CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK, Ore., July 20--(Special)--Back to the days when automobiles were a novelty, and had not yet threatened the prestige of carriage horses, wandered the thoughts of J. O. Shively, recent park visitor from Los Angeles, in recalling experiences in 1906 as the first automobile passenger to have ever visited Crater Lake.
    At that time, roads were distant kin to the high standard highways of today, constructed only for the needs of slow-moving wagons and horses. Under these conditions, a two-cylinder machine, driven by W. M. Hodson, a former Southern Oregon resident, found progress badly handicapped by deep ruts, dust, rocks and narrow width.
    The car chugged along painfully, at times entirely refusing to operate but, prepared for all emergencies, the pioneer motorists used horses to pull the vehicle over difficult grades. When the motor was functioning properly, the horses were fed. With mileage covered so slowly, several days elapsed in making the trip from Medford.
    However, another year elapsed before the first automobile, operated by Charles True of Medford, was driven under its own power to the rim, up one of the steepest grades in the park. Since then the route has been changed, eliminating difficult grades and resulting in a high-gear road, hard surfaced and comparable to city boulevards in driving comforts.
Central Point American, July 21, 1932, page 2


    This well-known resident of Jacksonville (shown above) introduced the first automobiles into Southern Oregon, then hooted as "horseless carriages." He also has the distinction of establishing the first garage this side of Portland for the newfangled contraptions, setting up his shop in the city of Medford near the turn of the century.
    This Jacksonvillian first sponsored and worked for the Crater Lake Highway and himself plowed out high centers which made roads to the famous national park passable for motor traffic--such as it was in those days nearly three decades ago. It was in 1908, too, that he hewed and hauled timbers for the bridge at Union Creek which he built, the first structure making it possible for horseless carriages--one and two-lungers of that day--to proceed toward the park, and in that same year he was the first person to drive an automobile to rim of the lake.
    Although the Miner is not publishing the famous character's name this week, most old-timers will recognize him from the picture, which was taken by an Oregonian reporter in the same year, following another of his pioneering stunts in Southern Oregon, which will be detailed later.
    This Jacksonvillian sold the first petrol-propelled vehicles to arrive in this part of the state, and introduced the miracles of putt-putting gasoline burners to a skeptical public. Today he makes his home in Jacksonville as a quiet, happy pioneer looking back on many years of championing an infant business which now has become one of the nation's leading industries.
    (Editor's Note--Although credit for the above accomplishments was given to a prominent Medford businessman a few months ago by a Medford daily paper, the local resident pictured above has shown credentials from the National Park Service, from the late Will G. Steel and from Washington, D.C., which remove any shadow of a doubt as to who actually drove the first car to the rim of Crater Lake, and who erected the first bridge at Union Creek which permitted the passage of motor vehicles. There will be more about this interesting Jacksonville man and the thrilling story of his pioneering with the automobile next week. The stories will be based only on verified, accredited fact. And as for his identity, that pan, sans handlebar mustache, should be instantly recognizable to any old-timer, as well as to all Jacksonville folk.)
Jacksonville Miner, October 26, 1934, page 1


    The daring young man with the flying trapeze--er, handlebar mustache--is none other than Bill (William) Hodson, Jacksonville's blacksmith who set up shop under a spreading locust tree, just to be different. Two weeks ago we told you he was the first man to introduce motor cars to Southern Oregon, and he was. We said he was the first man to drive an automobile to the rim of Crater Lake, and he was him, too. And we also warned that Bill is the guy who built the first bridge over Union Creek which permitted auto travel over that stream, and he was.
    But of even more interest than that is the story of how Bill happened to have the above photograph taken and the copper halftone made of it back in 1908 by the Oregonian newspaper, no less.
    You see, it was like this: At that time one of the swellest cars made was the White steamer, a product of San Francisco factories, and it was touted as the fastest thing on wheels save for the iron horse, which (although it may be hard to believe today) was the fleetest mode of traveling known, people not knowing what to do with all the time they saved when traveling by train. The White steamer attempted to beat the railroad's running time between San Francisco and Portland, and when the White contraption popped off at Medford, the guide who was to ride from there to Roseburg showed up missing and Bill was drafted for the job. And, as Hodson remembers, if you think crossword puzzles are tough, you should've tried to direct a racing car in the good old days from one town to the next.
    The White steamer sheared off a wheel up in the mountains, and stood motionless for several hours, but that didn't count. They were only counting the actual time when the steamer was in motion. Time out for beers, trouble and horses in the road. Total elapsed time between Medford and Roseburg was 18 hours, and actual running time eight hours 59 minutes, recalls Bill.
    Hodson, as every old-timer will recall, established the first automobile garage this side of Portland and was peddling two-lunger Buicks to a skeptical world at the time, and vowed to the White steamer racing car driver he could take his putt-putting kerosene burner and drive to Roseburg in less elapsed time than it took the steam streak in actual running time. The bet was called and $800 each was placed in a Roseburg bank.
    Now here is where Bill Hodson's inherent cunning came into play. Bill advised the Buick people of his scheme and they sent him a faster sprocket for his chain-drive, and an aluminum body, transforming the contraption into the fleetest thing afoot, er, on wheels. Bill picked his day, contacted the telephone company as official starter, and chugged away with a tank filled with half ether and half gasoline. He had sent word along the line to have all jittery horses unhitched and over on the south forty that day, and Bill sped on his gambler's mission over rutted and bumpy roads, sometimes at the rate of nearly 50 miles an hour. And Bill swears that's no exaggeration.
    Well, people up and down the route turned out to see the man on the flying trapeze, duster and goggles and all, go whizzing past in his effort to completely humble a steam-propelled automobile. To make the story shorter than the trip, Bill met but one horse on the road which, of course necessitated a delay while owner of the animal unhitched. Bill's total elapsed time was only 3 hours 13 minutes, a margin of 3:46 over the White steamer's actual running time. He collected his $1000 stakes at a Roseburg bank and rode home like a conquering general.
    Yeah, it was the same old Bill Hodson who today sharpens miners' picks and shovels and sips an occasional glass of beer in fond memory of the days that was. Bill's credentials for all these incidents, by the way, are bona fide and plentiful. Although others have made claim to the signal distinctions listed two weeks ago, Bill Hodson is the original, as most everyone who was in Medford or Jacksonville along about 1908 will recall.
Jacksonville Miner, November 9, 1934, page 4