Herman and Zoe in their wedding picture. This would have been two years prior to this trip.
My Maternal Grandfather was an interesting man with eclectic automotive tastes. Seven years ago, I wrote about his many cars in this article: Cars of My Grandfather
At that time, I mentioned a trip he made in the summer of 1935, departing Kiester, Minnesota to visit an international exposition in San Diego, California. Joining him on the journey was my Grandmother Zoe, her brother Don Kinkade, and Grandma’s new sister in law, Marjorie. The trip took 3 1/2 weeks, and covered around 4,700 miles.
The thought of crossing the country by car in the depths of the Depression fascinates me, but since the trip occurred 26 years before my birth (and two years before Mom arrived on the scene), I have no memory of the event. However, Grandpa Herman did keep a journal, which my Mother recently gave me.
I’ve created four posts sharing the details of this adventure, where you’ll see Grandpa Herman’s words in standard text. In addition, I’ve added maps for each day of the trip, period photos, and my own comments in italicized text. Enjoy! D/S
1935 Godfrey-Kinkade Expedition By Herman Godfrey
(A report on a vacation trip taken by Zoe and Herman Godfrey and Don and Marjorie Kinkade.)
July 24th
The first leg of the trip- Travelers would see row crops in South Dakota up to the Missouri River (Chamberlain), and grazing land from there to the Black Hills
After considerable trouble getting started we left home with the Black Hills as our first destination on July 24th, about 2:30 PM and had supper just over the line in South Dakota. The crops looked fine all along the road. From appearances, South Dakota has the best small grain crop in several years.
Farmers harvesting hay in South Dakota around 1935
We arrived in Chamberlain about 9 o’clock and decided to drive on for awhile, and of course hit only small towns, so we finally decided to go on to Rapid City. We hit some very rough detours and did not arrive in Rapid City till four o’clock Thursday morning.
Donald and Marjorie went to a hotel and Zoe and I drove out on an old abandoned road and slept in the car. We planned to sleep until late but the sun came in the windows so hot at 6 o’clock that we slept but little after that and drove back to town about seven. We brought some groceries, then went to the hotel for the other kids. They were already up, the heat having driven them out too.
Don and Marjorie were newlyweds, so I’m guessing the hotel stay was a special treat for the new couple. For the duration of the trip, both couples camped or stayed with friends along the way.
July 25th
Lots of interesting scenery on this drive- You’ll find the “Pigtail Bridges” near Keystone, South Dakota
We had a lunch in Rapid City and started for the southern part of the hills.
It was a beautiful drive thru the hills since they had changed the road since we were there before. They have a good many tunnels on the new road several under and over bridges when you cross one bridge under another then switch back and go over the top bridge.
Based on Grandpa’s description of the “under and over” bridges, I did a bit of research and discovered the Black Hills area has several, first completed in 1932. Engineers called them “Spiral Bridges,” while the locals called them “Pigtail Bridges.” D/S
A Black Hills “Pigtail Bridge”
I took the wrong road at the State Game Lodge and we lost quite a bit of time south of the hills. We finally wound up in Austin where we had dinner.
As a side note, I find no record of an Austin, South Dakota. Either Grandpa recalled the wrong name, or the town has dried up and blown away. D/S
The CWA and CCC have built dams and formed several new lakes in the southern hills. We drove by them in the afternoon and to the top of Mt. Coolidge. From Mt. Coolidge we drove into the game lodge and over the Needles drove to Sylvan lake and the foot of Harney Peak.
If you haven’t been to the Black Hills, these are the Needles…
…and this is the very picturesque Sylvan Lake
We had planned on climbing Harney Peak, but it was getting late so we gave it up. We had planned supper high on the hills, west of Sylvan lake and went on thru the center of the hills to Hill City. It was dark before we arrived at Hill City, but we couldn’t find a decent place to camp in town so we drove off the road beside a creek. I snagged a stump with the radiator grill and pulled the grill loose when I backed off.
Throughout his description of the Black Hills, Grandpa makes no mention of Mount Rushmore. It was under construction at the time (and had been since 1927), but the work did not wrap up until 1941, so it was not on the destination list during their trip. D/S
July 26th
Their last day in South Dakota
I assured everyone that we’d be in the shade in the morning, so the sun wouldn’t bother us. But the sun came up in the north in the morning so we rolled out about seven again. After this I’ll know enough to get my directions from the stars.
