Greyhound buses are a uniquely American icon with uniquely American issues. Founded in Hibbing, Minn., in 1914, "The Hound," as it's affectionately referred to by some, has seen the highest of highs and lowest of lows across its century-long history. The business finds itself at a modern turning point regarding modernizing and difficulties in making itself an attractive option to a wide array of travelers. My interest in Greyhound specifically comes from its reputation as the runt of the American intercity travel litter: in modern times, not as comfortable as a train, nor as efficient as a plane.

Research will mainly come through libraries, newspaper archives, and interviews. My external advisor, Peter Pantuso from the American Bus Association, has connections in both academia and within the industry that I could take advantage of to further my research. San Jose State’s main library also offers plenty of documents for research, and Newspapers.com along with the Library of Congress will contain a large archive of American newspapers going back to well beyond even Greyhound’s origins. The Greyhound Museum in Hibbing, Minn., and the Pacific Bus Museum both have email contacts on their webpages, which I intend on inquiring through. I intend on creating a short documentary film around or under half-an-hour long on this subject. It will consist of interviews and monologuing, as well as, logistics allowing, a trip report on a Greyhound bus. I would like interviews to be conducted with both advocate/government types like Pantuso as well as historians and researchers.