A woman and her motorcycle—a love story. Meet four women who blazed the trail for women who like to travel.
In 1915, mother and daughter duo, AVIS and EFFIE HOTCHKISS were the first two women to travel across the continent on a motorcycle. 26-year-old Effie was a trained mechanic who fixed her own hog along the journey. Her mother, Avis, rode in the sidecar. Their biggest problem? Wearing men’s clothes was illegal in some areas! THAT was the public outcry! Even though women did not yet have the right to vote, this young woman and her mother set off on a long-distance journey that set the stage for adventure biking.
In 1916, sisters GUSSIE and ADDIE VAN BUREN became the first women to traverse the United States on solo motorcycles, meaning each was on her own bike. They also became the first people, regardless of gender, to summit Pike’s Peak on motorized vehicles. But just as the Hotchkiss women discovered, the journey wasn’t without problems. The sisters were arrested on numerous occasions for…wearing men’s clothes!
While the Hotchkiss women decided to visit the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, the Van Buren sisters had a decidedly political bend to their journey: to prove that women were capable of military service—specifically, military dispatch riders as the U.S. entered WWI. Even though Gussie was denied entry into the military, she joined Amelia Earhart’s Ninety Nines, a group of female pilots.
In spite of the obstacles, these women normalized female adventure travel, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.
Info on the Van Buren sisters:
- History: 9 Intrepid Women Explorers
- National Geographic: Travel through time with 21 women explorers who changed the world
Links to info on Avis and Effie Hotchkiss: