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1959 Jeep Cavalcade Article

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old Images Jeeping, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

When looking over the 1960 Jeep Cavalcade brochure, I noticed it was the 3rd annual event. However, the 1959 brochure doesn’t mention it being the 2nd annual event. A newspaper clipping from 1958 solved that question. It turns out there was a 1958 advance trail exploration in 1958 to prep for the 1959 event, though it seems to have been more of a low key event when compared to the 1959 and 1960 cavalcades. This short newspaper article in the June 1, 1958, issue of the Fort Collins Coloradoan explains it:

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This article appeared in Grand Junction’s Dailys Sentinenl on August 23, 1959:

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The 1959 Jeep Cavalcade “Rush to the Rockies” Centennial

• CATEGORIES: Features, Magazine, Old Images Jeeping • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Will Corbett shared this 1959 ‘Jeep’ Cavalcade “Rush to the Rockies” Centennial event brochure with Gone-Gpn on Facebook. It is a tri-fold brochure that opens up with a full-page on the back. I’ve pieced together the back page from two separate pages, so it isn’t quite a perfect example.

This is the front of the brochure:

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This is the back of the brochure:

1959-colorado-cavalcade-centential4This image shows the back of the brochure when fully opened:

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Originally Posted October 18, 2018:

This information covers the 1959 Jeep Cavalcade “Rush to the Rockies” Centennial. The 1959 Cavalcade was part of the 100th anniversary of the John Gregory’s Central City May 1859 strike, which led to a wave of hopeful miners descending upon what would become the Denver area. The Centennial was celebrate throughout Colorado through a variety of celebrations and merchandise (like these bottles and this Centential booklet).

A subsequent ‘Jeep’ Cavalcade was organized for 1960, as shown in this brochure.

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Photo from the Denver Post. Both Life Magazine and the Denver Post covered the event. Note the white wagon above. It appears in a couple of the color photos below.

Some folks attached these flags to their rigs.

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Here are photos of the 1959 Jeep Calvacade that appeared in the December 28, 1959, issue of Life Magazine (the one below).

Continue reading

 
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1957 Article and other Delaware & Hudson Hy-Rail Jeep Trucks

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE II: Hans shared this photo of a Willys Rail truck’s speedometer. The Auf Schiene appears to translate as “on track”, meaning the interior speedometer should be used while driving on a track.

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UPDATE: This article features the third Delaware & Hudson Hy-Rail Jeep Truck. It appears to be either #152 or #162. The article appeared in the July 30, 1957, issue of the Press and Sun Bulletin out of Binghamton, NY:

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Continue reading

 
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Feeling Like My Ol’ Self

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I am happy to report that rumors of my imminent demise were grossly exaggerated, though said rumors likely evolved from my own posts. So, you can place your pall-bearer suits (or jeans and t-shirts) and your mourning outfits back on their hangers. It looks like I will be around for a little while longer!

Of course, God, with a sense of humor unmatched, plucked me off that frying pan (the first bed they gave me seemed hard as one) and dropped me into the fire, that being the record heat we had around here. For all my Arizona brethren, you can have your crazy 115+ temps! Though, I will say the hot temps made it very easy to stay inside and get well.

Back on the fateful day when I checked myself into the emergency room, and once they determined my near death seemed avoidable, I had plenty of time to kill and a full charge on my phone: dangerous bedfellows!  Yet, I didn’t know if I was out-of-the-woods totally, so I figured I might as well let folks know that, as my father used to say in his understated manner, ‘there’s a problem’. Thankfully, I now feel reassured enough to say that, there is currently no longer a problem (knuckles meet wood).

But, that doesn’t mean eWillys will be back anytime soon. I’m enjoying this extended break. It may be that eWillys never returns to its original format. Instead, I’ll take this time to figure out a way that the site can be of use without the time demands of the past.

Before I go, I once again have to thank everyone who shared their stories about eWillys. It is always gratifying and humbling to see strange idea of mine evolved into something worthwhile.

Finally, I will leave you with two posts below, both oddities deserving of attention.

Dave

 
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A VW Beetle Seen in Europe

• CATEGORIES: Features, VEEP (VW Jeep), Scamp, Others This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

While some may question the design, there is certainly some good workmanship here.

