January 2024 By: Bennett Kubischta
Modes of personal transport along the Red Trail has varied throughout time. From walking to horses, from bicycles to motorized bicycles, and by cars, buses, and trucks are some conveyances we have used to move between our cities and farms.
The importance of the horse in the first decades of the Twentieth Century is emphasized by a sale in Richardton in June 1914. An advertisement in the June 2nd edition of the Fargo Forum by the Richardton Horse Sale Company stated that 800 horses will be sold on June 18th, 19th, and the 20th. Over 600 of these horses, which came from area farms, were harness or halter broken and that the unbroken horses are not wild.
During the next twenty years the importance of the horse for transport faded and we moved between our Red Trail towns, across North Dakota, and the United States by cars and trucks. And with this change came a change in how we maintained these different means of transport.
A good horse needed good feed, proper rest, and good medical care. Motor vehicles, a machine, needed engine maintenance, tire repair, the brakes needed to be serviced, and moving parts needed lubrication.
Squeaks and rattles were a common occurrence on vehicles in the late 1920s and into the early 1930s. In the early 1930s a machine was developed that, in the garage, would simulate road action while the car is not in motion and allows the mechanic to lubricate all points of friction and identifies loose bolts, nuts, springs, and shackles, that need to be tightened.
The Red Trail Garage, in Mandan, acquired a Moto-Sway lift in August 1934. The Mandan Daily Pioneer reported on August 9th that this “new innovation has accomplished what engineers have attempted for years. It creates road action…and…enables the grease to penetrate every part.”
The Moto-Sway continues to show up in garage newspaper ads until the early 1960s. Many of the cars that traveled on the Red Trail/US Highway 10 during that 30 year period were likely serviced using the Moto-Sway. One of the selling points of the Moto-Sway was that the life of your car would be extended.
Did the using the lubricating method of the Moto-Sway extend the life of our grandparents cars longer than other lubricating methods of the time? We probably don’t know; but what we do know is that the regularly scheduled maintenance of our motor vehicles is most important.
Goodbye for now. Remember, promoting the Old Red Old Ten promotes our towns, and always take time to talk to the cows.
Bennett Kubischta is the President Old Red Old Ten Scenic Byway Committee.