Ostrich rider crashed into a Model T car 88 years ago in North Carolina. Wait, what?
Ostriches raced through a North Carolina town 88 years ago — with people riding them, historians said.
During the “unusual” race on July 6, 1935, one of the flightless birds “got off track” and slammed into a Model T Ford, putting a dent in the early-model car, according to the Transylvania County Library and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Unfortunately, the crash reportedly knocked the ostrich rider unconscious before she “soon recovered,” state officials wrote. A Transylvania County blog post counters that narrative, saying the animal was injured but that its rider was “unharmed.”
Historians admit that “accounts of the race vary,” and its winner has been “lost to history.” But they say the event put a spotlight on Brevard, a mountain town roughly 30 miles southwest of Asheville that’s known as a gateway to waterfalls.
What we know about the ostrich race
The 1935 event kicked off as ostrich racing traveled to North Carolina from Florida, where one Miami race reportedly drew 14,000 fans. The Katharine Reid Ostrich Troupe brought the large birds to Main Street in Brevard, experts said.
“Six ostriches were on display the day before and the day of the race for curious spectators, many of whom had never seen an ostrich before,” county historians wrote.
Before the race, each of the 350-pound birds was expected to be blindfolded as their riders got into place. When their eye coverings were removed, people reportedly hoped they would race through downtown Brevard at up to 35 mph.
“The race pitted two ostriches against each other,” state officials wrote in a blog post. “Each bird was ridden by a young woman. According to the Transylvania Times, a local newspaper, the two jockeys, Billie Dean and Amie Register, rode without a bridle, saddle or any other sort of equipment.”
Ostriches run faster than any birds in the world, with speeds that can reach 43 mph. They live in the wild in parts of Africa and can grow to be 9 feet tall, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute said on its website.
