1904 – Henry Ford On The Anchor Bay

(From the Spring 2025 Issue of Macomb Now Magazine)

By Bob Cannon

Most have probably not thought of New Baltimore as a prime vacation destination, but at one time New Baltimore, Romeo and Mount Clemens were top locations for people to travel for leisure. The Cherokee and Ojibwa tribes were the first settlers in what is now New Baltimore and that community evolved into trading furs and pelts and then the lumber industry. Years later New Baltimore, located on Anchor Bay, became a tourist draw. As luck would have it, Henry Ford was one of those who enjoyed relaxing in the vacation mecca on Anchor Bay.

While the auto manufacturers were competing for superiority, Ford got a leg up on his opponents by a move that sparked the interest of the country and world. What he proposed to do was break the world’s speed record for one mile held by Maurice Augieres, a French driver, who had set the official time of 40 4/5 seconds.

On a bitterly cold day, he planned to use a straight course on the frozen surface of the bay, traversing it with his own Ford 999 Arrow racer, faster than any car had ever been driven. In spite of the bitter weather, Mr. Ford arranged for a crew of farmers to scrape snow from the ice and haul cinders from the nearby powerhouse. These were sprinkled over a one-mile course and when the sun was out the cinders sank enough to provide a surface to partially grip the tires.

January 8, 1904 was set as the day to make the attempt. Mr. Ford and Ed ‘Spider’ Huff drove the car the measured mile in the record-breaking time of 36 seconds. They thought they had set a new world record, however no arrangements had been made for representatives of the American Automobile Association to witness the event. Thus, Mr. Ford was forced to repeat this record setting event four days later, which he did with official timers present. This was the first time the speed record had been set outside of France or Belgium, but certainly not the last.

On his second run the car was clocked at 91.37 mph, 39 2/5 seconds slower than his first try, but still now the world record. Affidavits were prepared and submitted at a meeting in New York the following week and a new record had been established in New Baltimore by Henry Ford.

Photo courtesy of the New Baltimore Historical Society