Great Pieces of Silver - V

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dognose
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Great Pieces of Silver - V

Post by dognose »

THE PENROSE TROPHY

Maker: ?

Image

The most spectacular contest in the history of automobile competition is to be staged on the summit of Pike's Peak next August. Chairman Kennerdell of the Contest Board of the American Automobile Association has granted official sanction for the National Hill Climbing Contest to the summit of Pike's Peak on August 11th and 12th.

The meet calls for four events, one for cars with a piston displacement of 230 cubic inches and under; one for cars with piston displacement of 231 to 300 cubic inches; an event for amateur drivers only, and the main event, a non-stock free-for-all, open to any gasoline car which complies with the definition of a motor car. This will be for the magnificent trophy given by Spencer Penrose, noted sportsman of Colorado Springs.

The Penrose Trophy is made of Colorado silver and gold. It is 43 inches high and is said to be the richest trophy ever offered for an automobile contest. In addition to the trophy, which many of the prominent manufacturers will endeavor to take home with them, there have been $6,000 in cash prizes offered as an incentive for some of the noted drivers to attempt to establish a new world's record for mountain climbing.

The course over which these drivers will dash into and above the clouds to the top of America's most famous mountain, is known as the Pike's Peak Auto Highway, highest and most wonderful of the earth's motor roads, reaching the summit of Pike's Peak, 14,109 feet above the sea. It is a double track boulevard, 18 miles long with easy grades all the way and is as smooth and even as a city pavement.

The races are being promoted by Eugene A. Sunderlin, builder of the highway Mr. Sunderlin has the distinction of being the youngest railway president in the United States.

The Pike's Peak races will be intensely interesting for spectators as well as drivers. From one point on the course one may look down thousands of feet to the starting point, watch the huge cars leave the valley below, climb the rock-walled sides of the giant peak and race on to its snow-clad summit above the clouds. The promoters will construct large parking space at this point that will accommodate several hundred automobiles.

For further thrills, the spectator may also look out upon the most magnificent scenic vision ever beheld from an automobile. Away southward on the New Mexican border line, through the entire state of Colorado to Wyoming on the north, is a vast 300-mile sweep of the mighty Rockies in plain view, while on the east the billowy ocean of plain rolls far into Kansas; and down below, spread out like a huge black carpet, the great Pike National Forest of a million and a quarter acres. In all, a tremendous vision of over sixty thousand square miles of mountain and plain–an area greater than the entire state of Illinois, with a downward view of eight thousand, one hundred and nine feet which is half a mile greater depth than the Grand Canon of Arizona. Add to this the roar of the big motors re-echoed against the grim walls of the Bottomless Pit to the valleys below in their mad race to cross the electric tape at the summit, and you have the most thrilling event ever staged for a automobile. It will certainly be "Pike's Peak or Bust" in Colorado on these two days.


Source: American Motorist - Volume 8 - American Automobile Association - 1916

The Penrose Trophy is part of the collection at the Carriage House Museum at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Spencer Penrose made his fortune in gold and silver mining. For more details go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Penrose" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does anyone know the maker of this trophy?

Trev.
silverly
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Re: Great Pieces of Silver - V

Post by silverly »

Just a little touch up on the wikepedia information about the Penrose Trophy which apparently doesn't go past 1916. The original trophy is not at the Carriage House Museum in Colorado. It was won twice by Otto Otto Loesch in a Lexington, once in 1920 and again 1924 and therefore, he was allowed to keep it. The Carriage House Museum curator said it was in Clermont, Indiana in the Lexington Museum. At this point, the best I can tell is that it may be at the Reynolds, Museum in Connersville, Indiana. The replacement trophy is at the Carriage House Museum and the names of recent winners are to be put on it in the near future.
dognose
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Re: Great Pieces of Silver - V

Post by dognose »

Hi Pat,

Thanks very much for the correction. Below is an advertisement featuring Otto Loesche following his two wins of the Pike's Peak Race. As I understand it, the Pike's Peak Auto Race is the second oldest auto race in the States following that of the Indy 500.

Image

Regards Trev.
Traintime
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Re: Great Pieces of Silver - V

Post by Traintime »

What means you by "Colorado Silver"? Unless this is an actual word mark on the piece, how would anyone know the source of where the ore was mined? (Ref. the revived entry on Colorado Silver-Solid word mark for a stamped spoon with a maker name & shield mark.)
dognose
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Re: Great Pieces of Silver - V

Post by dognose »

Hi Traintime,
What means you by "Colorado Silver"? Unless this is an actual word mark on the piece, how would anyone know the source of where the ore was mined?


Presumably Spencer Penrose supplied to raw material from his own mines in Colorado.

Trev.
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