Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival - 2011
On Friday upon our approach to Butler, PA to attend the festival we saw the Bantam plant off in the distance. It was breath taking to see the actual building where the first jeep ever was built. We snapped a few pictures of it as we drove by, you will see them among our 18 pages of photos for you to enjoy here. The folks of Butler and the Tourism office there are trying to preserve the historic Bantam manufacturing building that remains for future generations to enjoy.
As we traveled further up the road into Butler the many local companies and businesses had Welcome Jeepers and other cool Jeep slogans on there marquees and signs. After checking into our hotel we headed up to the Jeep Parade registration to participate in breaking the worlds record for the longest jeep parade. The registration at the college was well organized and moved along quickly considering the number of people and jeeps. As we approached the Community College there were jeeps every where. The vast parking lots of the college looked like a sea of jeeps from every year imaginable.
The parade was allot of fun as we all drove from the college down into the streets which were lined with people cheering and waving all along the way. As we approached downtown Butler there were people and jeeps lining the streets. It was estimated that 35,000 people had turned out to see the jeep parade. As we drove through the streets of downtown Butler there was music playing on every street corner. The music playing at each street corner was representative for each era or decade in jeeps long history. As the parade ended the parade jeeps were parked along the main street in Butler turning parade into instant jeep show and celebration in the streets. The restaurants and pubs were all open and with the music playing and jeep people everywhere it made for one of the biggest jeep parties ever as well. The locals all welcomed us enthusiasctically and everyone was very sociable.
The threat of rain Saturday and Sunday for the Festival had no effect in dampening the spirits of the jeepers in attendance. In fact I think God must be a jeep fan because the rain that was forcast held off until late Saturday night at which time it poured through the night then cleared just in time for Sundays festivities. Saturday we set up our tent for the sale of JeepTruck.com, SellAJeep.com and WarJeep.com tshirts and enjoyed meeting the many of you who stopped by our tent to say hello. My sons Mark and Tom were off in our Cherokee trail rig enjoying the trial rides, obstacle course, mud pit, RTI ramp and jeep teeter totter which were all awesome. If you happened to get stuck in the mud pits they had a backhoe to help pull you out. Mark Jr. took me on the trails, obstacle course and mud pit on Sunday and it was an added treat with all the rain that had come down the night before making the trails extra fun and muddy. We did pretty well almost making it completely across the mud pit with only 33's. Mark was also able to get us over the logs and some other obstacles that were designed for jeeps with 35's but we made it over whereas others where getting stuck.
Saturday and Sunday the show grounds were packed with great looking jeeps from every decade including Bantam jeeps which you rarely get to see. There was a museum of jeeps which was comprised of the Bantam jeep collection associated with the Bantam company. One of the museum pieces was the first Jeep Truck ever manufactured it was built in 1941. They actually used in at the Bantam plant. You will see it among our many pictures presented here for you to enjoy. In addition there was a World War II encampment loaded with jeeps and reenactors which my son Tom at Direct-A-Friend Pictures filmed for you to enjoy on our "Jeep Shows and Events" page. Saturday night was a free concert which was very good and a scheduled fireworks display except the fireworks had to be cancelled.
During the show we got to see the Nukizer 715 and its creator Craig from Jeep SkunkWerks. Craig drove the deisel powered Nukizer 715 all the way from Michigan to participate in the parade, show and obstacle course. The Nukizer 715 sports a carbon fiber front clip so as no reenforcement was needed even for the grille. The convertabile top is awesome looking and functional. It is based on JK components and includes an AEV (American Expeditions Vehicles) bed. The truck was then topped off with an awesome paint job the color was named TupperWare grey according to Craig. When we interviewed Craig he assured us that the public will indeed get a new jeep truck and that it will go into production. They were just trying to iron out the details with Dodge not wanting it to take away from their market share of the pickup truck market. Craig also said we would see something totally new at this years Easter Jeep Safari in Moab. We can't wait to see what this years creation from Jeep SkunkWerks will be, stay tuned. Craig also said his boss wants the SkunkWerks Team to have an even bigger presence at this years Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival so don't miss it.
Another interesting person we met was Fred Williams from Peterson's 4Wheel and Offroad magazine. He was sponsored by Quadratec and drove a CJ from CA to PA. That's all the way from California to PA for the Festival. It was nothing special just your everyday old CJ but it made it all the way. Fred had made quite the journey to get to the Festival and had plenty of curious onlookers and people asking him questions about his trip. You will see pictures of his jeep also among our many pictures.
We also ejoyed meeting the crew over at Jeep Action Magazine. We spoke to Michael Bowen Publisher and Editor of the magazine. Michael told us they are based in Australia as they were proudly displaying the Australian flag outside their tent. The flag which I also understand they presented to the Mayor of Butler, PA after the Festival had ended. After exchanging JeepTruck.com thsirts with the guys for Jeep Action caps and several issues of their magazines I was back to our sales tent to read their magazines. I'll tell you what these guys from down under produce one of the best jeep magazines I have ever read. And they publish allot about the FSJ's and full size trucks to. They actually own a Jeep truck and work on it as part of their business. If you get a chance visit their website at JeepAction.com.au Jeep even sponsored their trip to Butler, PA by providing a Jeep Overlander model to make the trip from Detroit Michigan where they had a tour of the Jeep plant prior to attending the Festival. Gee when will Jeep give us that new Jeep Truck for the folks at JeepTruck.com to drive to the show! Hint, Hint ;)
Overall the whole Festival was allot of fun and we look foward to going again.
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WarJeeps.com explores the military encampment at the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival in Butler, Pa, featuring the 1st Frontier Mechanized Cavalry out of Pittsburgh. August, 2011.
Video by Direct-A-Friend Pictures. |
 The first Jeep Truck ever manufactured it was built in 1941 by Bantam
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