Spearfish Canyon
Friday we drove thru the center of the hills to see where the world’s largest gold mine is located. Then made the mistake of driving thru Spearfish Canyon. The road was terribly rough and shook our trailer practically to pieces.
Grandpa makes several references to his trailer throughout this report, but makes little mention of his car. While none of his kids were born yet, my Uncle is pretty sure Grandpa had an older Plymouth in 1935, which he traded in two years later for a new ’37 Desoto. While I can’t find any photographic records of the Plymouth, I do have this family image from sometime in 1938 showing the family Desoto in the background. D/S
A picture taken several years later with Grandpa, Grandma, my mother and the ’37 Desoto
After our Canyon trip we started for Camp Crook, S.D., where my sister and her husband, Rev. Torbert live. So all Friday afternoon we were in the land of sage brush, buttes, jack rabbits and antelope. The latter were the only interesting things in this part of our trip. It had been cool and nice in the hills but here it was hotter than hot.
We broke a spindle arm on our trailer about the middle of the afternoon and about 30 miles from any town. We bent the arm a little and found that we could travel about 15 or 20 miles an hour with the wheel only coming loose occasionally and finally got to Buffalo where we had the arm welded and had supper. We drove on to Camp Crook after supper and spent the night.
July 27th
Mostly a travel day, with only one scenic stop over
Saturday forenoon we spent in hunting up a Model T Ford rear end to put under the trailer instead of the front end which wasn’t doing so well.
Based on this description of the trailer and the parts used to repair it, I assume the trailer was home built affair based on a Model T frame. D/S
The Devil’s Tower is probably the most famous monument mentioned this week, but I included a picture just in case…
Shortly after noon we left, headed for the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. The Devil’s Tower is really something out of the ordinary; from the base to the top is over eight hundred feet and the sides are very steep in most cases being almost perpendicular. The grain of the rock is vertical. There is a fine pine woods park at the base where we had our supper.
We drove rather late that night and spent the night in Sheridan, Wyoming. We had a hard time finding a camping place at night and finally camped on a rural school grounds. The heat, mosquitoes and grasshoppers drove us out early.
July 28th
Another big travel day, with a scenic stop on the Shoshone River
We went over the Big Horn Mts. To Yellowstone instead of thru Buffalo Gap. I don’t understand why more don’t go over them; for it’s a magnificent drive. On the east side the road climbs by a series of switchbacks clear to the top on the outside of the mountains so that you can always see out and watch the plains stretch out farther and farther from you. The tops of the mountains are comparatively flat and when we went thru just beautiful with flowers of red, purple and yellow. After the heat of Sheridan it didn’t seem possible that we’d have to close windows to keep warm but such was the case.
Perhaps some people do not venture over the Big Horn Mts. because of the narrow steep road on the west side; many of the corners are very short and blind. Coming down we heard women screaming and when we got down to them found they had run their car over the edge. It had not gone clear off but badly enough so that it would require a wrecker to get it back so we could be of no assistance. Back on the plains it was scorching hot.
Shoshone Canyon Dam (Now Buffalo Bill Dam)
We stopped at Cody long enough to see Buffalo Bill’s monument, then drove up Shoshone Canyon to the dam. We got out above the dam and looked it over. Since none of us had ever seen a large dam it was quite a grand sight. The canyon itself with its tremendous sheer high sides was quite a sight.
The Shoshone Canyon Dam was completed in 1910, so it was old news when they came through in 1935. The river remains the Shoshone, but the dam and reservoir were renamed “Buffalo Bill” in 1946 on the occasion of Mr. Cody’s 100th birthday. D/S
We arrived in Yellowstone shorty before dark, cooked our supper by the side of Yellowstone lake and the Fishing Bridge. We were all tired and went to bed immediately after supper.
July 29th
Day 1 in Yellowstone- Park sights Grandpa called out in 1935 continue to draw visitors today
In the morning we put up the tent for a bathroom and spent part of the forenoon getting some of the travel stain off from us. Then we drove along the west side of Yellowstone lake and had dinner at Lewis Lake. We drove on to the south entrance as we thought some of going into the Teton Mountains but found out we couldn’t get up into them so we started back. We thought all the time that we could get to Old Faithful Geyser from Thumb but when we got back to Thumb we found it was a one way road from the other way so we had to go back to Fishing Bridge and north to the Falls.
The Yellowstone Fishing Bridge, around 1925
The Falls were beautiful and a lot of water was going over them. We went up to Artist’s Point where we had a wonderful view of the lower falls and the Canyon. We camped that night at the Canyon.
