John McLaren, from Cheboygan, Mich., stood on a low platform next to Drumheller Fountain with his back to the form of Mt. Rainier, indistinguishable beyond a Seattle cotton sky. He addressed a sizeable crowd standing around the murky duck-laden water in the cool, drizzling morning.

It was the end of a 3,856 mile, near-month-long reenactment of a race that occurred more than 100 years ago. The 1909 Ocean to Ocean Endurance Contest, as it was called, pitted two Model T’s, a Stearns, Acme, Shawmut and Itala against one another from New York to Seattle, more specifically to Drumheller, a centerpiece of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, which was being held in Seattle that year.

Model T’s crossed the finish line at Drumheller in first and second place at 12:55:25 p.m. on June 22, 1909, with Henry Ford standing by. The 1909 race marked the start of Model T manufacturing, which continued to 1927, amounting to more than 15 million Model T’s. The win of the Ocean to Ocean Endurance Contest greatly aided the car’s commercial success and legendary status.

Fifty Ford Model T’s, each representing one of the 50 United States, flanged from Drumheller’s cement lip this past Sunday to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the race. The vehicle’s drivers (of which McLaren was one) — some in faux, early-20th-century automobile wear — stood near their respective vehicles while a handful of women garbed like ladies of that era — massive feathered hats, lacey dresses and all — mulled among them.

“I think everyone that wants to come here and live in this country ought to take a trip across it at 35 mph,” McLaren told the crowd, “because it’s such a great country.”

The original route was actually 4,106 miles long, but some of the old roads from that route — in Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington — have disappeared, requiring the 2009 racers to run on interstate highways, slightly deviating from the original route. Despite slight deviations, the drivers still stopped nightly at the same places the racers had stopped 100 years prior.

Many of the drivers seemed exuberant at having finished the race. Some, at its completion, stepped from their doorless T’s in trench coats, leather skull caps complete with earflaps and buggy-driving goggles and popped open a bottle of champagne.

One driver, Jon W. Griesenbeck of Roanoke, Va. — who drives a 1920 Model T Ford Coupe with a Lane Gear Box and Rocky Mountain Brakes — described the hardships of the road to the crowd. His coupe alone went through several engines and hours of repair work. At one point during the journey, he was forced to buy a new engine from a stranger who had kept it in his shed.

“We put the engine in, we had our fingers crossed, we hit the starter,” he said and then paused for a moment. “It fired immediately. We got to the hotel, we had to do some minor adjustments, [and we] drove it the next day 260 miles with a rather obnoxious knock.”

Many of the other vehicles, which were built between 1909 and 1927, had also been driven hard over the past month. Some were spattered with mud across their hearse-black hoods, emblazoned with polished brass under swept-back T hood ornaments.

“My employees keep saying ‘I hope you’re enjoying your vacation,” Griesenbeck said after describing the trials of the road. “I’ve been trying to make [them] understand that this was not a vacation; it was an adventure.”

Reach reporter Camden Swita at news@dailyuw.com.