"Where Greyhound Got Its Name"

MUSKEGON Where Greyhound got its name

"Greyhounds of the Highway" 1925 advertising for Safety Motor Coach Lines.  The catch phrase was used to distinguish the company  from the competition. A 1925 ad for Lake Shore Limited Motor Coach Lines, a competitor to Safety Motor Coach.

A 1925 ad for the Safety Motor Coach Lines - better known as "The Greyhounds".  The name of this well-known brand was first used in Muskegon.

Born in 1889, Edwin Carl Eckstrom, a native of Ludington, MI, launched Safety Motor Coach Lines in Muskegon in 1924. Providing intercity service between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, the firm was a direct competitor to local interurban service. In August of 1925, the company added service to Chicago and the battle to dominate passenger transportation to the Windy City was on. Using Fageol Safety Coaches built in Oakland, California, the buses were painted in a distinctive blue-gray tone. The Eckstrom's company incorporated the phrase "Ride The Greyhounds" in advertising and painted a logo beneath the driver's side window of the fleet that featured a greyhound in full stride. The "Greyhound" line even included some open air observation coaches. December 1925 reports noted the purchase of $15,000 in snow plow equipment to maintain service through the winter. In March of 1926, press reports mentioned the purchase of a pair of double deck coaches for summer use. Buses picked up passengers at the Union Bus Depot, located at Western Avenue and Terrace Street, as well as at the Occidental and Muskegon Hotels. Initially, riders paid drivers at each starting point. As popularity of the service grew. the company added a ticketing service in 1926 to speed service. Carrying over 45,000 passengers monthly, it was estimated that the system would save "10 minutes and upward per trip to the passengers."

Raised in Hibbing, MN, Eckstrom received his start in the industry in the northern Minnesota town. Working with Carl Eric Wickman, in 1919 Eckstrom became an officer in a division of of the Wickman's Mesaba Transportation Company, the largest provider of bus services in the area. The city is officially credited as the birthplace of what would become Greyhound Corporation. Safety Motor Coach Lines was acquired by Motor Transit Corporation in October 1926, and Eckstrom became president of the organization. MTC would rename itself Northland Greyhound Corporation in 1929. Continued acquisitions of local and regional motor coach lines created the modern-day transportation company but it is a modified version of Eckstrom's logo from Safety Motor Coach Lines that became the nationwide symbol of Greyhound. Check out this April 1930 article from Time on Greyhound, and Wickman, its founder.

This 1925 ad features a view of an Observation Coach from the back.  "Skirting the outer edge of the  coach at the top is blue and white canvas canopy and around the entire rear end of the coach an  iron railing finishes the beauty of the car Within theiron from which the spare tires  are mounted is an electric sign reading "Greyhound Limited.