Today in Indiana History

July 4 , 2009

On this day in 1894, Elwood Haynes made a trial run at Kokomo of one of the first automobiles in the United States. It was the first successful clutch-driven car, but Haynes didn't set any speed records that day. On a stretch of little-used road near Kokomo, Pumpkinvine Pike, the car traveled about six miles at a speed approaching six or seven miles per hour--becoming one of the first cars in the country to achieve such a feat.