Part II

D.H. Evans owned Tracy’s first horseless carriage, a curved dash ‘Olds,’ which was delivered to him on April 11, 1902. After almost three months’ trial, he deemed it sufficiently trustworthy to take himself and Mrs. Evans to the Fourth of July celebration at Marshall. They enjoyed the ride to the county seat, but rain interfered with their plans to drive home. They returned by train, and the Olds was retrieved later.

In January 1912, a warning was published that the law required lights on autos after sunset, and later in the year Tracy’s mayor, T.G. Bonnallie, found it necessary to again warn motorists to remember to light their headlights before it became too dark and to observe the speed laws. Lights on most cars were gas lights and one had to sop and light them with a match.

Plans had been made for a national highway from Chicago to Yellowstone Park. In Minnesota, it was to follow the C & NW Railway from Winona to Tracy and on west. Before anything was done to mark this highway, it was found that interests in the southern part of the state were making an effort to have this highway diverted to the southwest from Mankato to go through Worthington and Sioux Falls. Aroused motorists along the C & NW held many ‘Good Roads’ meetings and were successful in having the highway established as first planned. It was first called the Yellowstone Park National Highway, then the Black and Yellow Trail. Later it became State Highway 7 and is still referred to as old No. 7. (Present-day travelers know it as Highway 14).

Although the route of a national highway had been designated through Tracy, its construction was the county’s responsibility. After all the work that T.G. Bonnallie, N.J. Robinson and others had done to assure the route of the highway, the county commissioners let contracts to grade the Yellowstone Park Highway through Lyon County during the summer of 1914, and one contractor was in the county with 100 teams and equipment to start the work. A large crew was also grading the highway east of Tracy in Redwood County. Farmer George Gifford, from near Balaton, later in the season, complained that the highway in the Balaton area was not graded wide enough for an auto and a team of horses to safely meet.

In the summer of 1913, Mayor G.E. Schmidt found it necessary to call the attention of motorists to the speed ordinance of the city. It provided that no motor vehicle should be driven in the settled portion of the city at a greater rate of speed than 7 mph, nor over crossings or around corners at over 4 mph, nor on any other street at over 15 mph. ‘Police have been instructed to arrest any persons violating this ordinance.’

Again in 1915, Tracy’s Mayor, G.A. Hansen, issued warnings to motorists to observe the Minnesota state speed laws. They were somewhat less restrictive than the local ordinance which Mayor Schmidt had called motorists to observe two years earlier. Now it was legal to drive no faster than 10 mph in the congested areas, 6 mph around corners where the driver’s view was obstructed, 15 mph in the residence section and 25 mph outside of municipalities.

Mayor Hansen’s warning was reinforce by this notice: ‘The automobile and Commercial Clubs, because Tracy has only one policeman who goes on duty at noon, have jointly undertaken the task of bringing to account all drivers who violate the state Motor Vehicle Laws and ask all members to observe the rules and report all violators.’

A contract was let to travel the Yellowstone Park Highway in Brown County during 1915, but Lyon County Commissioners said funds were not available for it in Lyon County.

(Continued next week)

Source: Tracy’s First Hundred Years, Merrill Star, 1971.