Subsequent to the acquisition of land from France known as the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned an exploration of this new territory. The group, known as the Corps of Discovery, was under the command of Army Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. This group embarked from Camp Dubois in what is now Illinois on May 14, 1804.
In this company of intrepid explorers was twenty-one year old Sergeant Charles Floyd. On August 20, 1804, Floyd died of what is now suspected to be a ruptured appendix. Floyd is buried in what is now Sioux City, Iowa, and was the only member of the expedition to pass away during their journeys.
So what exactly does the Lewis & Clark Expedition, along with Sergeant Floyd, have to do with finding a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker?
Everything. And, like Lewis and Clark, it took some exploring to catch it, having found it in two different states.
We were making a family trip to Sioux City, Iowa. While my excitement level for the trip could most charitably be described as tepid, due to the reason for our going, I had been focussing on the brighter points of it. One of the brighter points was our making an extended pitstop in St. Joseph, Missouri, the town in which we had lived for five years and the first town our teenaged daughter called home.
A brief excursion while downtown was the Missouri Theatre, the place where our daughter had had her first dance recital at age three. As we were standing by the front door reminiscing, I threw out an age old bone to my wife about Miss Chrissy, our daughter’s ditzy dance teacher at the time. As my wife ran with it, providing some variation of her standard statement about that poor woman being so dumb due to her body being overwhelmed supporting her ponderously sized and prematurely saggy mammory glands and how this had terminally compromised the oxygen supply to her brain, I heard a burble that was obviously vintage and nothing any four or six-cylinder engine could ever mimic.
Looking up, I see our featured New Yorker. What a sight it was! Thankfully my daughter had her camera at the ready and she started peeling off shots in rapid succession.
Upon first seeing it, all I could tell was it was a Chrysler and it looked fabulous against the buildings of downtown St. Joseph.
In a quick moment I could tell it was a two-door. A black two-door Chrysler! This was a catch! And it’s 413 V8 sounded phenomenal.
Soon I could read the New Yorker badge on the front fender. This was no Saratoga or Windsor; the New Yorker was trumped only by the 300 in the Chrysler hierarchy. Given the meager production of the 300F in 1960, this was as close to the top dog Chrysler as one is likely to find.
At the time I wasn’t certain this was a 1960, but my hunch was correct. This was the first year for the redesigned follow-up from the 1957 to 1959 series; after touting “Suddenly It’s 1960” three years earlier, Chrysler had inadvertently committed itself to doing something different when it actually was 1960. Production of the 1960 New Yorker two-door hardtop was quite modest at 2,835.
It was obvious the smiling owner of our Chrysler was happy to be stretching the New Yorker’s legs. While I wouldn’t discover it until later, this New Yorker had Wisconsin plates.
My daughter deserves a lot of credit. She peeled off twenty-eight pictures of this Chrysler in the time it took to drive a city block. Picking the best ones to use has been difficult, but it’s a good problem to have.
By this point my yammering on about this Chrysler had hijacked all talk about Miss Chrissy and her compromised oxygen supply. We also realized it was getting late, we still needed to eat, and our goal was to drive for a few more hours before stopping for the night.
As we crossed the street to plan our next move, I simply bid our Chrysler adieu, thinking this encounter had been great while it lasted. It had also provided me some much needed writing fodder; my stash of car pictures has been depleted for quite a while.
Upon our getting in the car and discussing what to eat I got quite a startle as a green 1957 to 1959 DeSoto drove right down the same street used by our black Chrysler. I was able to clearly see the “Firesweep” nameplate better than the rest of the car. What the ….?
You win some, you lose some. Or do you?
I say that as on our way out of town, at a restaurant where a vet’s office used to be and where we had the wife’s cat euthanized in 2006, there sat a 1969 Buick Sport Wagon. This was early May, on a Tuesday, and it was cold and rainy. My only thought was wondering what sort of person attended a car show in those crappy times and conditions.
With Interstate 29 having been closed due to flood damage, we were rerouted up US 71 to Interstate 80. This isn’t the most stimulating drive, particularly when it’s dark and rainy. We stopped for the night 120-0dd miles later in Atlantic, Iowa, (population 7,112) and I had lots of fabulous memories of our Chrysler to keep me perked up for that tedious drive.
Perhaps some of you have made this drive. This is a desolate area, with the only town of any consequence along the way being Maryville (population 11,972). A person needs to have something to keep their brain stimulated, especially at night.
For some of us a black Chrysler is as good a stimulant as caffeine.
