Pat Sangimino – May 19, 2024 – Lincoln Journal Star

Henry Ford with the 10th millionth Ford Model T (left), which came off a Michigan assembly line in 1924, and the first car he made (right).COURTESY PHOTO

My cmnt: Model T enthusiast Mike Vaughn, featured in this article, recently retired from his job with LPS as a high school custodial supervisor. I include this article because I worked with him for 5 years as an LPS custodian. He was a good boss and a good man who also taught small engine classes for LPS for many years.

Every now and then, we’re permitted to touch history. We’re allowed a glimpse of what American life might have been like 100 years ago.

We’re given license to imagine, courtesy of a photograph. Or a short car ride. Or sometimes both.

One photo’s contents magically came to life recently in Lincoln, and the car it pictured will cause nostalgic pangs for thousands over the course of a cross-country trek this summer.

What might Henry Ford — yes THAT Henry Ford, the man credited with pioneering an era making automobiles affordable to middle-class Americans that still exists today — have been thinking in that photo as he stood next to the 10 millionth Model T to come off his Michigan assembly line in 1924?

Was he wondering how he got there? Did his legacy come to mind? Ernest Hemingway wrote that “every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.

“In some ways men can be immortal.”

It goes without saying that the name of Henry Ford, who died in 1947, still lives. It’s evolved into a brand, a forward-thinking symbol of American ingenuity.

Mike Vaughn (left), board of directors at Model T Ford Club of America, and Tim Matthews, museum curator of Speedway Motor Museum of American Speed, talk about the 10th millionth Ford Model T. In honor of its 100th anniversary, the car will be taking a 3,000-mile trip across the U.S. in June.JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star

Amazingly, that same car — still as shiny and pristine as the day Ford posed with it 100 years ago — was the center of attention recently outside the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed.

Next month, Mike Vaughn, a board member with the Model T Ford Club of America who has spent the last five months getting it road ready, will lead a convoy of vehicles to the East Coast.

They’ll load the storied Model T onto a trailer and drive it to New York City, where he will begin driving it along the historic Lincoln Highway — America’s first continental highway — across the United States before eventually arriving in San Francisco.

“It’s a fun car to drive,” said Vaughn, the Lincoln native who figures the 20-day, 3,000-mile trip will consist of about 200 miles of driving each day.

And when the trip is complete, the car, owned by the Hathaway family of Davenport, Iowa, since the 1960s, will have a permanent home at the Speedway museum.

That’s fitting, says Vaughn, who always remembers a conversation he had with Speedway founder, the late Bill Smith, about his favorite car.

Early Model Ts were intended to be fixed by their owners since there were not a lot of automobile mechanics in the early 1900s.JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star

“He said it was the Model T,” Vaughn said. “So I asked him why and he said that everything has evolved from the Model T.”

Smith went on to say that the technology surrounding the Model T is really no different than some of the speedsters currently housed in the Speedway museum. 

“That technology was derived from the technology that went into the Model T,” Smith told Vaughn.

Model T No. 10 Million has made four commemorative cross-country trips. The first came in 1924 when it was fresh off the assembly line.

In 1974, the 50th anniversary of No. 10 million was recognized with another New York-to-San Francisco trip.

Vaughn was behind the wheel in 1999 when the 75th anniversary was recognized with the same trip, the same route.

“We’ve done this before,” Vaughn said. “So we’ve got several volunteers that put in quite a bit of time in mapping this out. There’s an itinerary we will follow.”

And with each stop — each city or town, small or large — the Model T will be welcomed by a gathering of people. 

On June 9, it is expected to pull into Lincoln, and Tim Matthews, curator of the Speedway museum, expects a big crowd.

“We’ll welcome the guys here and just be happy we made it that far,” he said. “Mostly, it’s going to be like a big pit stop and then we send it back out on the road.”

One hundred years later, this automobile — black with the words “Ten Millionth Model T, New York to San Francisco, Lincoln Highway” — continues to have the power to make people happy.

Vaughn was all smiles as he drove the streets of Lincoln, providing tutelage on driving a car that has three pedals — a brake, a high-low gear and a reverse pedal — but has its accelerator on the steering column.

“They were the only cars on the road back then, so this is what people learn to drive,” Vaughn said. “They’re a little difficult to learn initially, but once you learn it, it’s like riding a bicycle.” 

Mike Vaughn, board of directors at Model T Ford Club of America, drives the 10th millionth Ford Model T, near the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed in early May. “It’s a fun car to drive,” said Vaughn, whose father was a Model T hobbyist.JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star

Vaughn learned at an early age. His father was a Model T hobbyist who always had one or two in the garage.

The same can be said for Bill Vocasek, a volunteer at the Speedway museum who teaches Model T driving lessons.

“I put a fair amount of time into this place,” said Vocacek, who taught in Milford for 30 years. “I love being around here and I love cars like this. They’re just so much fun.”

The Model T’s cozy cab — especially with four adults squeezed inside — is a reminder of how small Americans once were, while the open air provides gusts of fresh air and the sound of an engine that — while not as smooth sounding as those under the hood of today’s fuel-injected rubber-burners — sounds more apt to be popping corn.

Still, the Model T was a fuel-efficient mode of transportation, getting about 20 miles per gallon.

And they were meant to be fixed by their owners, Matthews said. Keep in mind there weren’t a lot of automobile mechanics in the early 1900s.

“We didn’t have a garage on every corner,” Matthews said. “(Ford) had to think outside the box a little bit and say, ‘how can I make it so that the consumer can repair his own car?’ And so that was some of his thinking.”

Eventually, there were 15 million Model Ts made. Today, there are about 60,000 still out on the road, an amazing number, Vocasek said.

“It’s outlived anyone who had it as a high school car,” he said. “They were never built to be a throw-away car. They were built to last forever.”

And while that staying power goes a long way in explaining the Model T’s popularity, its true contribution could be in the ways it changed America.

“It put America on wheels,” Matthews said. “Think about something that could get you 200 miles in a day.”

Before the Model T, most Americans were anchored, Matthews said. They lived their entire lives no more than 15-20 miles from where they were born.

Suddenly, an affordable vehicle — they cost $850 in 1909, but by 1924, thanks to the efficiency of the assembly line, could be had for $260 — created a nationwide wave of mobility.

“It was a different atmosphere in the United States,” Matthews said. “The Model T transformed the way we designed our world. All of a sudden, they designed drive-in places to watch movies and to get fast food.

“… Everything was really designed around the car. And Henry Ford started all of that.”