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New York-to-Paris, via Ames, Iowa! The year was 1908, and six cars lined up near Time Square in New York City for the start of the first international automobile race ever held. Promoted by the fledgling Automobile Club of America, it drew attention across the country. The projected route crossed the U.S. from New York to San Francisco and then by boat to Alaska, across the Berring Sea to Asia and through Siberia to Europe, ending in Paris. This photo shows the French car, the Moto Bloc, coming through Ames on March 16, 1908, as it travels west up the hill from Beach Avenue on Boone Street (after 1914, Lincoln Way). Today [2004], Linden Hall is at the left and fraternity houses line the street on the right. For more information on the race, see Chapter 12, "Ames in Word and Picture: Further Tales and Personal Memories." (Photo is courtesy of Iowa State University Archives/Parks Library.)