We arrived in Sioux City (population 82,684 and the fourth largest city in Iowa) early Wednesday afternoon then early Thursday morning I dropped the wife and daughter off to do their thing. I visited a few museums in town so stay tuned for that. There were some great surprises to be found.
After picking up the females that afternoon, we were heading south on Business 75 in Sioux City. Some distance in front of us I saw a northbound fifties model Ford that had been customized with what appeared to be some Oldsmobile pieces. I then saw a 1955 Packard followed by a 1961 Cadillac and then a Chrysler Airflow.
A Chrysler Airflow? Yes, it was a 1935 two-door Airflow (1936 shown). What in the wide world of sports was going on?
At this point we were nearing the Sergeant Floyd Monument, the burial place of Sergeant Floyd. A Washington Monument style structure was built around 1900 to accompany, and encapsulate, the grave. Poor Sergeant Floyd has had to be moved a few times due to erosion.
This is what I saw. If you look closely our black Chrysler is parked there. This was nearly 48 hours later and 250 miles away from where we had last seen it.
Plus, let’s be honest…what was the likelihood of this being a second, black 1960 New Yorker? I turned around and stuck the spurs to the 1.8T in our Passat. This was simply too good an opportunity.
Sure enough, this was it. Parked next to a 1969 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, my mind momentarily flashed back to my neighbor Orville building a house when in his eighties.
Also parked there was the same Buick Sport Wagon I had seen in St. Joseph. I struck up a conversation with the Buick’s owner and introduced myself. He has been a periodic reader of CC for several years. While I learned enough for a separate post, I’ll divulge just enough at this point to say all the cars were together on purpose. He said the group was taking an automotive tour of the Lewis & Clark Trail and it will be a seven year endeavor. This was Year Three, with this leg having started in Independence, Missouri, and ending in Sioux City.
He had driven his Buick from Texas.
Also there was a second Chrysler Airflow, the second one I had ever seen move under it’s own power. Both instances were within ten minutes of each other.
The Airflow made for the second black, awesome Chrysler found there. It’s amazing to think how much automotive design changed in only twenty-five years.
Sadly I was never able to talk to the owner of the New Yorker. Hopefully she sees this article and speaks up in the comments.
Thank you Captain Lewis, Lieutenant Clark, and Sergeant Floyd. Your contributions to this country were enormous and these contributions are still paying off today. How else would I have ever encountered this New Yorker otherwise?
Keep touring the country, beautiful black Chrysler.
Found May 7, 2019, in St. Joseph, Missouri, and May 9 in Sioux City, Iowa
Pictures by ECS
What a stunning car that Chrysler New Yorker is. I don’t care what anyone says, cars of bygone eras had real soul. Today’s offerings are washing machine white goods boredom builds.
I agree with you Jimmy Kwaka.
Cars are smarter, safe, and more efficient now, but not prettier.
The bygones were beautiful, outside and inside.
Cool car nice find, Kids eh my daughter has sent and shown me photos of cars she saw occasionally asking what they were
Wow Jason, what fortuitous timing!
Some great looking cars in that bunch gathered around that obelisk.
The only car missing from that group is a certain ‘63 Galaxie. 😉
Yes, it was good timing. I ran into the two-door Airflow the next day so I have pictures of both. Seeing these rather made the trip for me.
Certain ’63 Galaxie is still parked in the downstairs garage!!! The generator just got a quick overhaul due to a broken spring, worn brushes, and still original bearings that all conspired to not charge the thing. It’s installed but it seems I have to charge it – something about touching one of the electrodes with a jumper wire from the battery.
Then there’s a bad accelerator pump.
If somebody wants to participate in Year Four of this tour, I’ve got a car for sale that will be great for the trip and the last little bits of sorting will be done.
What you’re referring to is called polarizing. Normally done at the regulator.
Nice story Jason. This brings back memories of my post-divorce roommate’s Yellow Bird, a 12 year old 1960 Chrysler sedan that he got for free and used as a ski car for trips from Long Island to Vermont. It was a runner!
Looks like your daughter is quite skilled at catching moving targets with a camera.
Funny — just yesterday I left a comment on another article about this. When I was a kid, I desperately wanted to learn how to take good motion shots of a moving car. I tried repeatedly, but always got scolded by my father for wasting film. The thought of taking 28 pictures of a single car was the stuff that fantasies were made of!
28 shots would be the luckiest of 24 exposure rolls, carefully loaded to minimize waste. It would also represent about $13, for the film plus processing. Even Car and Driver probably wouldn’t have fired off that many.
Incredible story Jason, and it’s great you got to see this eclectic mix of classic cars in the wild. Seeing them on the road is a greater thrill than parked at a car show!
