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Background Information
The first affordable car for the middle-class buyer was the Model T, manufactured by Ford Motor Co. beginning in 1908. Model Ts were sold locally starting in about 1915, about six years after the first ones rolled off the assembly line in
Ford built more than 15 million Model T cars and, at the time, they were part of a revolutionary new business model. Ford lowered a product’s cost and the company’s profit margins in exchange for increased sales volumes. He incorporated the assembly line and methods of scientific time management to increase the productivity of his employees and he was the first to pay his employees $5 a day – about twice the average factory wage. When Model T production started, Ford workers could build a Model T chassis every 12.5 hours. After Ford perfected the moving assembly line, his workers could build a Model T chassis in 93 minutes! The Model T ran at a maximum of 30 miles an hour and got 12 to 14 miles per gallon. It was said that Model Ts were available in any color – so long as it was black.
Not everything in Ford’s factories was perfect though – he was known for placing African Americans in the most dangerous and difficult jobs. Ford also strongly encouraged his immigrant workers to embrace American lifestyles – and leave their own language and customs behind. By doing this, he hoped to create a more stable workforce, and by providing instruction in English for his immigrant employees, he hoped to discourage them from joining a union.
The Model T and personal vehicle transportation led to citizen mobility. More and more people had the ability to reach other cities and outlying areas. It affected country consciousness by allowing people to see and experience the country first hand. And, it changed the physical landscape.
The future of cars depended on the future of roads. Transportation has always been central to community – waterways, railways, military roads, highways, and skyways drive our economy and determine the location of cities, towns, and villages. The availability of automobiles sparked a “good roads movement” to change dirt roads (which turned to muddy sink holes in the rain) to paved roads through tolls and various taxes.
In the post World War II era, highway development soared. The interstate System started in 1956 to ensure military and escape routes throughout the country in case of a nuclear attack during the Cold War. US-41 was completed in the Fox Cities in the 1960s, along with updated or new bridges and a belt-line around the city so that traffic could flow quickly. This completed highway system linked the Fox Cities to
Cars and roads let to the annexation of the countryside for new suburban homes. Larger tracts of land and bigger houses appealed to a growing middle class, especially during the baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Cars made it feasible for families to live farther from work. Streetcars had done the same thing in the 1880s to a certain degree, but the freedom and speed of cars extended those boundaries. In order to keep up with suburban growth, cities began to annex the land around them. Communities spread and began to bump into each other, creating a new entity called the Fox Cities.
As more and more cars were produced and a booming economy gave people increased purchasing power to buy them, car dealerships and industries like gas stations, auto repair shops, auto insurance, driving schools, strip and mega malls, and drive through banks, restaurants, and theaters grew in popularity. Our cultural landscape today bears the unmistakable imprint of the automobile.
But cars also have a negative effect. The highways pull traffic and business away from the downtown. Cars pollute the environment with carbon emissions and smog. Large parking lots and suburban neighborhoods lead to soil erosion and flooding because there is no land to absorb the water. Some even say the car and oil industry leads to wars for resources to fuel our obsession with automobiles.
Newspaper illustration about Valley Fair's Grand Opening, Appleton Post-Crescent, March 9, 1955
Table, "Automobiles Per Housing Unit, 1960," Facts About Wisconsin's Fox Valley Region, 1960.
Table "Growth of Traffic Vehicles," Appleton City Planning Survey, 1922
Table "Traffic Vehicle Changes in Appleton" Appleton City Planning Survey, 1922