ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 29, Autumn 1970, p. 215 The Climber: A Chapter in Arkansas Automotive History By ED FAULKNER* State College of Arkansas   The post-war years of 1919-1920 found the automotive industry of Flint and Detroit, Michigan, without a ready market in the South. The cost of their product was high, and shipping costs by rail were almost prohibitive. As a consequence there was little market for their cars in the South. In Little Rock, Arkansas, three men---William Drake, Clarence Roth, and David Hopson---sought a solution to this problem by manufacturing automobiles at home. Because labor was cheaper in Arkansas than in Michigan and because there would be no freight bill to contend with, they believed they could make automobiles cheaply enough to keep them within the means of Arkansans and Southerners and cut into the automobile market in the South. Early in 1919 they formed the Climber Motor Corporation, purchased a factory site, and filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State articles of incorporation (1). _____________________ *The author was a student at State College of Arkansas when this article was written; he read it at the Association annual meeting at Little Rock in 1969. 1. Author interview with Henry Fernando Buhler, Little Rock, Arkansas, April 9, 1969. (Hereafter cited Buhler interview.)           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next