August 3rd, 2017, just entering Alaska.
It’s the 10 year anniversary of eWillys! Whoo hoo! Below are some thoughts, memories and photos from 2017, along with a brief preview of 2018.
eWillys now boasts more than 45,000 posts, which averages out to 12 posts per day for 10 years. In terms of photos, I’d guess there are more than 150,000 jeep photos. It’s a unique treasure trove (in my eyes anyway) of information bits, a gigantic database/puzzle that sometimes add up to interesting discoveries and articles. It also continues to serve as my jeep brain, as I have forgotten so much of what I’ve posted. The summer traffic was particularly good this year, reaching 300,000 page views a month. Given the niche-nature of this site, I’m pretty happy with that.
Ann and I on the Alaska Highway just south of Watson Lake, entering the Yukon for the first time.
This year was certainly a unique year for me. I notched my 50th state (Alaska, finally) with the Alaska Or Rust group. In addition, over the past year I’ve published three Dispatcher Magazine articles (Laurel C. Worman’s biography, Free-Lock Hubs and The Alaska Or Rust trip). Worman’s family has been surprisingly appreciative of my efforts, as I uncovered some history they didn’t know.
My Free-Lock hub article in the Dispatcher Magazine
I was gratified this year when my book SLAG received critical acclaim from a professional historian who wrote, “Reading SLAG was a real pleasure for me – it was SO WONDERFULLY READABLE – and moreover, I believe it’s a real contribution to the historical body of work on American mining/smelting.” The woman who wrote that had encouraged me years ago to write a book on my family, so to hear her acknowledge the quality of the work was particularly special.
Ann and I at lake Mead in March on our way to the FC-Roundup.
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