A January 18, 1953, article in the El Paso Times shared the story of seven young men who formed “the jeep club”. There was no fancy name attached to it. They guys liked to explore the surrounding mountains, hunt jack rabbits, trap coyotes, and play with their jeeps.
On the same page as the jeep article was an article about the first mail route in the United States, one that operated between Roswell and Torrance, New Mexico. The mail (and the occasional passengers) were ferried on the YELLOW DEVIL, an assemblage of discarded auto parts; that kind of sounds like a few jeeps I’ve known.
Obviously, this article was written before the aliens reached Roswell, because, rather than known for “progress of modern development (was it really known for that?)”, it’s pretty much famous for other-worldly visitors.
Make sure to reach the final story, one in the far right lower corner. Need rats for an experiment? One scientist discovered an easy way to get them …
Dave, the first article mentions they mostly bought used jeep parts. Am I wrong in assuming that since military surplus jeep parts were almost always NOS that this group primarily bought their used parts locally from nonmilitary sources?
Steve, this could have meant anything at that time. By 1953 it was probably easier to get used parts than NOS ones, especially if you were looking for specific parts. One thing that led Dave Uhrig to founding Army Jeep Parts in the early 70s was that he had trouble finding a specific part for his WW2 Jeep, but he could find crates of 10,000 of that part for little of nothing. And until he, and others, starting running ads in Hemmings, it was hard to find specific NOS parts. Also, Ft. Bliss may have had a bone yard or PDO to access used parts. And, Jeep-club speaking, like now, I’m sure people who owned Jeeps back then knew the others who did resulting in contacts for junked Jeeps. It was a good question, Steve.
Steve,
Barney answered this as well as I could. Certainly, the answer may also have varied depending on where a person was located. For example, I believe that Don Prine started his jeep parts business in the Tacoma area right after WWII. His long experience with jeeps during the war (starting with prototypes) and his (likely) close connection with nearby Fort Lewis probably helped him acquire parts for resale (whether it was through the purchase of bulk parts or surplus jeeps). His daughter may even have some insights into this.
– Dave