Friday, September 30, 1955. James Dean's last known words, uttered right before impact, when he approached this intersection: "That guy's gotta stop...He'll see us."
(Wait! There's more...)
Sunday, June 22, 2008. Jas and I headed across the San Joaquin Valley enroute to Sequoia National Park. It's a nice drive - a nice drive of nothing. Orange groves. Bean crops. Lettuce crops. Fully 25% of the United States' agricultural production (as measured by dollar value) comes from California, and the vast majority of that is in the San Joaquin Valley. Open country. Pretty. I assume it was the same way when James Dean breathed his last breath here.
The story - in a nutshell. Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich set off from Competition Motors, where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder, "Little Bastard", that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California. Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnipseed, attempted to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane without seeing him. There's a slight dip in the road and at around 5:30 p.m. when the accident occurred, the combination of the dip, the coloring of the car and the light shading the road, Turnipseed didn't see anyone in his path when he made the turn. The two cars hit almost head on. Wütherich survived. Turnipseed survived. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59PM.
When Dean introduced himself to Alec Guinness outside a restaurant, he asked him to take a look at the Spyder. Guinness thought the car appeared "sinister" and told Dean: "If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week." This encounter took place on September 23, 1955, exactly seven days before Dean's death in the car crash.
(Wait! There's more...)
Sunday, June 22, 2008. Jas and I headed across the San Joaquin Valley enroute to Sequoia National Park. It's a nice drive - a nice drive of nothing. Orange groves. Bean crops. Lettuce crops. Fully 25% of the United States' agricultural production (as measured by dollar value) comes from California, and the vast majority of that is in the San Joaquin Valley. Open country. Pretty. I assume it was the same way when James Dean breathed his last breath here.
The story - in a nutshell. Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich set off from Competition Motors, where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder, "Little Bastard", that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California. Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnipseed, attempted to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane without seeing him. There's a slight dip in the road and at around 5:30 p.m. when the accident occurred, the combination of the dip, the coloring of the car and the light shading the road, Turnipseed didn't see anyone in his path when he made the turn. The two cars hit almost head on. Wütherich survived. Turnipseed survived. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59PM.When Dean introduced himself to Alec Guinness outside a restaurant, he asked him to take a look at the Spyder. Guinness thought the car appeared "sinister" and told Dean: "If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week." This encounter took place on September 23, 1955, exactly seven days before Dean's death in the car crash.
In September, 2005, the intersection of Highways 41 and 46 in Cholame (San Luis Obispo county) was dedicated as the James Dean Memorial Highway as part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death.
Interesting to know.
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