Nassau Farmers Protest Race
Courtesy of The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum
The lure of an economic boon from thousands of free-spending visitors to the Long Island community proved incentive enough for Nassau County supervisors to approve the use of public roads for auto racing when they met on August 23, 1904. Unconvinced, however, were many farmers who still relied on horses for transportation and saw automobiles as playthings of the idle rich. Despite several legal attempts to stop the race, Nassau County supervisors and judges gave their approval a few days before the Saturday race date.
