By the 1920s, automobiles outnumbered horse and buggies, but the roads were a serious problem. The Good Roads Association held its first convention in Leduc in 1909 to press for better roads in the province.

The success of the meeting paved the way for creation of auto clubs that would later become the Alberta Motor Association , formed in 1926. In 1929, a law was passed requiring all operators to have a driver’s license. Driving exams, however, weren’t implemented until 1937.

When the Great Depression hit in October 1929, the world's economic balloon burst, and car sales collapsed. In 1930, the number of registrations was just over 100,000; eight years would pass before those figures were reached again. Farmers, unable to afford or replace their cars, converted them to horse-drawn buggies, derisively called "Bennett buggies," named for Calgary millionaire lawyer and Conservative Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett.

Yet the spirit of innovation was thriving, with aerodynamic and functional designs like the 1934 Chrysler Airflow and the majestic 1936 Buick Roadmaster. Relief and public works projects during the depression years improved the Banff-Calgary and Edmonton-Calgary roads, the route from Edmonton west towards Jasper and the Banff-Jasper highway. Construction on the famous mountain route, now known as the Icefields Parkway, began in 1933. It was officially opened in 1940.

The Alaska Highway, the single biggest road project undertaken in western and northern Canada during World War II, was completed in 1943. As the Second World War came to an end, the automobile was set for a new period of growth and influence.

The industrialization brought by the war effort positioned Alberta for prosperity and, with the discovery of oil at Leduc in 1947, Alberta's economy shifted into overdrive. In the next ten years, the provincial government spent $280 million on highways, bringing the dream of "good roads" closer to reality.

As prosperity reigned and incomes increased, the purchase of new cars skyrocketed. Between 1946 and 1951, the number of registered automobiles in Alberta nearly doubled from 139,000 to 260,000 vehicles. By 1949, AMA had the second highest number of members of any auto club in Canada and the eighth largest in North America.

In the 1950s, cars grew bigger, heavier and more powerful. They sprouted fins and sported shiny chrome. A thirst for horsepower made V8s the engine of choice. Mercurys, Lincolns, Fords, Chevys, Pontiacs, Buicks, Studebakers, De Sotos, Hudsons, and more cruised the new ribbons of blacktop. There was a car in nearly every garage in the rapidly sprouting suburbs and, by 1962, Albertans owned the most cars per capita in Canada.

European influences reached our shores through diminutive cars like the Metropolitan, the Volkswagen beetle as well as touring coupes and sedans including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo. "Pony" cars – first Ford's Mustang and then others including the Plymouth Barracuda, Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird and Mercury Cougar -- came galloping along in the mid-1960s.

They were followed later in the decade by "muscle" cars like the Pontiac GTO, Chevrolet Chevelle, Dodge Charger and Plymouth Road Runner. The world energy crisis of the early 1970s opened the door for a new wave of Japanese imports from Toyota, Datsun (now Nissan), Honda and Subaru.

Bumps along the way? Yes, there have been a few. Their names include Edsel, Corvair, Pinto and Vega. Some automakers came and went, others merged and still others rose from the ashes of defeat by coming up with the right idea at the right time.

That's how Lee Iacocca brought Chrysler bank from the brink in the early 1980s with the Magic Wagons. They were the perfect solution for young couples and growing families who wanted more room to haul their kids and their stuff.

It's also why SUVs became so popular in the 1990s. That's been the thread common to all successful automobiles, right from the beginning. If they offered a solution that people wanted – the right idea at the right time – then they found their market.

Aging baby boom generation drivers, nostalgic for the styling cues of the cars of their youth, have helped vehicles like Chrysler's PT Cruiser and Ford's Mustang achieve sales success. Today, globalization has become a dominant force in the automobile industry, with cars from three continents vying for Canadian market share. Electric-gasoline hybrids, bio-diesel and fuel cells are new words in the new century's language of locomotion.

Echoes of the road travelled can still be found at places at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, with its extensive collection of vintage vehicles, aircraft, tractors and industrial machines, stretching the breadth of the 20th century. The museum is on Highway 13 on the outskirts of Wetaskiwin. http://machinemuseum.net/