The bears had been around some at Fishing Bridge but did no damage. We obtained some pictures of them close to the Continental Divide when we went to the south entrance. But one old bear was after our food supply the night at the Canyon. We had put our provisions under the car to prevent the bears from getting them. Donald and Marjorie slept in the car and Donald chased the bear away several times. Zoe got frightened and screamed once and I thought the bear had struck her head in the trailer but she hadn’t. The old bear finally decided that she couldn’t get at the groceries under the car so she went and got her two cubs and darned if they didn’t drag our meat out and she took it away from them and ate it. Satisfied at last they didn’t bother us the remainder of the night.
This is the first mention of bears, but Grandpa’s report is sprinkled with further interactions with Yogi and Boo Boo. He reports these encounters in a humorous vein, but it is clear Grandma was NOT amused by these events. D/S
July 30th
More Yellowstone sights, and a trip into Montana. We’ll head to the Pacific Northwest in next week’s episode
Tuesday morning we headed south on another trail to Old Faithful and other geysers. We hit Old Faithful lucky, only had to wait about 15 minutes to see the eruption. We secured a picture of Old Faithful and headed back. In the afternoon we visited Mammoth Hot Springs and saw some new spring which had just broken out. Then we headed out of the park, stopping Gardiner, Montana, to see if we had any mail, but we didn’t.
The Devil’s Slide in Montana. Picture Credit- Tony Hisgett via Wikipedia
North of Gardiner we saw the Devil’s Slide, a mammoth steep slide running clear to the top of the mountains. Donald thought it would be a great place to stage a motorcycle hill climbing contest. We camped that night between Livingstone and Bozeman in a small cleft in the mountains beside a spring. We were right beside the Northern Pacific track on quite an upgrade. They pulled their trains up with two very large locomotives and a large pusher.
A note on meals: Grandpa mentions lunch, dinner, and supper throughout this report, and these words have different meanings in different cultures, times, and regions. In southern Minnesota, dinner refers to the noontime meal, and supper refers to the meal at the end of the day. When Grandpa mentions “lunch” he’s referring to a pick up meal along the road, which could be eaten anytime. In most cases, lunch would be a substitute for a noon or evening meal, but occasionally folks would squeeze a dinner, lunch, and supper into the same day.
Additional Posts:
Post 2- Yellowstone to San Francisco
Post 3- San Francisco to Los Angeles (via Yosemite)
Post 4- Los Angeles to Home
Can’t believe they averaged 70 mph on the first part of the trip – the roads from Kiester to Rapid City must have been smooth and straight !
Yeah, Dave pulled these 1935 vintage Google Map screen shots from his grandfather’s diary, also.
That’s not realistic.
Thanks for sharing, Dave. A great Sunday morning read!
I wish I had something like this from my Grandfather, but neither of mine were really much of a writer.
Wow, what a wonderful memento from a bygone era. Just reading the everyday way of doing things (camping on a school grounds, or by a deserted road, are just things unfathomable to people these days. And casually mentioning that he accidentally ripped the grille of the car… Oh, it’s all in a day’s travels!
And when he writes of a road that’s “terribly rough” I have a feeling he’s not exaggerating. By the standards of the day, that must have been pretty bad.
I can’t wait to hear the next installments.
On a (somewhat) related note, I have my own experience with Supper vs. Dinner:
When I was a young kid in the late 1970s, my parents belonged to a tennis club in Philadelphia. One day, for some reason now completely forgotten, they had to go do something without me, so my folks asked another couple at the club, Mr. & Mrs. Wilson, if they could take to their home for a few hours.
The Wilsons were in their 50s, and didn’t have kids. But they did have a new (’78 or ’79) pea green Buick Regal, which I loved to look at. If I remember correctly, they even let me sit in it once and were amused that a little kid loved their car. Anyway, I was overjoyed to go home with them and get a ride in the Regal.
Dad told me that I needed to behave perfectly because the Wilsons weren’t used to dealing with Kid Stuff, and told me to do whatever they asked of me. I agreed. After all, it was a ride in the Regal, so I could put up with anything for that!
I remember walking to the Regal in the tennis club’s parking lot, when Mr. Wilson said “We’ll be driving back to our house and then we’ll have supper.” I had NO IDEA what supper was… I’d never heard the term before. But I feared it was something like scrapple, which at the time I hated. So I said, politely, “I’m sorry, but I don’t eat supper.”