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German’s Re-style a Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: This post was first published September 25, 2014:

Joshua Regula-Morris has a neighbor who had an MB in Germany. The first photo shows him on his Jeep in 1946. The second photo shows the text on the back of the first photo. Apparently, some Germans restyled the jeep, resulting in photo #3. Joshua’s neighbor swears this is the same jeep. Before leaving Germany he sold it to a friend. You can just make out the shackles at the front below the bumpers. Unfortunately, there aren’t any photos from the side.

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1944 “Flooded and Mud Bound Roads” Video

• CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Sorry, but just this one post for Saturday. Besides the long day,  I’m just not feeling my best (not Covid or virus-related). It’s been an on-off issue for the last week or so. I see a doc about it in a few days.

At the start of this video is a modified jeep named ‘Deloris’ built to keep the driver pretty mud free inside the cab.

0:00 “Doloris” on jeep with unit sign and formation sign painted out.
0:09 Artillery tractor also has unit and formation sign obscured. Transfer of Canadian forces from Italy to the Netherlands had been kept a secret. The obscuring of the signs may be part of that effort.

 
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Stripped Allen Bolts and Smoking Hot Weather

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I’m sure you are as shocked as I am that this post is about yours truly working on a jeep! It’s truly a miracle!

This all started because this weekend and into the early part of next week, we will have record hot temperatures, the hottest of which seem to be centered on ol’ little Prosser, Washington! (See the Axios story here) … records are going to fall.

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Because things are supposed to heat up, I wanted to clear room in the shop so we could move a couple more vehicles in there. To do that, I wanted to move the racing jeep underneath Patterson (which would be lifted up on the hoist). But, to drive the racer within the hoist stands, I wanted to remove the wheel spacers to reduce the width.

Sounds simple enough, right? So, I jacked up the rear, pulled one rear tire. That’s when I saw this mess: several of the Allen bolts have been stripped. Ugh. WTF?

 

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I figured I had a minimum of 2 solutions:

  1. I can weld Allen wrenches on each of the stripped bolts, then (hopefully) spin them off.
  2. I can drill out the Allen bolts.

Thankfully, I don’t want the spacers anyway; if they get ruined in the process, so be it.

But, before I started, I figured I would throw my dilemma out to you folks to see if there are any other ideas floating around?

 
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Thanks For the FC-150 Sign!

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Joe-in-Mesa was kind enough to donate an FC-150 sign he won a few years ago while attending the FC-Roundup to eWillys HQ. It will have a ‘most excellent’ place of honor in the shop. Thanks Joe!

To keep it safe for the moment, I put it on the fireplace mantle. It is covering a lithograph my great grandfather bought in the UK in 1924.

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In case you are curious, this is how it normally looks. Upon his return from Britain in 1924, my great grandfather Karl Eilers gave it to the Engineer’s Club (this was shortly after the club built their golf course and country club near Roslyn, NY, on Long Island), where Karl was a member. At some point, my grandfather, who was also a member of the club (and President in 1930) was given the lithograph back. Subsequently, the lithograph hung for years at my grandparents house over their fireplace, which was a done floor to ceiling in rock.

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You can just see the edge of it in this mid-1960s Christmas time photo of their house on Hayden Lake. It’s interesting how much lighter the matte looks in this photo. It must just be the light, as I doubt the matte was ever changed.

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Grandfather Eilers on the left. My aunt Martha on the swivel chair. My grandmother Eilers standing. That place looks smaller than my the way my child-self remembers it, lol. 

 
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Jeeps at the Old Barthell Coal Camp and Museum

• CATEGORIES: Features, Museums This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Tom in Paris shared these two photos of jeeps he found at the Old Barthell Coal Camp and Museum.

Tom wrote, “The GPW is a 1942, missing some stuff and sitting on M151 wheels. The CJ2A is a 1946 with tool indents, with the shifter on the floor. They were parked at the old Barthell Coal Camp and museum, in Strunk,Ky. Barthell was owned by Stearns Coal and Lumber. The mining operations stopped in 1948.”

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I was able to locate a stock photo that shows the GPW from a different angle: