When one of the wealthiest men in America decided to take his family on a road trip he did so in grand style – with a cook, maid, driver and mechanic.

FROM the perspective of transportation, World War One was an odd blending of the past and the future.

Armies used horse cavalry as well as tanks and airplanes. Draft horses pulled artillery pieces; four-wheel-drive trucks hauled supplies.  Motorised ambulances shard the roads with pack trains of mules.

With the cessation of hostilities, recognising the need to modernise, the United States Army launched a series of initiatives with the extensive use of motorcycles, trucks, and staff cars.

One manifestation of this was a coast-to-coast convoy in the summer of 1919, testing the military’s mobility in wartime conditions. The United States’ army’s expedition consisted of 81 motorised vehicles and 302 men. They went from Washington, DC to San Francisco, a venture covering 3251 miles (5231km). One of the participants of that 62 day venture was a young Lieutenant Colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower; a future president of the United States and the man credited with launching the interstate highway system.

The venture highlighted the poor and even antiquated condition of America’s rural roads even though there had been tremendous expenditure to modernise them. Wooden bridges had to be reinforced to support the heavy trucks. Covered bridges had the tops removed to accommodate the loaded trucks. There was deep sand, muddy quagmires. Soldiers collapsed from exhaustion after driving and pushing their vehicles for 20 miles. Tires were shredded and radiators punctured. It was a grueling endeavour.

Four years prior, before the roads had been improved, Roland R. Conklin of the Chicago Motor Bus Company, Roland Gas-Electric Vehicle Corporation, New York Motor Bus Company and Hexter Truck commissioned the construction of a luxurious land yacht that he dubbed the Gypsy Van. Then he set out on a transcontinental family outing with a cook, maid, chauffer, and mechanic.

As Conklin was one of the wealthiest men in America, the venture was newsworthy. But it was the Gypsy Van, a summer cottage on wheels of epic proportions that was the showstopper. It and the arduous journey over poor roads was described in detail in newspapers, trade journals and publications that targeted the automobilist.  

From the New York Times, August 21, 1915: “The first impressive thing about the vehicle, which Mr. Conklin calls his ‘land yacht,’ is its size. Overall, it is twenty-five feet in length, six inches longer than the Fifth Avenue buses.

“It is seven and a half feet wide and thirteen feet high. It weights between seven and eight tons without gear, filled water or fuel tanks, passengers and supplies. The size of the great automobile ceases to dominate one’s thoughts when one investigates the comprehensiveness of its equipment. It is really a house on wheels, though it runs smoothly at moderate speed.”

“As speed was not a special object, a comparatively small motor of 60 horsepower could be used, especially geared for power grades. Canvas strips for sandy sections, a knockdown, portable bridge to ford streams, and a winch operated by the motor, strong enough to pull the car out of a mudhole or ditch are special items of equipment. No such vehicle has ever been attempted before on this scale, but his experience in designing large vehicles for traffic, as the President of the New York Motor Bus Company, convinced Mr. Conklin that his idea for a double deck bus with roof top garden was practical, so he went ahead.”

 “The transmission is of the selective sliding dog type, with gears always in mesh. It is really a double-gear box, as it gives nine speeds forward and three in reverse. This unusual transmission was necessary because of the special requirements of this vehicle. It must be able to travel faster on good roads than the ordinary motor truck of similar weight and must also be able to negotiate far steeper grades and deep sand. The gear ratio on the lowest forward speed is 86 2/3 to 1, as compared with 26 to 1 on a Fifth avenue motor bus. The gear ratio of the highest speed is 8 2/3 to 1. Final drive is through worm gears. Solid tires 5x36 inches, dual on the rear, are fitted to steel wheels.”

It had a generator with electric lights and a vacuum cleaner, and storage for the motorcycle to be used in the case the chauffer had to go for assistance. There were freshwater tanks and a shower bath, folding bunks, a hideaway card table, a kitchen with electric cooking range, and bookcases, built in lockers for food, clothes, guns, fishing gear, and tools. There was even an ice box that hold 100 pounds of ice, and a fold out canvas awing.   

“As you approach the car from the back you see a wooden door, but no steps, unless you happen to recognize the folding steps of a pattern similar to that used on some of the New York surface cars. When you turn the doorknob and open the door these steps unfold easily. When you have mounted and opened the screen door you find yourself in the rear compartment, which probably combines more different functions with less waste of space than any yacht or launch cabin in existence.”

“In one side of this a folding metal wash bowl not unlike those in the washroom of a railroad parlor car. A little pull brings this basin down into its position for use. It is fed from the large water tanks on the roof. Above this basin is a water filter for drinking water, one coil of which passes through the icebox, so that chilled water of filtered quality is constantly on tap. Next to the icebox toward the front of the car is a neat porcelain kitchen sink, and near it is an electric range with several burners and a large oven. A miniature dresser with spices, sugar, flour, and the like are on the wall, and other cunningly contrived cupboards and racks hold pots and pans and a plentiful supply of cutlery.”

As luxurious and well prepared for rugged uses as the Gypsy Van was, the road conditions ensured that the odyssey was fraught with challenges. 

“Mr. Conklin and his party will take the Post Road to Albany. The route will then be through Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Yellowstone Park, Glacier National Park, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. The party will return to New York by steamer through the Panama Canal, leaving the van to be shipped East.”

New York Times, August 23, 1915:“The land-going yacht in which R.R. Conklin, of the Motorbus Company of New York, and a party of twelve are going from Rosemary Farm, near Huntington, L.I., to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, came near foundering on her second day out, and was obliged yesterday to send a save-our-yacht call at 4:32 P.M. to the nearest port, Briar Cliff.

“The automobile, with its kitchen, hot and cold water, beds, tables, and even a roof garden, was stuck fast in the slippery mud which lined its channel, the State road just north of Briar Cliff. Puffing contentedly, the big double-decked cross between a Fifth Avenue bus and a prairie schooner left Long Island on Saturday and proceeded on the first leg of its 5000-mile transcontinental voyage. At the last moment, a change was made in the plans, and the automobile ship steered through Briar Cliff instead of going through White Plains, as was first intended. A bridge only ten feet wide was the cause, the yacht needing but twelve as a minimum.”

Two months and more than 5000 miles later the trip was completed. A journal from the trip notes an endless array of issues and problems that resulted from road conditions; bridges unable to support the weight, mud, deep sands, washed out roads, steep grades, and fording streams. But it also details an exciting pioneering odyssey.

News stories about the trip and the amazing Gypsy Van inspired the wealthy and the innovative to create their own motorised home on wheels. The Conklin’s adventure and the military convoy, as well as Emily Post’s bestselling book, By Motor to The Golden Gate about her cross-country odyssey also inspired road trips and galvanized the Good Roads associations to action as they worked to craft a national network of modern highways.  

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com