Automobiles were new technology and not nearly as reliable as a good horse in 1908, especially in remote Wyoming.
Even so, an Italian auto team tried to drive across the Cowboy State’s rugged and remote terrain, and ended up in a battle for their lives against wolves.
They were in a highly-hyped race across the world and tried to cross the roads in Wyoming knowing they would be dangerous. What they didn’t realize was the true danger was the wildlife.
Known as The Greatest Race, they were competing in the New York to Paris auto race and had already been driving for nearly a month.
The Italians and their fellow competitors had already battled deep snow, mud, and flat tires to reach Wyoming.
Ahead was more danger and the American car that was zooming ahead in first place.
The entire world was watching this race through regular dispatches sent from the trail, and many of the people along the route had never even seen a car close up before.
Cheyenne was one of the few cities that was located along this 22,000-mile racecourse.
The race was considered one of the greatest feats, and most foolhardy, ever attempted in the then 13-year-old sport of auto racing. Nothing like it has ever been attempted since.
The route was originally planned to take drivers across America, through Canada into Alaska, across the Bering Strait, over Siberia and then through Russia and on to Europe and the finish line in Paris.
By starting in February, the organizers hoped that the rivers and dog sled trails in Alaska, as well as the Bering Strait, would still be frozen so the racers could use them as roads.
Thirteen cars and teams to drive and take care of them had entered, but only six made it to the starting line in New York City.
Three were from France, and one competitor each from Germany, Italy and America.
America had come close to not having an entry at all because most executives in the U.S. automobile industry didn’t think the race was doable.
At the last moment, the Thomas Flyer Co. entered a car and threw together a team.
The manufacturers were pessimistic about their chances and believed the car would only make it to Chicago.
The 1908 New York to Paris competitors were greeted in the Wyoming frontier towns of Cheyenne, Rock Springs and Green River. They also met any ranchers and farmers along the way. (Getty Images) 
The 1908 New York to Paris competitors were greeted in the Wyoming frontier towns of Cheyenne, Rock Springs and Green River. They also met any ranchers and farmers along the way. (Getty Images) 
In Nebraska, Buffalo Bill Cody met the team competing in the 1908 New York to Paris auto race at his mansion and gave them each a cowboy outfit. (Getty Images)
Wyoming Defended As Good Route
Before the race had ever begun, The New York Times published concerns about the route through Wyoming.
The newspaper had said that Wyoming was regarded as the most difficult stage of the race and Wyoming residents protested loudly about this judgement against their state.
The Rev. Alfred C. Hogbin objected to this criticism and declared Sherman Hill between Laramie and Cheyenne was a far better road than the average New York road.
The Feb. 10, 1908, edition of the Laramie Boomerang proudly proclaimed how this minister explained the route to the doubting New Yorkers.
“The point at which the road crosses Sherman Hill, is 8,000 feet above sea level and the surface is far smoother than is the average surface at the state of New York,” Hogbin said. “There are no canyons, and the traveler can see on all sides a sweep of country from fifty to a hundred miles in extent.”
Hogbin did admit that the winter season was not the best time to travel by automobile in the mountain country, but that Sherman Hill was comparatively free from snow.
“The winds blow fiercely in that high, open region, and blizzards are not infrequent,” he warned. “Certainly, one could lose his way on Sherman Hill for the landscape is of a striking uniformity to a traveler when the ground is covered with snow.”
However, Hogbin believed that the hospitality of Wyoming ranches would be there to assist a motorist in distress.
“On the whole, the automobilist will find the line of the Union Pacific in Wyoming a much better section of the transcontinental route to travel,” Hogbin said.
Racing Into Wyoming
Regular dispatches were posted on the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone building in Cheyenne and Wyoming newspapers printed daily updates.
Bets were being placed on which car would win with hopes pinned on the lone American car. The Union Pacific Railroad even scheduled the Flyer to use its tracks like it would a train.
In Nebraska, the competitors had been hosted by Buffalo Bill Cody, who had outfitted them in cowboy duds before they entered the “Wild West.”
The unending farmlands of the Midwest soon gave way to the drier, open lands and vast vistas of Wyoming, according to blogger Curt Mekemson.
The flat and rolling plains the drivers had been going through across the Great Plains turned to towering mountains.
Towns and cities became farther apart and people fewer. There were no gas stations and the automobilists found that the already poor roads they had been following became little more than tracks in the dirt.
When there weren’t any roads or railroad tracks to follow, participants in the Great Race were left following the historic Westward trails.
When roads were not available, the competitors in the 1908 New York to Paris auto race used the railroad tracks in order to cross the difficult terrain in the Rocky Mountains. In Wyoming, they found a convenient crossing near Tie Siding. (rarehistoricalphotos.com) 
When roads were not available, the competitors in the 1908 New York to Paris auto race used the railroad tracks in order to cross the difficult terrain in the Rocky Mountains. In Wyoming, they found a convenient crossing near Tie Siding. (rarehistoricalphotos.com) 
he 1908 New York to Paris auto race was held during the winter, not an ideal time to drive automobiles across America. Most areas did not even have proper roads and asphalt wouldn’t be invented for several years. (Getty Images)
A Welcome By Wolves
One night, alone on the prairie and fighting a storm in Wyoming, the Italian team claimed they were surrounded by a pack of 50 or more wolves that circled their car, yipping with anticipation of an easy meal.
