Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-25 | Page 38 | High Speed through Florida Bad Lands

HIGH SPEED THROUGH FL01AJD LANDS Maxwell Plows Through Swamps at Forty-mile-an-hour Pace. Taking a route that involved the risk of sinking out of eight in the great Withlachoochee swamp in central Florida Flori-da with his motor, Fercy W. Gibbs, Detroit automobile driver, last week established es-tablished a remarkable new motor car speed and endurance record for the 276 miles between Tampa, Fla., and Jacksonville Jack-sonville and attained the distinction of having been the first man to cross Florida's 6econd greatest bog locality in an automobile, according to word received by Sales Manager E. A. Char-ron Char-ron of the Utah-Idaho Motor Car company, com-pany, local Maxwell distributors. Biding in the car with Cribbs was Byron By-ron West, proprietor and editor of the Florida Times-Union, one of the foremost fore-most good roads workers in Florida, who asserted here after the run had been finished that the trip opened up the possibility of developing in the swamp the greatest adventure field in America for motorists. Gibbs used a Maxwell touring car on the run and he carried three passengers besides himself. In addition to the editor edi-tor there was another Jacksonville newspaper man in the car and a representative repre-sentative of the rood roads committee of the Jacksonville chamber of commerce. com-merce. The route through the twenty-five miles of swamp cuts twenty-five miles off the distance between the two largest Florida cities. Gibbs left Jacksonville at 1 a. mi and was in Tampa at the start of the business busi-ness day. The total distance covered was 276 miles, and his car negotiated it without car or motor stop. His average aver-age for the run was approximately forty for-ty miles an hour. The tour through the twenty-five miles of swamp was made with the aid of a Seminole Indian native and guide, who piloted the car from high spot to high spot and' whose final caution to the driver was to avoid allowing the car to stop at any point within the water-clogged district. Frequently the car was in water holes two feet deep, while water stretches anxlo-deep often continued a half mile or more. There is no sign of life in the jungle other than the alligators, their native reptile companions and the tropical birds.