Moon over St. Louis

We hear stories from the early 1900’s of the Model A’s, Model T’s, the unique happenings that caused the Durant to be manufactured and the positioning of all the Big 3, whether it be Ford vs. GM or the Dodge Brothers, but during that era many other vehicle manufacturers were established that later went out of business or were purchased by the big boys. One unique car that lasted 25 years was The Moon. If you google “Moon Car”, an alien buggy pops up that played around on the lunar surface 238,900 miles from earth in 1971.

August 1971 – The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is photographed alone against the desolate lunar background during the Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. This view is looking north. The west edge of Mount Hadley is at the upper right edge of the picture. Mount Hadley rises approximately 4,500 meters (about 4,765 feet) above the plain. The most distant lunar feature visible is approximately 25 kilometers (about 15.5 statute miles) away.

In 1905 Joseph A. Moon created the Moon Motor Car Company in St. Louis, Missouri. His mission was to produce affordable mid-level cars with high quality parts. In 1906 only 45 cars were produced, but by 1913 Moon was manufacturing over 1500 cars annually. Moon’s peak production year was 1925 when they rolled 10,271 vehicles off their assembly line.

In the mid teens Steward McDonald, Joseph’s son-in-law came in as VP and when Moon died in 1919 McDonald took over the company.

During the mid 20’s dealership demand was greater than Moon could produce and McDonald refused to create any debt in the company. Later he was convinced to produce a higher dollar luxury car called the Ruxton. It is said that McDonald was forced to produce the Ruxton and shortly thereafter Ruxton took control of the company. With the Great Depression beginning, Moon had to shut their doors in 1930. Ironically, Ruxton purchased their manufacturing facility.

The vehicle pictured herein is positioned inside one of my Friend’s offices in the Houston area. It stands as a reminder of the early years of our automotive industry when entreprenuers were positioning to change the world with this newly established form of transportation.

One interesting story was that Walt Disney had to sell his Moon Roadster in order to finance the production of Steamboat Willie in 1928.

For more information, CLICK HERE to check out the Moon Club.

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