Indeed it was. The only bad thing was they were so distracting it made it difficult to pay attention while driving.
What a great post.
The very funny US writer Bill Bryson began his autobiography with the line “I was born in des Moines, Iowa. Someone had to be.” He then goes on to sketch an unflattering but utterly affectionate portrait of the state in the course of telling his story growing up there in the ’50’s. One has the impression of a large state with a lot of not a lot. For you to find a CC reader out there in a car very characteristic of this site, in a country the size of the US, is just delightful.
I do hope the New Yorker owner pipes up here. It would really complete things.
Congratulations to your daughter. As RPlaut implies, a moving car is not an easy target.
‘… a large state with a lot of not a lot.’
Justy, your writing style always brings a smile to my face! And I’m another Bryson fan.
I was taken by Jason’s reference to ‘the only town of any consequence’ having a population of nearly 12,000. That’s two and a half times the size of the town where I live (and ten times the population of when we moved here twenty years ago). Guess that makes mine a town of no consequence by American standards. 🙂 I’m happy with that!
You’ve made me rethink my statement as you have a very good point. It certainly wasn’t intended to sound derogatory or denigrating.
There were three towns between St. Joe and Atlantic; other than Maryville one was about 125 people and the other not much more. All that said, the town where I grew up was around 450 so it could be argued I’m in a glass house of sorts!
She had her camera whipped out faster than what Joe Dennis can do. I suspect she took it as a challenge, similar to the pictures she took of the turkey running through our yard about an hour ago.
Wow, you certainly hit the mother lode on something that it doesn’t seem you were that excited about at the outset (the trip itself I mean). That’s a beautiful Chrysler and the others aren’t exactly shabby either. The good word of CC is spreading, it is always a delight to meet someone who knows of it already. Looking forward to more from the area, I’ll be passing through there myself in a few weeks.
That’s right, you are. I’m not sure if running something before then will tantalize you or ruin it. 🙂
That New Yorker is flat gorgeous. You don’t have to squint to read the nameplate, those multiple vertical chrome bars on the back fenders do all the talking – that was a feature on the New Yorker for several years, 56-62 if my memory is correct. I think the 60 Chrysler 2 door is my favorite of that whole generation of Mopars.
And those things are rare – like around 2800 +/- built. Chrysler never sold that many 2 door New Yorkers, and the body was eliminated a few years later, leaving the NY as a 4 door car only.
Isn’t it wonderful when a chance shot results in a usable photo? When you get a slew of them, all the better. An Airflow on the move is a great event as well.
She took an abundance of pictures of the black Airflow. I wound up finding the two-door Airflow the next day and getting a few pictures of it.
Sadly, none show the front end of the cars which is ironic in a sense. But as my daughter said “you always take pictures of the front of cars, nobody ever gets pictures of the back of them.”
“you always take pictures of the front of cars, nobody ever gets pictures of the back of them.”
How true. Whenever I am trying to nail down something at the rear of a car via Google photo searches, those rear views can be hard to come by.
When I was a kid there were still a few Airflows on the street. Not many, but probably more than there are Vega’s or Monza’s (H Body, not Corvair) running around now. Invariably a dull chalky gray, perhaps even very faded black. Not glistening like that beautiful New Yorker. And at the time, not nearly as old.
If I ever hit lotto, one of the things I will be purchasing is a 1960 black Chrysler 300F hardtop, preferably with the Pont A Mousson 4 sp. And I WILL be driving it. Only on nice days of course.
Yeah baby!
For the heck of it, I googled the 300F I’m going to get when I get my lotto check. Apparently, even lotto probably wouldn’t be able to get one. Oh well…..
One of those came up at auction some years ago. It sold for a mere $234,000. There’s always the ’64 300K four speed, only eighty two were built.
Interesting story Jason. The pics of the black Chrysler make me feel 6 years old again. A couple of 59-60 ish Chryslers were in my neighbourhood which made them stand out as Forest Heights was more middle-class blue collar.
The Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta did a ground up restoration on a Chrysler Airflow a few years back. One of the few I’ve ever seen in the flesh.
Your feature also stirs me up a little inside to pack the car and set off on a long road trip to see those US states I have yet to visit in my life. Milder temperatures and long days does that to me.
While the 1960 Chrysler is one of my favorites of the Forward Look cars, I like the New Yorker the least because of the too busy doo-dads like the fake louvers behind the rear wheels and the toilet seat.
For me, the cleanest, simplest Windsor with the least chrome and no toilet seat is the best looking of the bunch. Or maybe a 300 with the toilet seat delete.
