In 1906, people living west of Moose Jaw couldn't believe their eyes when they saw a horseless carriage tearing along the old Caribou trail towards Boharm.
At the wheel was Fred W. Green, a progressive farmer of the district, and the newfangled contraption was his 1903 Model A. Ford which shared the honour of being the first automobile in Moose Jaw with Walter Seaborn's 1905 Oldsmobile Runabout.
The Ford Model A, a chain-driven vehicle with a two cylinder, eight horsepower engine concealed under the single seat, originally belonged to Fred Hawkins. When Hawkins left Moose Jaw in 1906, he sold it to Fred Green for $175.
In a shed behind his Moose Jaw residence, the new owner took the automobile to pieces and meticulously reassembled it to learn the mechanics of a combustion engine. Then he drove it to his farm at Boharm where it remained as a pleasure and chore vehicle for many years.
Fred Green now needed a "city" automobile, and with the purchase of a 1906 five-seat, 30-horsepower Russell for $2,000, the Greens became the first of the two-car families. Compared to the little Ford, the Russell was luxurious and comfortable. It was recognized as "the first high priced and really handsome car to ever wheel the streets of Moose Jaw."
Moose Jaw's other "first" automobile was a 1905 curved-dash Oldsmobile Runabout belonging to Walter Seaborn, a local lawyer. The Runabout looked like a glorified buggy. It was chain-driven, with the engine located under a single seat, and was steered by a tiller instead of a wheel. In 1907 Seaborn replaced the Runabout, which always seemed to be breaking down, with a handsome new Rambler, an American-made car of the semi-luxury class. The Runabout ended up on the junk heap.
Walter Seaborn had the distinction of holding the second automobile licence issued by the province of Saskatchewan. But Moose Jaw autoists always argued that since the first licence was issued to a Regina resident who didn't even own a car, Seaborn was actually the first bona fide licenced motorist in the province.
Miraculously, Fred Green's two cars which led Moose Jaw into the automobile age, survive and now restored to almost factory condition, they're on display at Moose Jaw's Western Development Museum.
Between 1906 and early 1914, the number of cars in Moose Jaw climbed from three to over 600, which city boosters said indicated the "prosperous state and speedy amassing of wealth of its citizens."
"Why, even a great many of the working men in Moose Jaw own their own autos," they said.
Moose Jaw's early car-watchers might have seen a Tudhope-McIntyre wheeling along local streets. One of the first settlers of the Moose Jaw district was Mrs. Janet Tudhope Wallace, a daughter of the Tudhope family, carriage makers of Orillia, Ont. They were one of the earliest Canadian car makers and their 1906 Tudhope-McIntyre had the comforting look of a high wheeled carriage.
The spring of 1910 brought a dramatic upsurge in the number of automobiles on Moose Jaw streets. From 10f the previous year, there were now 50, with the American-made Rambler leading in popularity.
J.C. Cox, local agent for the Chalmers automobile, received at least 10 orders after he drove a new Chalmers from the Detroit factory to Moose Jaw to prove its durability on roads which he described as being in "a shocking, primitive state."
In 1911, there were so many cars running about town, one eye witness said it was like watching a perpetual automobile show.The Ford was now the favourite because it was the cheapest to buy and the easiest to repair.
Inspite of additions and improvements, Moose Jaw's two repair shops were inadequate for the new automotive age. In March 1912, Robert Manley and Richard Loney purchased land at Main and Athabasca Streets for $27,000 and erected a two-story gararge (now the Patterson building) at the cost of $200,000. George Tuxford built his new garage and showroom at High and First Avenue East (now the Salvation Army Thrift Store). These were the first of the large dealer garages in Moose Jaw.
In 1911, Motor Magazine of Canada declared: "No city in the West in proportion to population, can show as many automobiles on the streets as Moose Jaw . . . and nowhere is there such real motor enthusiasm as that exhibited by Moose Jaw automobilists."
