Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

DAYTON–Craig and Kathy Mitchell of Greenwood, Ind., overnighted here on June 19, 2023, 100 years to the day that his grandfather, grandmother, great grandfather and grand aunt came through driving a 1919 Ford Model T.

In October, 1922, Iliff Mitchell, 29, and his wife Oma, 27, along with Iliff's sister Roxie, 27, and Iliff's and Roxie's father James Mitchell, with their crops in the ground and rushing to beat wintertime snows, departed Trafalgar, Ind., destination: Redlands, Calif. Their intent was to reach sunny Southern California to spend a pleasant winter instead of suffering through a Midwest winter.

The modern Mitchells are traveling in more comfortable style: a powerful Chevrolet Suburban pulling a 29-foot travel trailer with all the comforts of home. The 1919 Model T had no heater, no windows, no air conditioning–wait...the heat and air conditioning worked in reverse: hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Back in 1922, the foursome departed Indiana on the second Friday in October, the 13th. A Model T's top speed is about 42 m.p.h., yet the condition of roads would suggest that the nearly three weeks on the road were arduous, to say the least. "For 19 days," Craig said, "they went as hard as they can go to reach Redlands. The highways didn't have numbers, they had names."

They camped every night, Mitchell noted, and had a budget of $125 for the trip, which made the sting of a $10 fine for speeding they received while going through a small Kansas town even worse. The Model T didn't have a speedometer, and the policeman didn't have any way to gauge their speed, Mitchell said, but he fined them and collected on the spot, nevertheless.

The route from Trafalgar, a town near Indianapolis, to Denver, Colo., is nearly a straight line of over 900 directly west, and was driven through on about the eighth or ninth day of the trip. They had overnighted just east of Denver then angled south to spend the next night in Colorado Springs.

The next night was spent near Trinidad, Colo., then Las Vegas, N.M., where the route across the Continental Divide continued west, across New Mexico and into Flagstaff, where the foursome spent their first night in a hotel–because it had snowed.

Just under three weeks from when they departed Indiana, they arrived in Redlands on November 1. Relatives there had orange groves, which, Mitchell said, is now the location of an interchange on the interstate freeway.

His grandfather was a skilled mechanic, and cast around Redlands, landing a job with a garage. He also wanted to make some modifications to the Model T's axel so it would handle steep grades with less trouble.

-Chronicle photo

Kathy and Craig Mitchell camped overnight in Dayton Monday, June 19, 100 years to the day after his grandparents, great-grandfather and great aunt did on June 19, 1923, when passing through driving a Ford Model T. Mitchell holds the camera used in 1923 to document the trip.

After a pleasant winter and spring in sunny Southern California, the four travelers departed on June 5, 1923, pushing up the coast with sight-seeing diversions to Sacramento, Yosemite National Park, Grants Pass, Ore., and up the Oregon Coast to Corvallis and Portland. The plan was to turn east to see Yellowstone.

On this this leg of the journey, the Model T put-putted through Dayton, June 19, 1923.

According to their meticulously kept journal, "June 19, 1923: We drove 168 miles today. We had to put on a rear radius rod and two tires, which were punctured while we were sitting by the curb in Dayton, Washington. We camped in Dayton, Washington."

"The cost to camp in Dayton was 25 cents," Mitchell said.

From Dayton, the motored up to Coeur d'Alene, across the mountains into Montana, through Yellowstone, south through Wyoming and then straight east to Chicago.

They finished the round robin, coincidentally, on a Friday the 13th, Mitchell said. They returned to the farm, which is still in family, owned by cousin who raises sheep. Mitchell's grandparents raised cattle.

The Mitchells are still on the road and can be followed at the website: followthepapaw.com.