Great pictures and a fabulous way to brighten up a dreary, rainy morning here in southern Indiana. It is always a treat when people with old cars actually drive them, as opposed to hauling them around on a trailer. I understand why some people, especially if they have spent a small fortune on the restoration, do this but I much prefer seeing cars as cars rather than as museum pieces. Seeing the pictures of the Chrysler reminds me of my youth and for a few moments I was a child again. Not only is the Chrysler an attractive automobile but the instrument panel on these is a virtual work of art.
It’s a tough call on the trailering versus driving thing, and the statement about a ‘work of art’ has a lot to do with it. I can see someone who regards their car as a pure work of art doing the trailering as their satisfaction is deriving from others admiring their vehicle as a static object, much like a painting or sculpture.
OTOH, it’s just a damn car, and some owner’s enjoyment is deriving not only from others’ admiration, but getting the feeling of being behind the wheel and piloting it down the highway, even if that means taking a chance on it breaking or, worse, having some yahoo put a big dent in it.
Great shots of a great find of a great car in a great write-up. And the Airflow is a great bonus! 🙂
Thank you! Like Jim Klein said, I did hit the mother-lode.
Wow! I love those Forward Look cars, even knowing why most of them ended up in the crusher. We’ve been watching reruns of “Peter Gunn” (love that Mancini music) and apparently the producers had a deal with Chrysler. Just about all the cars are big late-50’s-early 60’s finned beauties (even the cop cars). Generally the bad guys drive the really fancy ones.
I adore the presence of these ’60 Chryslers (and the related DeSotos too). The styling is just so right, so clean. I always felt they messed it up badly the next year.
One thing that really stands out for me is that compound-curved windshield that wraps up into the roof as well as around the corners. Chrysler didn’t just wrap the screen around, but curved it in three dimensions. That must’ve given the glass suppliers fits! Wonder what the scrappage rate was? And the replacement cost? I know the others had something similar with bits of glass that curved up, but I think Chrysler’s was the most extreme.
I feel like I want to look through it from inside with my head close to the glass, to get that goldfish-bowl effect. And just sit back and check out that dash. Then climb out, walk away – fifteen steps would be about right for me nowadays – turn, and feast my eyes on that beautiful styling.
Bliss!
I love the windshields on these too, and glad Chrysler didn’t use vertical or reverse slanted A pillars like the others
Very clever styling .
What serendipity! Great story, Jason. And beautiful cars. Hands down, styling-wise, the ’60 Chrysler was the best of the Mopar family for 1960 and their hardtop roofs wear much better than the Sky-Hi roofs on the Plymouth and Dodge Dart 2-doors.
Things were starting to get squirrelly in Exner’s shop, but somebody kept a deft hand on this one. And what a collection of touring companions.
Great story, nice bit of luck, and your usual charming writing, Jason.
Here in Wisconsin, I’ll keep an eye out for the Chrysler, and try to have the camera handy!
The boomerang taillights are really gorgeous. No Chrysler wore its fins better than this one. I liked the 61 as well though the taillights were way too fussy compared to the elegant design on the 60. I prefer the clean decklid on this 61.
That Sir, is a most wonderful car. A superb example of a superb example of all I like about American cars of that period, and the cars that made me a Curbivore.
Usual shipping address, pre-paid, I assume 😉
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/qotd/qotd-what-made-you-a-curbivore/
I have just dredged up a long-dormant memory of riding in a 60 Chrysler that was this car’s opposite.
My mother’s Aunt Clara and Uncle Gerhard were dairy farmers in Minnesota. Aunt Clara liked her Chryslers, and a 60 is the first I recall. I was probably 4 or 5 on a visit there, and Uncle Gerhard asked me to ride along on an errand.
I remember that it was black. It had to be a basic Windsor sedan. I remember the V’d front bumper and grille that offended my sense of design. I remember figuring out the pull-type door handle. I cannot recall if it was a pushbutton auto, but it may well have been a 3 speed stick on the floor. It definitely had dog dish hubcaps (and try as I might I cannot find a picture of one with them online). I know from family history that it lacked power steering because Uncle Gerhard threw a fit when Aunt Clara came home with a 63 Newport with power steering. That was a kind of decadence unbecoming good Lut’ran farmers, by golly. Anyhow, the black 60 did not strike me as a premium car at all.
And this is why your New Yorker pictures simply enthrall me. Night and day.
The sight of this Chrysler made me think of the De Soto of the same year and how little effort was expended in making its front different
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeSoto_Adventurer#/media/File%3ADe_Soto_Adventurer_(1960)_at_Schaffen-Diest_Fly-Drive_2013.JPG
A beautiful old car actually being driven—craziness!