Wyman in the News

The City of Ogden Iowa is celebrating its sesquicentennial year and is sharing the rich history of their community with featured stories about their town.  To commemorate June 14th, The Ogden Reporter published the account of Wyman's visit to Ogden in 1903.


George A. Wyman - A Sesquicentennial feature story, The Ogden Reporter, by Kathy Pierce, June 6, 2016

The City of Ogden is the hosting authority for both a Wyman Memorial plaque and Waypoint sign.  Their plan is to place the plaque and sign in the city common space near the center of town.

TeamStrange Airheads sponsored the Wyman memorial plaque with this inscription:  "Dedicated by TeamStrange Airheads in memory of its founder Eddie James, IBA #71"










On Sunday, June 14, Wyman stopped for the night in Ogden, Iowa. He likely stayed at the Ogden Hotel on Walnut Street. The next morning, he sought the services of the Marquardt Blacksmith Shop, at the corner of Walnut and Southwest 5th Streets, to repair the rear axle and coaster brake of his motorcycle. It was 11:30 am before he departed, riding the 11 miles to Boone where he stopped for lunch.  Read Wyman's account of his visit to Ogden, IA below.

"It had been my design when I started to take the more southerly route from Omaha, by way of Kansas City and St. Louis to Chicago, because I understood that, although the distance is greater, I would find better riding by so doing. When I came along, however, all that country was under water, one might say, so I decided to follow the route of the Northwestern Railroad past Ames, from which a spur of the road runs south to Des Moines. For the credit of the country, I hope the southerly route is better than the one I followed. On the whole, Iowa gave me as much vile traveling as any State that I crossed.
Enroute to Ogden

I started from Denison at 8 a.m., taking to the railroad. After going five miles the roadbed became so bad that I could not ride, and I sought the highway. This did not help me much, for I was able to ride only a little way at a time, and then walk anywhere from 100 yards to a mile. My coaster brake, which had begun to give me trouble the day before, became on this day a coaster broke. The threads of the axle were stripped, and, while the brake would not work, the coaster worked overtime, so that I could not start the bicycle by pedaling; I had to run it along and then hop on. This day, July(sic) 14, was the hottest I had yet encountered."
G.A. Wyman, Through the Valleys of the Two Great Rivers to Chicago, The Motorcycle Magazine, September 1903