It’s impossible to know, but this is probably Henry Ford’s head.
And this?
This is definitely Henry Ford washing up by a stream.
Starting in 1915, these four men camped and road tripped together, regularly:
Lemme show you.
You’ve got John Burroughs — imagine somebody as famous as Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson,
but for nature.
There’s tire magnate Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, and Thomas
Edison, America’s most famous inventor.
This group’s adventures took two American classics and brought them to a whole new level:
The road trip and the publicity stunt, too.
You could get lost in John Burroughs beard.
Burroughs is the least likely of this road trip group, but he’s kind of the linchpin.
He was conservation elite.
Here’s his beard and Teddy Roosevelt at Yellowstone in 1903.
He knew the environmental implications of industry.
When the Model T came out in 1908, he called it a “demon on wheels.”
So Henry Ford sent him one.
They became friends.
This is John Burroughs inside his demon on wheels.
Ford had long known Edison as his mentor, and Firestone was a natural fourth from the
tire connection.
The group started roadtripping together and they called themselves “The Vagabonds.”
Hijinks ensued.
Yep.
Henry Ford just climbed a tree.
After driving over primitive roads, they communed with nature, following a typical routine:
Burroughs went for long walks, Firestone read, Edison napped, and Henry Ford, well, he chopped
wood.
He really hated wood.
Along their routes, they met other inventors and business titans who occasionally tagged
along.
According to one essay by a fellow road-tripper, Thomas Edison also called Firestone and his
son Harvey Jr. “dudes” for an entire trip.
Now the meaning at the time is a little bit different, because “dude” might have been
a city person, or a well-dressed person.
But let’s not lose site of the fact that Thomas Edison was walking around calling Harvey
Firestone “dude” when he wanted to get his attention.
They took a lot of trips.
This 1918 route was typical of their regular journeys, and the group of “great men”
earned headlines everywhere they went.
On this trip, they traveled throughout Virginia, hit North Carolina, and zipped back up to
Maryland.
Their fun road trips were a phenomenon, like here, when Asheville, North Carolina papers
covered their arrival, visit, and departure.
It was called a “trip with friends.”
But it wasn’t just a normal road trip.
Here’s a secret.
When the most powerful men in the country go on a road trip, they do it a little differently
than everybody else.
Honestly, this was glamping.
They brought along a film crew with big bulky cameras, they had chefs, and five-star service
the entire time.
This table?
It spins.
Besides delicious meals cooked in the open air, these trips served a purpose.
Newspapers reported on the Vagabonds as if they actually were vagabonds.
They said the trip showed “a fellowship with the common man and a governing concern
for the little man’s interests and welfare.”
At the same time they were wrangling camera crews to film how normal they were, they were
also managing their business interests.
That early 1916 trip included a meetup with Edward N. Hurley, a businessman and the chair
of the United States Shipping Board - an emergency Naval Agency established as the United States
came closer to entering World War I.
In Pennsylvania, the power players conferred, as one observer described it, to “divide
up the work ahead in manufacturing.”
World War One breaks out?
Road trip! Hurley came on future trips with the vagabonds
as well.
Ford also gobbled up land to explore steam power and agricultural possibilities, and
the group met with agriculturalists and botanists.
In 1918, while on the road, Ford had been drafted into a Senate campaign as well, which
he narrowly lost.
We’ll never know everything they talked about.
According to Burroughs, Ford shared his anti-semitic conspiracy theories over late night chats.
The vagabonds were camping, but they were also making deals and running a PR campaign,
highlighting each of the men's professional interests and making them seem fun and accessible.
This is Henry Ford’s toast.
And that’s the thing they served up for the public.
John Burroughs died in 1921.
He was 83.
After his death, the trips continued.
That new guy, chopping wood?
It’s President Warren G. Harding.
Still, even by the standards of the vagabonds, the publicity and entourage grew too big.
The road trips stopped in 1924.
But the vagabonds had a lasting impact on the American notion of the road trip and how
powerful people network, even when they’re taking naps.
So was it a publicity stunt or a real road trip with buddies?
Maybe it was both.
Or some third thing altogether.
This is a nearly hundred year-old campfire.
John Burroughs wrote an essay about the trip and why he thought they took it.
Maybe it was even true: “We grow weary of our luxuries and conveniences.
We react against our complex civilization, and long to get back for a time to first principles.
We cheerfully endure wet, cold, smoke, mosquitoes, black flies, and sleepless nights, just to
touch naked reality once more.”
Hey what’s up?
That was the first episode of Almanac: Road Trip Edition, and now we’re gonna be reading
some comments and we’re gonna reveal the name of this guy, which you all helped choose
in the comments to the trailer.
Reading comments on the internet — it’s not a new thing — but I’m particularly
inspired by Potato Jet.
He is a camera and tech vlogger and he’s just generally hilarious and really smart.
So please go check him out — he always does this at the end of his videos and I love it,
so we’re gonna try it here.
I gave everybody the challenge of naming this wavy, floaty guy: top comment by far, Chris
Saunders says, “he has a name, it’s wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man.”
If you don’t know, this is a Family Guy reference.
“Wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man.”
Very funny, but I asked you all to name him, not the writers for Family Guy, and you know
I just would have called Seth McFarlane if we needed that.
Second most popular comment is actually about Route 66.
It’s from Sebastian Elytron and he says, “That’s what the world-famous Route 66
looks like?
I thought it was more glamorous.”
In that trailer, I’m actually sitting on Route 66 the whole time, so if you notice
me, like, looking up a lot, it’s because I’m worried I’m gonna be run over by a
car.
So there are really desolate sections like that and then there are also unpaved sections
which I also show in that trailer.
You’ll learn the whole history and everything about Route 66 in Episode four of this road
trip edition.
“The name of your friend: Lab Flute of Knowledge.”
I have no idea what that means but thumbs up to that.
Hane Grace Yagel: “His name should be Al Maniac, he seems like a wild one.”
Alright, without further adieu let’s scroll up to the winner.
This is pretty much the second most popular answer, it’s from ZmbrSys.
“Mack!
Rhymes with almanac.
Lots of Mack trucks on the road.”
It makes sense, it’s fun, and it’s easy to fit it on screen, so gavel, Mack, that’s
it.
There’s a desk down here by the way, but the gavel was my fist, and it hurts.
Alright, so that’s it.
In the next episode, I will be answering any questions or concerns that you have about
the vagabonds from this video, so drop those below, let me know, and until then, happy
glamping.
Yep.
I said the word glamping again.
[Deep, sad sigh.]