Alice Ramsey Completes Her Drive Across America
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
August 7, 1909. Alice Huyler Ramsey becomes the first woman to drive across the continental United States.
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Transcript
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| 0:31.0 | Thank you. It's midday on July 16th, 1909, in the mountains of Bitter Creek, Wyoming. |
| 0:39.3 | On a treacherous path through the Rockies, 22-year-old Alice Ramsey guns the engine of a dark green Maxwell Model 30 automobile. |
| 0:45.5 | Alice's car is stuck halfway up a steep incline, its wheel spinning as it struggles for grip. |
| 0:50.3 | It's a hot day, and Alice knows she's risking overheating the engine, but she can't see another way to get up the hill. Outside the car, three young volunteer crew members |
| 0:55.2 | wait with giant wooden blocks. As the roadster finally grips the stony ground and jerks forward |
| 1:00.7 | a few feet, Alice lets out a holler. Then, on her signal, the crew slams down the wooden blocks |
| 1:06.6 | behind the back wheels, preventing the car from rolling down the hill. Alice lets out a mighty sigh |
| 1:11.9 | and tells everyone to take a break. Alice Ramsey is driving all the way across America. And if she |
| 1:19.2 | makes it to San Francisco, she'll become the first woman to complete the journey. But it's been a |
| 1:23.9 | grueling trip. The weather has been against them from day one, and the car's cloth roof has offered them little protection from the elements. |
| 1:31.2 | Now, the mighty rocky mountains are Alice's latest obstacle. |
| 1:35.5 | She takes a swig from a canteen and nods to her crew to get ready. |
| 1:40.0 | With all her might, Alice then cranks a handle to start the car up again. |
| 1:44.7 | Then she climbs back behind the wheel, guns the engine once more, and inches them forward up the |
| 1:49.6 | mountain. |
| 1:53.6 | It will take Alice Ramsey and her crew all day to climb the path through Bitter Creek. |
| 1:58.9 | And once they reach the other side, they will still have a thousand miles to drive |
| 2:02.7 | to reach their destination. |
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