Excellent condition.

Front cover-Jim Fisher designs a cover

whose elements are derived from some

of the styling features of the 1955

Fords. This entirely new line of fine cars

is more fully pictured and described in

the story commencing on page two.

----------- 2 -----------

VOL. 46 NO. 12

DECEMBER, 1954

FORD TIMES

Ford For '55.

Contents

Skiing at Stevens Pass..

2

BURGESS H. SCOTT

10

JEAN LUNZER

Custom Conversions..

16

MELVIN BECK

Big Bend with a Burro.

19

JOYCE ROCKWOOD MUENCH

Feathered Rainbow.

28

WELDON F. HEALD

Mexico's New West Coast Highway.. 32

ROBERT MARTIN HODESH

The 1955 Ford Almanac.

Huntsville, Alabama.

JOHN MCCORMICK

The Flat and Flavorsome Flounder.. 44

JAN SEBASTIAN

American Farmer.

48

The Beulah Economy Store..

51

MARY LANE

Favorite Recipes of Famous Taverns.. 57

Americamera-24, 27, 30, 55; Games-62; Letters-64.

The Ford Times is published monthly by

Ford Motor Company, 3000 Schaefer, Dearborn, Michigan

----------- 3 -----------

painting by Richard Brough

WHENEVER the mayor of Huntsville, Alabama, goes

out for a cup of coffee in the morning, the pessimists

hanging around the sidewalks take wicked delight in

reminding him that the center of the town is smack on

top of a huge limestone cave, and that the only thing

keeping the town up is a thin crust of concrete and

stone.

This, plus the fact that a city ordinance prevents the

firing of cannon, flying a kite within city limits, and

bicycle riding by a lady without permission of the

mayor, adds

up to a special sort of community. The

story begins on page 38.

----------- 4 -----------

FORD FOR '55:

New Styling, Luxury, Power

by Burgess H. Scott... photographs by Warren Winstanley

PACED

CED by an entirely new low-cost luxury line-the Fair-

lane series-Ford's broad offering of 1955 passenger cars

maintain their trend-setting styling with a longer, wider, low-

swept silhouette, a smart new wrap-around windshield, the

greatest choice of new colors, trim, and fabrics, and a selection

of more powerful Y-block V-8 or I-block six-cylinder engines.

Although the horsepower of the two engines is generously

increased, they are chiefly outstanding for their new trigger-

torque performance, which gives greatly increased responsive-

ness in cruising ranges along with better maneuverability and

flexibility in traffic.

The 1955 models, new from tires to top and bumper to

bumper, are, however, evolutionary in concept, retaining the

advancements which have won leadership for Ford in auto-

motive design and styling. The new cars are 1.3 inches lower

in overall height than the 1954 Fords, yet they have the same

road clearance. The hood flattens even more between the

raised fenders, providing greater visibility, and the rear deck

is flatter and longer.

The new ball-joint system of front suspension which Ford

pioneered in its price class last year and the engine mounts

have been improved to provide an even smoother, "tighter"

ride. The horizontal axes of the ball-joint arms have been

tilted upward, a change which enables the unit to "ride the

1955 Sunliner and "Birds in Flight," sculpture

by Gwen Lux, at Northland (see box on page 4).

----------- 5 -----------

SKIING AT STEVENS PASS

by Jean Lunzer... paintings by Rudolph Bundas

To

HE RUGGED Stevens Pass country of Washington state

Cascade Mountains was conceived as a ski area at about

the same time plans for Sun Valley, Idaho, were in th

embryonic stage. But private capital which built the resor

at Sun Valley and Aspen, Colorado, by-passed this mag

nificent West Coast site, leaving its development almost com

pletely to skiers themselves. While the Idaho resort ha

achieved world fame, Stevens Pass, with its equally varie

terrain, has held its own as a mecca for the "Sunday skier"

whose recreation dollar is closely budgeted.

