By James Vair

Glancing at their cars you would never believe that just a few days before they had been brand new. Or had ever been clean. What had once been gleaming paint with intricate Edwardian-era detail and miles of freshly polished chrome was now obscured beneath layers of mud. Tall, smooth fenders had given way to countless dents and dings from rocks and other flying debris. Their thin tires and ornate wooden wheels had started the tour well, but were soon useless on the country roads, taking a toll from the mud and deep wagon ruts. The drivers matched their automobiles in this regard. With their cars’ open air designs they had been exposed to the elements and were caked in dust. Luckily their goggles were still holding up – but they still had another two weeks to go!

Who were these intrepid drivers? They were the members of the 1909 AAA Automotive Reliability Tour, or, as it is more commonly remembered, the Sixth Annual Glidden Tour. A test of vehicle endurance, performance, and driver stamina, the tour contestants had started their journey back in Detroit on a sunny July morning. Their destination was Kansas City, with the tour’s route specifically designed to prove to skeptical American buyers that automobiles were indeed a viable form of cross-country transportation.

By Kathy Newman

Orville McCormick was Minnehaha’s first Engineer. He tended to the fire in her firebox, monitored the water level in her boiler, and oiled her engine from her first run in 1906 until her final run in 1926. The working conditions were cramped, hot, and dirty. The workday was long and demanding. As a third-generation steamboat engineer, Orville was the perfect person for the job. Orville’s father, Lewis Cass McCormick, and his step-grandfather, Silas T. Johnson, both owned and operated steamboats on Lake Minnetonka. Silas T. Johnson offered excursions aboard the Hebe while Lewis offered excursions aboard the Virgie. Both men had extensive experience as steamboat engineers on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers prior to moving to Excelsior, Minnesota sometime between 1882 and 1886. Orville may have started helping out at Dunlap’s Pavilion as a youngster and eventually served as an apprentice engineer, or striker, at the side of either of these two men.

For twenty years Orville would carry out his engineer duties as Minnehaha followed her daily route. Assigned to the Lower Lake, Minnehaha‘s original route took her from Excelsior, to Wayzata, and back. Both Elite and Working-Class people depended upon Minnehaha to get to their respective jobs – the Working-Class to their jobs at the lake’s summer homes and resorts, the affluent to their jobs in the Twin Cities. Interestingly, employers would often board just as employees were getting off. Orville would meet his future bride, Minnie Ljungdahl, as a result of this social dynamic.

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By George Kissinger

Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT) was, if anything, innovative and cutting edge – from developing arguably the most expansive and modern urban street railway system in the United States to developing customer base with seemingly unrelated enterprises such as hotels and amusement parks. To do the later, a fleet of six fast Express Boats had to literally be invented and incorporated into an overall system. Minnehaha was one such Express Boat. (A seventh Express Boat, the Excelsior, was built and put into service in 1915.) Furthermore, multiple crews had to be hired and trained for an essentially 24/7 seasonal operating pace.

Even with all the necessary infrastructure put in place, TCRT had the additional insight not to ignore the human factor. The Express Boats’ schedules were coordinated to meet streetcars arriving and departing at Deephaven, Excelsior, and Wildhurst. These schedules were continually refined for efficiency, the changing needs of customers, and volume of fares.

With noted and somewhat complicated variations, there were essentially three separate time periods that defined the Express Boats’ operation on the lake. From 1906 through 1907, service was started up with all Express Boats initiating their routes from the docks in Excelsior. From 1908 to 1912, after some trial and error, the service was split in two with three boats operating exclusively on the Upper lake out of Wildhurst and three boats operating exclusively on the Lower lake out of Excelsior. In 1913 the Express Boats were given continuous routes serving, via a loop, all stops on both the Upper and Lower Lake. This period lasted through the end of all operation in 1926. At the peak of ridership (approximately 220,000 in 1921), there were twenty-seven separate stops on the loop route. Ridership then began to decline and dropped to around 68,000 by 1924.

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