Before there were jeeps, drivers had to amuse themselves with vehicles somehow. Before there was Willys Overland there was just Overland.  In 1907, wondering where 500 cars he ordered were, John North Willys found himself having to ask friends to inject cash into Overland after he discovered he wouldn’t get his cars if he didn’t (the company would have gone bankrupt).   So, in 1920 you have an Overland (maybe the 1918 Overland 90 Touring model) made by Willys Overland, what can you do with it if you don’t have four wheel drive?

You jump it of course!  On September 5, 1920, the driver below, Henry Alegria, a Basque Pioneer in Idaho, drove this four cylinder Overland touring car over an 18 foot gap between two ramps.  I’m assuming he survived the jump.  It looks pretty crazy, given the driver probably had no seat belt.  I found the photo in a book by Arthur A. Hart called Life in Old Boise that someone gave me recently.  The book has some great pics, which are more enjoyable if you know Boise, Idaho, at all.