Steam cars rolling through Prairie du Chien area
Don and Teresa Farris of Brooklyn, Ill., sit in their 1917 Stanley Touring Car.
By Ted Pennekamp
As Prairie du Chien residents may have noticed, there have been several steam-powered cars cruising city streets and the surrounding area in recent days. The 21 vintage vehicles are mostly Stanley Steamers and their owners are staying at Microtel Inn and Suites while enjoying a five-day Prairie du Chien Steam Car Tour from Sept. 12 to Sept. 16.
The group of steam car enthusiasts go on a different organized tour each day to take in the scenery and stop and various destinations throughout the region, said Don Hoke of Dallas, Texas, who is enjoying the tour with his wife Carolyn. Daily tours range from 80 to 120 miles with stops to replenish water for the autos.
“The Prairie du Chien area has good lodging, along with scenic and not too busy roads,” said Don Farris of Brooklyn, Ill., who is touring with his wife Teresa. “So it’s a great place for a tour.”
“It’s a nice, family hobby. You’ll see a lot of kids and other family members here,” said Teresa.
Steam car enthusiasts from the Midwest as well as from Maine, New Hampshire, Kansas and Texas are in Prairie du Chien for the tour. They get together at least once per year to tour a different part of the United States, and were in Prairie du Chien several years ago.
Don and Teresa Farris are taking in the area in their 1917, five-passenger Stanley Touring Car. The car is a relatively large and heavy car which can reach a top speed of about 60 mph, although Don said it becomes a bit unstable and hard to drive at that speed. Smaller, lighter Stanley Steamers can go 100 mph and beyond.
Their car has a 24-gallon tank for water and can go about 75 miles per tank. Teresa explained that kerosene is used to fire the boiler which heats the water and produces steam which powers the car. Most steam cars get about one mile per gallon of water, said Don, who noted that water can be replenished almost anywhere from a garden hose. Don’s car gets about three miles per gallon because it has a condenser.
There were more than 100 manufacturers during the steam car era, but only a few well-known names in the United States such as Stanley, White, Doble and Locomobile. Even the well-known manufacturers were quite small compared to the big auto makers such as Ford.
Because steam car manufacturers produced only several hundred hand made cars each year, steam cars were relatively expensive. Don said a steam car would have cost about $2,400 in 1917, compared to about $375 for the mass-produced Model T.
One way for people to learn more about steam cars, is to visit Don and Carolyn Hoke’s Virtual Steam Car Museum at virtualsteamcarmuseum.org, which is a nonprofit organization documenting steam car history. Don and Carolyn also own Vintage Steam Products in Dallas.