The Wilsons just stared at me completely flummoxed. What kind of kid doesn’t eat supper?? I remember we had a few awkward go-arounds with questions-and-answers, until they finally guessed that I was confused about what supper was. After a while, we all laughed. And I loved the ride in their Regal.
I grew up in a family that was bilingual about dinner and supper, so I could translate. 🙂
OK, some of us have to know – did you finally grow out of that “I don’t like scrapple” foolishness? I learned to like it on visits to my Philly grandparents. My father couldn’t stand the stuff, but I liked it and have passed the appreciation on to two of my three kids. Even my Mrs. likes it.
For those who do not know scrapple, here is my take on the stuff: https://jpcavanaugh.com/2019/08/16/scrapple-a-love-letter/
Ha! Yes, I eventually developed an appreciation for scrapple… I love it now. My aversion to it as a kid was because it was gooey.
My Parents are from Pennsylvania (Northeastern) and we learned to appreciate scrapple I think from our frequent trips there…my Dad’s family is part German, and I think that’s why we were exposed to it…we lived all around the country (my Dad was a chemist, and involved very early on with semiconductors; he worked for a large number of companies as the business matured).
My brother-in-law is a native Vermonter who knew nothing of scrapple, but he had a business trip once to Harrisburg and was describing his breakfast to my sister…which turned out to be scrapple…my sister gave him a reaction like he was the luckiest guy to be eating it, but you could tell from my brother-in-law’s face that he didn’t appreciate what he had eaten.
We now live in central Texas, and despite the number of German immigrants here, scrapple is pretty much unheard of…but since there are so many people coming here from all over, you can get a wider variety of food than one might think…for instance, Tastykake (albeit it at a higher price) and scrapple is in some markets. My Dad (who was a pretty good cook…my theory is that most chemists are good cooks) showed me how to fry up scrapple, being patient till it fries well on a side before turning it over. We didn’t have it often at home, but more of a treat. Now that my Dad’s gone though, we haven’t had it since (almost 4 years now).
Back to the subject of this post, about 22 years ago I drove from central Texas up to South Dakota…the way the roads go from here, it is probably the longest trip I’ve made without going on an interstate (probably less than 100 miles of the trip). There was road construction around Custer City when I was there and the roads were all mud…I’ve driven in snow many times, but driving in mud was an experience I guess I never had previously, it was slick (guess it should be obvious but I never thought about it previously). The bottom of my trousers was caked with mud even just getting out of my car since of course the mud stuck to the tumblehome of the car. Made me appreciate “solid” roads (we have kaliche roads in central Texas but even when it rains they are much easier to drive on than mud).
What an amazing trip – I’m itching to read the next three entries.
The part of this that is most captivating is simply how different things were in 1935. Whether that’s good or bad is subjective, but simply gaining insight into a different time and place is as entertaining and meaningful as the journey itself.
Thanks for doing these!
It’s wonderful that you have this record of his trip, even if no pictures. My maternal grandfather also took a cross-country trip in the 1930’s but I have no details, as far as I know, other than that he and his friends (he didn’t go with my grandmother or my mom and her sister) possibly visited the Ford HQ in Dearborn, so presumably he was driving a Ford.
You had me wondering at first what they were driving. A Plymouth from the early 30s would not have been a bad choice at all.
Count me as another who is captivated by travel in that era. My mother was born in 1933 and none of her many family stories involved a long trip, so they likely stayed reasonably close to their farming community, with nothing over, say 100 miles from home.
I don’t think I would much like the bear thing, and the idea of sleeping in one of those cars with a fabric roof would not have made me feel very secure. One of those would have made for an “easy open” container, if you ask me. I have also understood that the mid 1930s set a lot of summer heat records. I can imagine that travel in those conditions would not be pleasant. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.
I occasionally like to listen to some old time radio programs from the 30’s on Internet radio. There are a lot of old commercials of course, and the ones about cars, gasoline, car parts, and car maintenance fascinate me. Cars were much more maintenance intensive in those days – for example you were supposed to have your car greased every few thousand miles, and the ads imply there are dozens of grease points; enough that “good” service stations kept charts of all the grease points on popular models so as not to miss any. It was worth advertising when a car battery only needed water twice a year – it needed so little water it made camels jealous! It was just expected that you’d replace your spark plugs about once a year when you had your tune-up: “Points and Plugs, Please!” I don’t know about tire life in the 30’s but flats and blowouts were apparently pretty common.
I wonder how much maintenance would be required on a tip like the one in this amazing story.
