Before She Flew the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart Crossed America in a Yellow Roadster

In the summer of 1924, a bright yellow convertible roared through the Canadian Rockies with two women at the wheel. They stopped for fuel, the car plastered with stickers from California, Washington, and Banff. The driver told the crowd she was heading to Boston, then sped off. Years later, when that face appeared in newspapers around the world, people remembered her as the scrappy young woman who had just completed one of the most daring road trips of the era.

That driver was Amelia Earhart, nearly a decade before her solo Atlantic flight.

Earhart had just sold her beloved biplane, "The Canary," after a series of personal setbacks—her parents' divorce, a failed family investment, and a sinus surgery that didn't take. But she needed a car to drive east with her mother. At a dealership, she spotted a brand-new Kissel Speedster painted the same Chrome Yellow as her old plane.

It cost $3,475—a fortune—but she bought it anyway. The Kissel Motor Car Company of Wisconsin had built a reputation for luxury vehicles, and this one had a 338-cubic-inch six-cylinder engine, a cloth top, and no windows.

Over 7,000 miles, Earhart and her mother crossed primitive roads with little signage. She once traded her childhood stuffed monkey for directions. " When they reached Boston, Earhart took a job as a teacher and social worker, but she refused to give up the Kissel. A friend noted she lived frugally just to keep it.

In 1929, Earhart drove that same car to a meeting with Captain Hilton Railey, who was looking for a woman to join a transatlantic flight. He was so impressed by her driving that he offered her the job. The rest is history. Today, fewer than 40 Kissel Gold Bug Speedsters remain, and Earhart's original is displayed at the Forney Museum.