An important reason for this is that the entire area is o

government land. Both private club facilities and those main

tained for the public are conducted under close surveillance

of the U. S. Forest Service, which has supervised the Stevens

Pass Recreation Area since its beginning, and even today

there is a minimum of commercialization. Only the musts are

there-ski lifts, food concessions, low-cost accommodations-

but they add up to one of America's finest and most beautiful!

winter recreation areas.

As early as 1935 such groups as the Wenatchee, Everett

and Penguin (Seattle) ski clubs, and the Everett Mountaineers

pioneered in developing Stevens Pass skiing. In more recent

years the vast area on U.S. Highway 2 has attracted other

organized groups, and thousands of individuals. All businesses

are on a lease basis with the majority of the services handled

Above right: Mount Index, from Stevens Pass Highway.

Below right: Taking the first rope tow up "Main Hil

"

----------- 6 -----------

Inger's

CUSTOM CONVERSIONS

photograph by Dick Hanley

WHEN

Revamped Model A's Work Year-Round

by Melvin Beck

THEN winter closes in over the

northland it doesn't neces-

sarily mean a halting of operations

by the many persons who still use

Model A Fords in their businesses.

They simply alter their sturdy

little cars to suit road conditions

and work them around the calen-

dar, as illustrated by the photo-

16

graphs on these pages.

above is used at the Grossinger

The stripped down car shown

resort area in New York's Catskill

Mountains to pull an ice shaver

over the rink after each of the

many skating sessions. When snow

runs, it hauls in snow from other

is scarce on the ski and toboggan

----------- 7 -----------

A unique tour in Texas' great park

Big Bend with a Burro

by Joyce Rockwood Muench

photographs by Josef Muench

S WE STARTED up the trail into the high country of Texas

As

Big Bend National Park, Bert Beckett, the packer, re-

marked as follows:

"Here's your lead rope, and you're off like a shirt button."

The lead rope was attached to one of our two burros,

Nellie and Hoover. The purpose of our expedition was to

apply the oldtime prospector's technique to a modern camp-

ing trip. Nellie and Hoover were laden, therefore, not with

the picks and shovels of the gold seeker, but with camping

equipment. We found the burros amiable and helpful. By

enlisting their patient services, we were able to explore some

of the finest scenery in the nation.

Heading for the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains, we

settled to a steady, jogging pace. From the Window, a notch

opening from a great basin, we saw the desert far below.

Then Ward Mountain closed off the view, and we climbed

steadily higher in the Chisos. "Chisos" means ghostly, a word

descriptive of the eerie shadows that play over the mountains.

Now we saw the shadows on the pinnacles above us, rising

Above left: From a ledge on the U.S. side one can see across

the Rio Grande to the little Mexican town of Bouquillas.

Below left: One of the delightful stops for hikers and riders

in the Chisos Mountains is this camp at Boot Spring.

----------- 8 -----------

americamera |

24

John Brown's Fort

photograph by Robert Holland.

1734 when Robert Harper took a short cut through a gap

in the Blue Ridge known as "the Hole" he didn't realize he

was about to establish a tourist attraction. He had planned to

travel farther, but he was so carried away with this dark, craggy

notch where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet that

he decided to abandon the remainder of his journey. He bought

a patch of land and started a ferry across the Potomac which

----------- 9 -----------

americamera |

Nomads of the Pacific

by Charlotte D. Widrig

photographs by Ralph Widrig and Fred Melberg

WIND

IND, sand and tide, fragile, air-filled glass balls, and the

salty adventure of a treasure hunt-such are the com-

ponents of a seasonal pastime along many a coastal beach of

the Pacific Northwest.

The transparent glass spheres, made in Japan for the pur-

of buoying up fish nets, travel the north Pacific current

pose

for thousands of miles, to the Aleutian Islands and down the

Alaskan coast, before being skimmed ashore by the prevailing

westerly winds off Washington and Oregon. Here they are

picked up as curiosities by picnickers and children. Beach-

combers harvest them. Collectors single out the sizes and

colors they prefer. Many are offered for sale in souvenir shops

with prices running from five cents to several dollars apiece.