Fascinating, thanks Dave, I know how much work this post (series) was for you. I’m glad we could host it here. Travelling sure wasn’t like it is these days, that’s for sure.
Wow, it does sound like a somewhat torturous trip. But indeed, the views must have been enough grand sights to make it worthwhile.
Too bad you never found the referenced photos to go with the text.
1936 was the summer of the heat wave that set all-time records in the Midwest. My Dad’s best friend liked to tell the story of the day they were harvesting hay and got the afternoon off because the temperature gauge registered mid-100-teens and his dad thought that would be “too hot for the horses.” But there were hot summers-and winters-throughout that trying decade.
In our country neighborhood, breakfast, dinner and supper were the three main meals, with a light “lunch”-usually sandwiches, a baked good, hot coffee or lemonade (seasonally)-in between each. Farming burned up a lot of calories. A “lunch” could also mean a light, portable meal taken on the road or to a picnic. (“Can I make you a lunch for the road?” my aunts would ask when I visited. ) We ate well!
So fun to compare this with my family’s vacations to this area in the ’60’s. I cannot imagine driving those roads for that distance. Intrepid is the word.
“In our country neighborhood, breakfast, dinner and supper were the three main meals”
Yep- The same as my Grandfather’s area. I didn’t mention breakfast, since “to break fast” seems to be near universal. As far as “brunch” goes, it wasn’t a word I heard around my grandparents, but according to Wikipedia it in use by 1930. Maybe so, but not in Southern Minnesota.
What a great adventure.
A look around shows no Austin at all in South Dakota. I looked through maps dating back to the 1890’s
I suspect that it was probably Arpan which was in the area and lasted as a small town until the 1950’s. It is now a ghost town
I cannot wait until the next installment
Sounds like “not too many good nights of sleep” along the trip.
I love stories like this. Looking forward to the next chapter. Reminds me of stories of trips my grandparents took. They would take 3 or 4 spare tires and patch kits and tools. Is this the town of Kiester that is featured in the Preparation H commercials?
” Is this the town of Kiester that is featured in the Preparation H commercials?”
Yep- The real deal. I used to spend a couple of weeks every summer visiting family in Kiester, so I recognize all the commercial locations. Kiester isn’t really prosperous at this stage in the game, but they’ve survived better than other nearby towns. Their success may be related to the Kee Theater, a movie house that just keeps chugging along, which sets them apart from the other small towns.
Another amusing thing about Kiester- For many years they sent a young lady to the North Iowa Band festival to compete for the title of “Festival Queen.” Her title?
Miss Kiester.
I should note that as Kiester alumni, my folks don’t always appreciate me sharing that piece of small town lore…
I would have loved to see any pictures of when he got to San Diego from back then to compare it to what I know from 1968-1982.
My father, now deceased, took a road trip of a few hundred miles on the East Coast with some of his friends in the early or mid-1930s. I didn’t think to draw him out, so I don’t know many details. He said they had 23 flat tires, which I assume wasn’t out of line at the time. That would strain my frustration tolerance past the breaking point!
My Dad’s family didn’t have a car (till the 60’s) but I remember him telling me about a trip he made from his home in northeastern PA to Skyline drive in Virginia. That was about as far as I think he ventured until he was on his own, when he drove out to California for work…our house there was near Foothill Blvd, which I’m thinking is the old route 66…I didn’t drive out there with him (was too young) but I did drive back to Pennsylvania when he returned a few years later.
I’m sure your Dad got good at patching inner tubes….I used to ride bicycles, and I’ve been on more than one trip where I spent a good part of it patching my innertubes on several tires…despite carrying a spare….you become your own pit crew…even if it is more than 100 degrees out.
I stumbled across this doing some research on the Kee Theatre in Kiester.
I grew up there and my dad owned and operated the theatre for many years. My brother is still involved with the community group that operates it now.
Dad also worked part-time for Kinkade and Godfrey driving gravel trucks and on the rock crusher. I remember Clark Kinkade. The only Godfrey I remember is (I think) one of the sons (can’t remember his name) who taught school in Kiester in the early 1970’s.
Coincidentally I recently came across a notebook my maternal grandmother kept of one of their long trips out west. I have some old 8mm home movies that I think go with it. They aren’t quite as old – 1950 I think – but like you, I share a fascination with road trips back in the day and you’ve given me the idea to try to retrace their route with frame snips from the home movies. One of these days ….
I’m collecting memories of the Kee Theatre for a project I’m working on. If you have any you’d like to share contact me by email. Thks