Driven

In an age when driving is the next frontier, a 22-year-old mother tries to become the first woman to drive cross-country. Riding into mysterious pre-highway terrain, she rewrites history and faces betrayal closer than she ever imagined.

Alice Ramsey with her first Maxwell 1908 and driving gear (Courtesy ofArchives and Special Collections, Vassar College Library)

JULY, 1909

It looked like a storm brewing in the distance. Seconds later, out of the cloud, a band of Native Americans — shirtless and in trousers — appeared rumbling across the vista. They carried drawn bows and arrows as they rode horses parallel to the car. The women stared in awe, which promptly became fear. In unison, the riders turned their horses in the direction of the dark green auto, making its boxy metal profile look pitiful next to its rival the horse in the arid, western landscape.

The hunting party pulled up alongside, and Alice Ramsey’s mind reeled. A front page article in the New York Times a few months prior reported an “Indian Revolt” out west that left six men dead. The item took on new meaning as the thundering…