The Japanese floats, not to be confused with a U. S. type

which is clear and perfectly symmetrical, are characterized by

a thick dimple into which letters, characters or bits of sea-shell

may have been pressed for identification. Their size varies

from the circumference of a small orange to jumbos larger

than a basketball. The usual color is aquamarine speckled)

with tiny air bubbles, but ambers, seagreens and tints of blue

are also found. Rarest of all are deep purple-the "ultra" of

a collector's dream, for the story goes that their use was

restricted to those fishing for the royal household.

The photographs at left were made during a float-findin

expedition along the Gulf of Alaska. The dunes there go ba

for five to ten miles, and floats were found partially buried in

the sand over the entire area. Many were embedded deep in

grass and vegetation far from the shore-further evidence

their antiquity.

----------- 10 -----------

0

americamera

A

Versatile V-8's

GENTLEMAN from Texas and two from Indiana are respon-

sible for the two rather startling uses of Ford engines

pictured on these pages.

The motorcycle is the work of Bill Drabek, an automotive

repair man of Kingsville, Texas, who, not content with the

four-cylinder engine that came with it, decided to substitute

a Ford V-8 60 hp motor.

The engine is mounted on rubber supports with a 90-degree

angle drive gear box, and a four-speed motorcycle transmis-

sion and clutch. A special cross flow radiator is mounted in

the front crash bar for a cooling system.

----------- 11 -----------

A conventional chain drive with adjustable chain oilers

provides for a wide range of sprocket ratios. At present Drabek

has his machine geared down for highway and traffic cruising

and to obtain good gasoline mileage. His instrument panel,

including speedometer, oil pressure gauge, ammeter, left and

right cylinder head temperature indicators, ignition switch,

choke knob, and light, is a part of the overall gasoline tank

shell. This shell encloses two gasoline tanks, downdraft carbu-

retor, generator, voltage regulator, and ignition coil.

The motorcycle is nine feet in length overall, weighs 965

pounds, and in fourth gear at half-throttle has a road speed

of between 70 and 80 mph. The owner considers it an ideal

vehicle for the flat, open country of southwest Texas.

Lester Zehr, Jr., of Fort Wayne, Indiana, powered the

Arrow Sport Model F airplane pictured below with a stock

100 hp L-head V-8 Ford engine. It is mounted in the plane

in an exactly reversed position so that the drive shaft projects

forward to provide a place for attaching the wooden propeller.

The plane has a cruising speed of 90 mph and a climb

rate of between 800 and 1000 feet per minute. It has logged

approximately 600 hours and is still in use. Zehr's father, in

Woodburn, Indiana, has built and pilots the same type of

Ford-powered plane.

----------- 12 -----------

The scenic highway to San

Blas, near Tepic, Mexico

→

2

Mexico's

New

West Coast

Highway

by Robert Martin Hodesh

photographs by Ray Manley

UNTIL

INTIL a few months ago, not many Mexico-bound travelers

tried to get from the States to Mexico City via Mexico's

west coast highway. It led through beautiful country, but it

demanded a lot from the driver and even more from the car.

You had to wrestle the car along gravelly roads, steer it

gingerly across the beds of more than half a dozen rivers or

streams, wait for ferries, and generally endure the ills of

primeval motoring.

----------- 13 -----------

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

by John McCormick... paintings by Richard Brough

OWNTOWN Huntsville, Alabama, is rooted on the high

arch of a tremendous limestone cave. Beneath the First

Presbyterian Church and the Elk's Building, Terry's "great

is the power of cash" store and the Madison County Court-

house, the First National Bank and all the buildings on the

square, an underground stream flows darkly to its release at

Big Spring.

Often on sunny mornings, Mayor Spec Searcy, bound for

the Central Cafe and his nine o'clock cup of coffee, is inter-

cepted and reminded by local pessimists of the mere crust of

concrete and limestone supporting him and his town.

Sympathetic friends comfort him. The caves beneath the

town are not really extensive, they claim. The bridge of con-

crete, topsoil and limestone on which the downtown district

perches provides ample structural support. The fact is,

they maintain, there is not the slightest indication that down-

town Huntsville is settling or ever will.

