By Sally Denton

Living in the long shadow of the coronavirus pandemic during a particularly prickly presidential election year, it’s easy to be consumed by the daily headlines and forget those better angels of our common humanity. But it’s at just such times that the Humanities are more important than ever, because they remind us of the great spirit that exists in the American people.

I was reminded of that spirit recently by the newly published book written by my friend, Larry Lyon, about two intrepid Nevada “boys.” Larry’s uncles, Arthur and Joe Lyon, made the first road trip from New York City to Nicaragua in a Model A Ford Roadster, documenting the historic journey with photographs and a hand-written diary.

1930: Manhattan to Managua, North America’s First Transnational Automobile Trip chronicles the 4,562-mile trip, full of hair-raising twists and turns and a heavy dose of humor. Twenty-five-year-old Arthur writes the narrative, while his 21-year-old kid brother Joe snaps photos with a Kodak camera.

Raised in the gold mining camp of National, Nevada, the Lyon brothers found themselves in New York City at the beginning of the Great Depression. Arthur was working as an accountant, and Joe had just arrived for a visit on his way to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study engineering. But the 1929 stock market crash had thrown a monkey wrench in their lives. With business at a standstill and college on hold, they fantasized about a road trip. But what began as a fantasy quickly became a reality.

“Joe,” Arthur said, “[let’s] go further south than anybody ever went before in an automobile.” When Arthur looked across the breakfast table at Joe whose “eyes had begun to sparkle with excitement, as only eyes of twenty-one can sparkle,” he knew there was no going back. Joe was “fresh to New York and burdened with nothing worse than good health, good nature and the reputation for being the fastest automobile driver in Humboldt County, Nevada.”

They bought the Model A for $385 and loaded its rumble seat with suitcases and camping gear, and lit out on March 23, 1930, with $324 between them and American passports. Their excitement is palpable as they travel through the rural American south and the jungles and swamps with banditos in Central America, flattening the tires and driving on railroad tracks because there were no roads to where they wanted to go.

The Nevada State Journal in Reno carried a dispatch on June 2, 1930, that their little roadster had made it to Managua intact, with its five original tires suffering only two punctures, and where they sold it for $250 and traveled back to the U.S. by steamer.

When the Lyon brothers returned from their grand escapade, they ran stagecoaches in Nevada, and while serving in the U.S. Army, Joe designed the super coaches that hauled troops during World War II.

Their story is a timeless tribute to the spirit of adventure in all of us and the desire to connect to humanity outside our comfort zone.

*Double Down blogger image credit/Sally Denton.*

Sally Denton is a third-generation Nevadan born in Elko. She is the author of eight books of narrative history, and is on the Nevada Humanities Board of Trustees.

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Nevada’s Intrepid Adventurers