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Manuscripts
Agnes Gallicker diary of an automobile trip from Iowa to the Pacific Coast
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- Description
- Diary kept by Agnes Gallicker as she and seven friends drove from Iowa across the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast from June to August of 1924. Most of the women were inexperienced drivers, and Agnes makes frequent references to the difficulties of automobile travel, including punctured tires and other mechanical failures, avoiding a "speed cop," and navigating often unpaved or damaged roadways. Agnes herself was a confident driver, and on her days off from driving noted that "my suggestions (driving from the backseat) were well (?) received." Agnes also describes a variety of fellow motorists they met along the way, including three young Dutchmen who helped them with car troubles at different stops along their route. Some encounters were less successful, and Agnes's motto became "Don't pick up with strange men." The diary opens on June 12, the day the women departed from their homes in Iowa. They spent much of their time traveling along the Lincoln Highway and spent each night camping out. In Iowa they passed through Marshalltown and Ledges State Park before driving quickly through Nebraska. Agnes noted with some awe their first view of the Rocky Mountains from Goodrich, Colorado. They also passed through Denver (where Agnes and another of the girls were "looked upon as Indians - People came out...to gawk at us"), Bear Creek Canyon, Colorado Springs, Big Thompson Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Park, and hiked to Bear Lake (June 25). In Wyoming they drove through Laramie and stopped for a picnic after leaving Fort Steele. "Any place was as good as the other so we ate out on a desert," Agnes wrote, adding that "sand storms [are] similar to Iowa snow storms" (June 27). In Utah they saw Ogden and Salt Lake City (they missed some of the Mormon sites due to arriving on a Sunday, but eventually saw an organ concert at the Tabernacle), and in Idaho drove from Boise to The Dalles along the Columbia River. After ferrying across the Willamette River, they drove down to California, where they saw Mount Shasta and stopped in Redding, Stockton, Buck Meadows (near Yosemite, where Agnes did not go), and Oakland, and saw the Presidio Recruiting Station in San Francisco, went wading in the Pacific Ocean, and passed by U.C. Berkeley. When they tried to pay a portion of a car repair bill in pennies, Agnes wrote that the attendant told them "Californians don't care for pennies - they throw them away. Rich!!". The women then drove north toward Oregon, passing Mount Siskiyou and stopping at Klamath Falls and Crater Lake. In Washington they saw Mount Rainier National Park, Seattle, Snoqualmie Falls, and Spokane, and took a day trip to Victoria, British Columbia. In early August they began their trip home, and Agnes' diary describes touring the State Prison and Anaconda Reduction Works in Montana (Aug.4), spending two days at Yellowstone National Park (Aug.6-7), and driving through the Badlands to the Red River Valley. Her diary ends on August 17, when they were near the Elk River.
