Early automobile ordinance offers insight into an era

MUSCODA – Do you at any time surprise what it was like to work a vehicle in Muscoda many decades in the past? Paul Kratochwill, editor of this newspaper in 1941, ought to have puzzled. Nonetheless, he did not expose the day of the pursuing ordinance as he hoped someone would offer that information and facts.

The old driving policies he uncovered had been beneath the heading “AUTOMOBILE ORDINANCE: An Ordinance for the regulation of visitors of automobiles and other automobiles.”

Section I. That any human being who exceeds the pace limit of extra than twelve miles for each hour with an auto or other motor vehicle, shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not considerably less than $5.00 and not far more than $50 and prices for just about every offense or be confined in the county or village jail not to exceed thirty times.

Section 2. That any particular person who keeps their muffler open even though beginning or working via the streets or usually earning unwanted noises shall, upon conviction, be fined not a lot less than $1.00 or a lot more than $25, and prices thereof, or be confined to the village or county jail not to exceed thirty days.

Segment 3. That all automobiles shall be stored to the appropriate whilst driving or passing other vehicles, going in the opposite course, and that all cars turning around shall go to the subsequent intersecting avenue and go all around a submit presented in the middle of the intersecting streets, and that all cars parked on Wisconsin Avenue shall be done so in the center of the road experiencing east when intending to go north, and facing west when intending to go south. Any violator shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than $1.00 and not a lot more than $10 for each offense or be confined to the county or village jail for a period not to exceed thirty days.

Part 4. In circumstance default is designed of the payment of any high-quality and expenditures assessed for any of the provisions of this ordinance, the defender so defaulting may perhaps be confined to the county or village jail for a expression not exceeding sixty days or until this kind of fine and expenditures are paid. The ordinance shall take outcome and be in force following its passage and publication.

Signed: Wm. Victora, Pres. F. D. Groves, Village Clerk.

When the Smiths arrived in Muscoda, vehicles had been not parked in the center of the street – they had been diagonal-parked in opposition to the curbs. The existing parallel fashion of parking arrived later on.

We did not get there below in time to know Wm. Victora. However, Frank Groves and his wife were being working a tiny grocery retail store on West Warehouse Road.

There are however a number of folks all-around who may recall at minimum 1 as well as for obtaining diagonal parking. One particular New Decades Eve a massive snowstorm caused the village to reduce its electrical electric power for a couple of several hours – but the partying continued alongside Wisconsin Avenue – with the enable of candles, furthermore headlight beams coming from automobiles parked outside against the curbs.

As for the Muscoda village jail, we have been advised it was located on the south aspect of Highway 80 and a limited distance southeast of the Nelson Assistance Station.

Evidently the jail did get some use. A nearby Globe War II veteran, now deceased, instructed me he had satisfied a fellow soldier, all through the battling in the jungles of New Guinea, who claimed to have used a evening in the Muscoda jail pursuing a “night on the city.”