Two Men & A Dog On America’s First Road Trip

A ClassicCar.com Exclusive Interview with Dayton Duncan
Author of “Horatio’s Drive”, the Ken Burns documentary aired on PBS

On the evening of May 19, 1903, in the exclusive University Club in San Francisco, a debate raged over the reliability of the new horseless carriages that had been showing up on the streets of major American cities.

Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, a 31-year-old retired doctor from Vermont who was passing through San Francisco, accepted a $50 wager that he could drive a car all the way to New York City in less than three months. Within four days Jackson hired a 22 year-old bicycle repairman, Sewall K. Crocker, to accompany him; purchased 1903 Winton Touring Car from a San Francisco business man, and headed North to Oregon and then along the route pioneered by Lewis and Clark 100 years earlier.

Thirteen years ago Dayton Duncan became interested in Jackson’s little-known story. He went to the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Vermont Library archives. He began collecting information and pitching the idea of a documentary to film maker colleague Ken Burns. Duncan collaborated with Ken Burns on several projects including documentaries and books on the Civil War and Lewis and Clark. When Duncan’s wife tracked down Horatio Nelson Jackson’s granddaughters nearly a decade later, together with the cache of unpublished letters and telegrams, they finally had the critical mass of information necessary to produce a documentary and companion book.

ClassicCar.com hooked up with Dayton Duncan for an exclusive interview about making Horatio’s Drive. Duncan wrote the script and co-produced the documentary, and authored the companion book.

The machine Jackson drove across county was a cherry red, 1903 tour car made by Alexander Winton’s company. It was already more than a month old and had over 1,000 miles on it. Nonetheless, Jackson paid $3,000 for the car, $500 more than the list price. The Winton had a two-cylinder, 20-horsepower engine underneath the driver’s seat, with a chain drive, capable of speeds up to 30 miles per hour. The steering wheel was on the right and there was no top or windshield. Jackson removed the back seat to make room for the piles of equipment he purchased for the journey, including a block and tackle with 150 feet of hemp rope, a shotgun, rifle, pistols, ammunition, and a small Kodak camera to record his trip. He named the vehicle the “Vermont”, in honor of his home state.

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