Biography - David Otto is a fourth generation rancher and works for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. His ranch, where David, his wife Ellen, and his mother Nancy reside, is located southwest of Yoder, Wyoming, and is nearly 120 years old!
About the Photo - The photo is of his wife’s 1929 Model A Ford that belonged to her great uncle. When her mother passed away she saw it in a photo and was able to track it down. She was able to return it to her family along with their 1924 Model TT truck, which she has worked to restore. This photo was taken with their ranch in the background.
History - Wyoming’s automobile history began in Laramie with Elmer Lovejoy, a bicycle shop owner who built and drove the state’s first car in May 1898, introducing personal motorized transport to a state still reliant on horses. Wyoming’s Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental auto route, established in 1913, following the Union Pacific rail corridor across the state, serving as a precursor to I-80 and US-30, and offering historic sites like Cheyenne’s “Lincolnway,” the Henry Joy Monument, and Laramie’s Lincoln Monument at Sherman Summit, with segments still drivable today.
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