This sight-seeing car was operated by the Seeing Denver Company, which appears to have been in business as early as 1906 and was still operating in 1922.  By 1922, its fleet included Cadillacs.  The company also operated covered sight-seeing buses.   If the many photo postcards I’ve seen featuring “Seeing Denver” vehicles are any indication, it appears that the company prospered.

I’m intrigued by this vehicle and wonder who manufactured it.  Note the chain drive, the faux spoke wheels and the horn about one foot ahead of the driver’s right big toe.  I wonder if it blurted out the classic AHOOGA.

The traffic volume back then probably didn’t compare at all with today’s,  but that didn’t preclude tragic crashes.  In 1918, a Denver district court awarded $5,000 in damages to Lizzie Cox, the widow of Harry Cox.  Harry was a fireman responding to an alarm on a Denver fire truck, who was killed when a “Seeing Denver” vehicle failed to yield the right of way to the truck.     

REFERENCES:

• “Asks $5,000 for Fireman’s Death,”  The Colorado Transcript, May 31, 1917, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CTR19170531.2.1&srpos=25&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22seeing+denver+company%22——-2——
• eBay posting of photo postcard with a 1908 postmark showing almost identical vehicle at https://www.ebay.com/itm/223477052621

• “Interesting and Important Meeting is Held in Rifle Last Wednesday – Extensive Advertising Campaign to be The Grand Valley News, April 6, 1911, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=GVC19110406.2.1&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22seeing+denver+company%22——-2——

• “Local Paragraphs,” The Colorado Transcript, February 14, 1918,  Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CTR19180214.2.56&srpos=31&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22seeing+denver+company%22——-2——

• “Salida News Notes,” The Salida Record dated May 11, 1906, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=SRE19060511-01.2.66&srpos=21&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22seeing+denver+company%22——-2——

• “Seeing Denver bus, Mesa County Libraries at https://mesa.marmot.org/Archive/evld%3A1989/LargeImage?searchId=120827107&recordIndex=4&page=1

• “4  August  1922 –  Advertisement:   Seeing Denver Company.,”  Rocky Mountain National Park – Estes Park Archives (no hyperlink available)