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1920. "Pacific Highway through a Washington red cedar stump, 20 feet in diameter (man and automobile in tunnel of giant tree stump)." Photo by Darius Kinsey, Seattle. View full size.
The stump has been at the Smokey Point rest stop (off of I-5 North, just south of Arlington, WA) since 1971.
Somewhere between 1916 and 1919. The slope nose began to morph onto an ersatz radiator shell around 1921.
At first I thought that car was a Renault, not common in North America, but not unheard of, either. I couldn't find any pictures of Renaults of that era having that mesh grille, though. My second guess turned out to be correct. It's an air-cooled Franklin. This was right about the time that Franklin began responding to pressure from its dealers to add a radiator shell, even though there was no radiator. This may be among the last of the sloped-hood cars.
Looks a bit like someone is getting a ticket for driving into a tree! Or maybe the driver wanted a receipt for the admission fee?
Click here for history behind that drive through stump.
It sits at an I-5 rest area in northwest Washington south of Bellingham on the northbound side.
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