In this photo the viewer looks at a group of Greeley business boosters and their automobiles following their arrival in Fort Lupton. They are members of the Greeley Commercial Club, a predecessor of the Greeley Chamber of Commerce, and have gathered just north of 4th Street on Denver Avenue. Note the Greeley Commercial Club Banner on the car in the right foreground.
The date is October 1, 1909, and the commercial club members are touring southern Weld County towns to tout and talk business opportunities. Their eleven-car caravan arrived in Fort Lupton at 11:00 a.m. that day, having already visited Evans, Lasalle and Platteville. In Fort Lupton they would be treated to a luncheon at the Hotel Lupton (which sat on the northwest corner of 4th and Main) thrown by the Fort Lupton Booster Club, and after dining and listening to speeches, they would be off to Frederick and other Weld County towns. By the time they returned to Greeley that evening, they would have covered over 100 miles. The building you see was that of the St. John Mercantile Company on the northeast corner of 4th and Denver. That building burned down on St. Patrick’s Day in 1912, and the building which replaced it still stands.
I noticed that virtually every car in the photo has a right-side steering wheel. This may have been a carryover from the Old West, when drivers of wagons, buggies, stagecoaches, etc. sat on the right. Since most drivers were right-handed, a driver seated on the right could wield a whip without hurting the person sitting to their left and, in the event of trouble, access their gun more easily. I understand Henry Ford influenced the U.S.’s move to put the steering wheel on the left in cars when he started manufacturing Model T’s with left-side steering wheels in 1908.
REFERENCES:
- “Trivia about driving on the left,” worldstandards at https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/trivia-about-driving-left/#:~:text=A%20Ford%20catalogue%20from%201908,to%20get%20out%20on%20the
- “Weld Boosters Trip,” Greeley Tribune dated October 7, 1909, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=TGT19091007-01.2.74&srpos=7&e=–1900—1910–en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-fort+lupton+car——-0——
- “Why Did Wagon Drivers Sit on the Right Side,” True West Magazine at https://truewestmagazine.com/wagon-drivers-right-side/
- “Worthy Student Project,” Greeley Daily Tribune dated Aug 14, 1937, www.newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/24993009/?terms=commercial%20club&match=1