The driver blew the horn and his mechanic shone a spotlight at the wolves, but neither effort discouraged the hungry predators. They kept circling closer.
Finally, the team broke out their rifles and shot several of the wolves, reportedly.
The rest of the pack finally fled.
The evidence of this confrontation was gathered up by the local townspeople who sold the hides for the bounty paid by the government.
Speedy Arrival In Cheyenne
The Thomas Flyer was ahead of the Italians by days and their arrival in Cheyenne was greatly anticipated.
The American car was leading the 22,000-mile race from New York City to Paris, and Wyoming newspapers had been carrying the story since before it even started.
It was shortly after noon on March 8 when the whistle from the Cheyenne Shop and Light Co. announced that the big Thomas machine had reached the city.
Cheyenne residents left church early and were ready to greet the car that was breaking speed records as it zoomed into the frontier city.
“Practically the whole city turned out to welcome the nervy team,” the Wyoming Tribune reported. “Being Sunday, it was a well-dressed, good-humored crowd and was Cheyenne at its best."
Nearly 20 cars had sped out of town to act as an escort to the Thomas Flyer, and when they appeared on Seventeenth Street, the spectators said they were driving so fast that it looked like a race rather than the parade they were expecting.
“The cars appeared almost without warning and dashed down Seventeenth street without regard to speed ordinances,” the Wyoming Tribune reporter said.
The Thomas car flew a big American flag and driver Montague Roberts bowed his acknowledgements to the cheers of the crowd.
He had been escorted into the city by a long string of Cheyenne and Denver autos, all flying flags and whirling along at top speed.
Charlie Irwin and a band of cowboys pranced their horses around the cars in a wonderful display of horsemanship, which the reporter declared would make the newcomers think they had at last reached the Wild West for certain.
The 1908 New York to Paris competitors were greeted in the Wyoming frontier towns of Cheyenne, Rock Springs and Green River. They also met any ranchers and farmers along the way. (Getty Images) 
When the 1908 New York to Paris auto race was planned out, it was not mapped out by roads but by route. It was up to the competitors to find a road to drive on, if they were lucky. Often in the western states such as Wyoming, this meant either wagon roads, railroad tracks or across the prairie. (rarehistoricalphotos.com) 
The Wyoming newspapers followed the New York to Paris auto race with enthusiasm as the competitors were getting close to the Cowboy State. Cheyenne hosted them with an enthusiastic crowd and treated the team to a special banquet in their honor. (Wyoming Tribune, Cheyenne, March 1908) 
The Wyoming newspapers followed the New York to Paris auto race with enthusiasm as the competitors were getting close to the Cowboy State. Cheyenne hosted them with an enthusiastic crowd and treated the team to a special banquet in their honor. (Wyoming Tribune, Cheyenne, March 1908) 
The Laramie Boomerang opined that they could slow down the German racers in the New York to Paris auto race by routing them by the Laramie brewery!
Grand Reception For The American Car
The Thomas Flyer, dubbed the “American Car,” was equipped with heavy tire chains, extra tires, and parts, bedding, guns and ammunition, speed and distance indicators and weighed with its crew and equipment about 4,000 pounds according to the Wyoming Tribune.
Upon the arrival of the car in Cheyenne, the car was at once taken to the Wright & Lawson garage on Capitol Avenue, where it was completely overhauled and cleaned and two new tires put in place.
The only mechanical issue found was a loose nut. The garage was surrounded nearly all day by an interested crowd that vainly sought to get glimpses of the famous car.
When the car was taken care of, the members of the team found themselves besieged by an immense crowd, and in order to reach their hotel, the whole party formed a wedge and made a determined sortie through the throng that pressed against the building, according to the Wyoming Tribune.
The men were attired in wool-lined canvas coats, popularly called sheepherder’s coats and with a warsack on their shoulders, marched in single file down the middle of the street followed by the usual collection of cheering small boys.
The crowd joked that the men would be mistaken for a sheepherders in their garb, and the teasing was taken good-naturedly from the racers.
A huge bouquet of American beauty roses was presented to the men as a gift from Cheyenne admirers.
The team was wined and dined by the Industrial Club that night before setting off once more on their audacious trip. At Cheyenne, a new race car driver took over and the racers headed up to Alaska.
The Wyoming newspapers kept their readers updated on the progress as the Thomas Flyer made the rest of its journey across America, up through Canada and to Valdez.
The team was then diverted back to Seattle when the Bering Straight was deemed impassable and boarded a ferry for Europe.
Ultimately, the Thomas Flyer was the winner of this 22,000-mile endurance race and Wyoming celebrated as if the win were their own.
Today, car clubs still reenact the drive and the car itself has found a home in at the National Automotive Museum in Reno, Nevada.
The race also proved that Wyoming would need to improve its road system immediately and Good Roads Clubs sprung up across the state as auto enthusiasts took up the cause.
It was through the efforts of these clubs that highways began to be built in the Cowboy State.
The success building out these highways can in part be attributed to the world’s and Wyoming’s fascination with that 1908 race from New York to Paris.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
