug, Ray Cotterill and R. Prentice who finished, as laid down in the rules, squad-fashion.

Photographer unknown. A Full format version of this photo available through Color One, Inc. 206.622.7107

Mishaps Stop Many

There were originally thirty-five entries for the start for the round trip, but fatigue, collisions, threats of the provincial police across the boundary and stops for horses that were not wholly city broke fearfully decimated the endurance ranks.

Between the control stations fast records were made, fifty-five and sixty miles an hour being some of the outbursts from the tireless engines. During the times when the road lay straight ahead and no obstructions were sighted, one motorcyclist after another ate the dust raised by the contestants ahead, and ate it cheerfully. Often the dust clouds were the only compass by which the trailers steered a course, the landscape being one solid wall of dust.

At the halfway point in Stanley Park, British Columbia. Only six riders would complete the ride back to Seattle.

Runs Into Cow

J.H. Snell, befouled in one of these dust clouds Sunday afternoon on the northward cruise, suddenly applied the emergency when a large roan blot loomed before him. He was not in time, however, to avoid the shock he knew must come, and he was bowled over and mixed up with his machine when the kind-faced cow that had looked so tenderly at him stood stock-still. Several spokes were missing when Snell limped into the saddle.

Twelve miles out of Bellingham the squad drew up the consternation when they viewed a bridge over a ravine with all its flooring gone. Briefly a council of war was called, and it was decided that nothing short of a walk on a railroad trestle half a mile away would get hem into Seattle. With infinite labor the heavy wheels were pulled, pushed and coaxed down the ravine and up, again, and once more they resumed their way.

Flees From Policeman          

Nels Christiansen fingered the Canadian Territory, allowing several contestants to pass him. A provincial policeman demanded to know the names of the men who had just passed along, declaring he would arrest them in the name of the crown. “You’ve got to show me,” said the cyclist. “Anybody can wear a uniform like yours and call himself a policeman. I’m in a hurry.” And with that, he threw on full speed ahead and was obscured by a cloud of dust.          

The cyclists said the roads as a whole were good. They ran into a down pour at Marysville Sunday, but in fifteen minutes, at full speed, had passed through it into sunshine and level going.          

Arthur Hole, riding along the edge of an embanked roadway, lost control of his machine and plunged headlong into a gully. His legs and arms became entangled in the wheel, and F.M. Spinning, riding leisurely behind, saw a man and a wheel. It was with no little difficulty that he was able to extricate Hole and set him and his machine once more in the road. Horses Fear Machines          

Horses of British Columbia, Christiansen declared, are afraid of motorcycles, where they pay no attention to automobiles, and numerous rearing and hind leg acts on country roads when motorcycles pass have caused much prejudice in the dominion against the machines.          

Three members of the party going up were stopped at New Westminster and threatened with arrest in the name of the crown, but the Seattle endurers persuaded them that the glory of the flag was at stake, and they were allowed to proceed.        

Time-Secheckers were stationed at Bothel, Silver Lake, Everett, Marysville, Sylvania, Stanwood, Milltown, Conway, Mount Vernon and Westminster. Stops for meals were allowed. The distance each way was 177 miles.

The chase vehicle. Photo courtesy of MOHAI