To many a newcomer, however, the most impressive feature

about Huntsville is not its extraordinary geological location

but its bizarre blend of the historic past and the progressive

present: a ranch style home, completed only last year, sprawls

next door to a pillared mansion from which, almost one hun-

dred years ago, a Secretary of War named Walker issued an

order that caused a shot to be fired at a fort called Sumter-

and plunged a nation into civil war.

Out at Redstone Arsenal, working in the closely guarded

Above right: Cotton Row in Huntsville

Below right: Madison County Courthouse

----------- 14 -----------

4

The Flat and Flavorsome

FLOUNDER

by Jan Sebastian... paintings by Adolph Kronengold

TORE than eight years ago, when we first came down to

MORE

Grand Isle to live, it was a nightly ritual of ours to tell

our little boy how the flounder got flat..

The story is that a big old flounder showed up late for a

fish town-meeting one day, got into a huff because a herring

had been elected king, and acted so bad-mannered that a whale

was obliged to flatten him with a smack of his mighty tail

to teach him some manners.

The scientists don't go for this story at all, preferring to

believe that the flounder got into his fix by lying around in

the sand all day until his bottom side got thin and light-

colored while his top-side turned fleshy and dark to match

the bottom muds and sands. Regardless of the cause, the

flounder now has a terrible figure to look at and a wonderful

figure to broil.

Here on the south Louisiana coast, where Jean Lafitte used

to practice privateering and where we now do privateering

of our own among the vast shoals of fish that surround us, we

know the flat and flavorsome flounder well. Some are taken

on rod and reel in the bays, but most are caught in the nets

of shrimp trawlers or are gigged.

"Floundering" is a sport in itself. At night when the tides

are low fishermen wade the edges of shallow water with a

Above right: Catching flounder from Caminada Bay bridge.

Below right: Grand Islanders often "gig" flounder at night.

----------- 15 -----------

The Beulah Economy Store

by Mary Lane

paintings by Thomas P. Dewberry

'N BEULAH, a quiet mountain settlement in north Georgia on

Villa Rica-State Highway 101 out of Rockmart-only

four miles from U. S. Highway 6, country folks can amble

over to Noah's Ark and spend all their cotton and corn money

before they can turn around twice. The big weatherbeaten

sign, down the Yorkville dirt road a piece, proclaims BEULAH

ECONOMY STORE. But for 39 years everybody has called

the quaint country store Noah's Ark-for obvious reasons

once you take a look inside.

The little trading center is owned by 69-year-old Lee Shipp,

who has the same notions as Noah himself about stocking up

on everything. Soft-voiced, wispy-haired Mr. Shipp declares

that he tries to supply his section with all its needs from birth

to death-from safety pins to coffins.

"My father lived and died a merchant and an undertaker,"

he reminisced one day. "I use' to hear him tell about how he

courted his best clerk over the counter and married her. Then I

came along and was practically raised behind the counter. I

was playing store before I was knee-high to a grasshopper."

Lee married and moved to Beulah in 1912, bought a red cla

farm and settled down-with fond dreams of owning a store

All he lacked was money. Finally he and Bud Hannah,

Above left: A neighbor relaxes on the front porch.

Below left: Half the stock dangles from the ceiling.

----------- 16 -----------

Favorite Recipes of Famous Taverns

Lovett's by Lafayette Brook

is open for break-

fast, lunch and dinner daily and offers overnight accom-

modations and vacation facilities. Closed October 24 to

December 26 and from April 10 to May 31. It is in Franconia,

New Hampshire, at the junction of State highways 18 and 141.

----------- 17 -----------

Northwoods Inn in the heart of Wisconsin's famed

northern vacation-land is at the junction of State highways

13 and 70 at Fifield. Eli Nicholas is the owner and manager.

Lunch and dinner served daily from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

----------- 18 -----------

Berghoff Garden Restaurant grew from a

small hotel coffee shop to one of Indiana's largest and most

famous dining spots. Breakfast, lunch and dinner served; open

from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., except Sunday. It is two blocks

north of U.S. 24 and 30 at 131 W. Berry Street in Fort Wayne.