Here's a picture I bought a few years back. I believe this t

May 9

Here's a picture I bought a few years back. I believe this to be taken of two cars in 1915 traveling south along the California coast possibly in Mendocino County, a favorite place of mine. Anybody able to identify the cars these adventurous travelers were driving?

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May 9, 2026

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Replies (18)

· May 9

Well I just discovered that I was wrong about the location and if correct this is an even more amazing photo than i thought. The only "Lion Head" I can find on the coast is on Santa Catalina Island! Could these be the first cars on Catalina? 😲

· May 9

@Chandler-Six Great photos! Are you certain that they were taken in the states? Only reason I ask is that there is a Lion Head mountain in Capetown, South Africa. The topography would be very similar to the California coast, as well.

· May 9

@Hupp31 "certain" no, would love to find more details to nail down the location. I can find a "Rocky Point" road that is now in Palos Verde California along the coast, but no mention of the mountain. I found a 1913 Catalalina map and they identify a "Coach Road" along the coast leading to Lion Head. I looked at pictures of the Capetown location and think the geography is different enough to rule that out. Unfortunately I only have these two pictures from the scrapbook.

· May 9

@Chandler-Six Is Lion Head on the east coast of Catalina. I just noticed that the second photo says east from chute landing. If we take that literally, this would have to be an east coast, facing north.

· May 9

@Chandler-Six Is Lion Head on the east coast of Catalina? I just noticed that the second photo says east from chute landing. If we take that literally, this would have to be an east coast, facing north.

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· May 9

@Hupp31 yes Lion Head is on the east side of the island so they would have been traveling north, not south like I originally thought if this was Mendocino county.

· May 9

That does look like Catalina Island although Travis is correct about South Africa being a possibility. What are the chances of two antique car topics in a month featuring Catalina Island?

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· May 9

Those are really cool pics! Sometimes names of roads and landmarks change considerably over the decades.

· May 9

The shape of the front fenders and rear of the tonneau put me in mind of a Buick model 10.

· May 9

@Hupp31 that could be the car, but note heavy duty rear wheels. Here's a close up of just the cars.

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· May 9

@Chandler-Six Interesting that the front seat passenger appears to be holding a tubular magazine rifle, similar to a Winchester 1890.

· May 9

@Hupp31
Good eye. Maybe they are hunting?

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· May 9

@HemiJoel Possible, though they’re not really dressed for it. If it’s not a rifle, I can’t think of anything else it would be.

· May 9

@Hupp31 and I can’t think of what they might be hunting for on the island. It’s not like there were large mammals there until the bison were introduced later.

· May 10

@Chandler-Six I can’t either. It looks like a small caliber rifle like a .22 so I’m not sure what there is for small game on the island.

· May 10

@Chandler-Six Looks like the mule deer were introduced later than that as well, and now they’re still trying to get that genie back in the bottle.

· May 11

@Chandler-Six I’ve been wracking my brain trying to find a match for this car. Flat top fenders front and rear would fit quite a few around 1910. The rectangular shaped bead on the back of the tonneau is very distinctive. Stevens Duryea and Stanley had something similar but not quite a match. Most at that time had a smooth tonneau with at most a single horizontal bead.

· May 10

One thing that I keep coming back to is the size of the waves. There may be times of the year when Catalina gets waves that big but I would expect it to be in winter months and it would be very cold and windy. The two women are standing right there on the shore and their light dresses are hanging slack. These seem to have been taken in a place where big waves break even in nice weather.