So help me, I like the early history of the automobile. There was seemingly infinite optimism and ambition and more than that, just so much going on. I thought it would be fun, at least for me, to take a single day a century ago as a snapshot. Then as now, it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I thought that a holiday weekend wouldn't have that much to offer, a dozen notes on the industry, maybe. Easy peasy.

Not even close. It's impossible to overstate just how much was happening. There were, what, 30 or 40 major makes? And who knows how many small manufacturers, racing everywhere, hundreds of clubs, unions, dealers, garages, tours. It would, in fact, be too much to list. But here are some highlights.

• Philadelphia's Nance announced their new 35hp, $1,900 six-cylinder automobile.
• Three hundred automobiles gathered in Hiawatha, Kansas, for a jackrabbit hunt.
• Sheffield Car Company debuted their 30-hp railroad automobile (image above), a replacement for the velocipede.
• The automobile clubs of Richmond and Newport News, Virginia, showed their plan for a road to connect the two cities, and planned to begin construction in the spring.

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