It seems I neglected to post three Jeep News issues from 1959. So, here’s the first one, an eight-page issue from June of 1959. One page one, apart from dealer info, an article shared the news that several gatherings of jeeps would tour the Colorado Rockies as part of the “Rush to the Rockies” Colorado Centennial celebration during the summer of 1959 (an event detailed here).
Page two includes a story of Roy Nickerson and his family’s trip from the tiny town of Smelterville, Idaho, to Toledo to see how jeeps were made and to then drive six vehicles back to their Nickerson Brother’s Willys Dealership in Idaho. Page three tells how then Baltimore Colt’s fullback Alan “The Horse” Ameche participated in a Jeep television commercial (I couldn’t locate the commercial online).
Page four shows some images and stories from the 1959 Tulsa Oil Show Jeep Exhibit. Page five includes a reference to a new, easy-to-install Capstan winch from Ramsey. Page six highlights the large number of jeeps plying the Atlantic Coast-line, including at least two fire trucks. Page seven discusses the Etowah County ‘Jeep’ Club, which doubled as a civil defense unit. Page eight shares pics from the beaches of North Caroline, where jeeps proved popular for fishermen.
Interesting article about Fire Island, NY. According to Google and Wikipedia, Fire Island can only be accessed by cars in the area closest to the bridge. There appear to be a lot of houses or cottages in the towns, but they are still connected by boardwalks.
On page two, it was fun reading about the Jeep dealer family from Smelterville, Idaho. It’s about 90 minutes from me.
Yes, Smelterville is still a place, the smelter is still long gone and mining in the area has dropped off. Still, wiki says 600+ people live there, not too far off the 900 mentioned in the story.
Smelterville is just west of Kellogg on I-90, today it us more of a suburb of Kellogg and has a lot of the area’s
stores (the Wal-Mart) as well as
the Shoshone county airport. Kellogg is also home to the Silver Mountain ski resort and its huge indoor water park. I’ve stayed in their first rate fully equipped condos and had a good time.
It would be interesting to see if the old dealership is there.
Jeep fans will be interested min learning that Dave Smith Motors, which calls itself the “World’s Largest Jeep Dealer” is in Kellogg. The dealership (also Dodge/Ram) was a pioneer in internet sales.
On page three, the helicopter is the prototype S-62, a turbine single engine
amphibious helicopter.
It was adopted by the U.S. Coast Guard as their primary rescue helicopter of the 60s-mid ’80s.
It’s the “little brother” to the popular
S-61 twin engine helicopter used by the U.S. military as the H-3 series, which gained fame as the helicopter seen during U.S. space missions, White House use (still!), and as the Air Force “Jolly Green Giant” combat rescue and Special Operations ships.
The type remains in use all over the world.
John: fun, but useless, facts: Dave Smith is my cousin’s cousin. And, my grandfather (mom’s side) grew up in Smelterville.
Dave
Neat. Dave’s son has really built the business up…though you don’t see the TV ads like you used to.
He has a Maserati dealership in Coeur d’Alene and a Nissan dealership in Spokane in addition to the multiple Kellogg stores.
Driving through Smelterville now on the freeway, you’d never know a smelter was there.
I hope the family in the Jeep News did well with their operation.
A Maserati dealership in CDA? Well, that’s just crazy!
Despite it’s growth, the Hayden Lake-CDA area remains rooted in my brain as it was in the late 1970s, a sleepy place where there was little in Hayden Lake (before it became Hayden) by cows and pasture, where downtown CDA was pretty much just the main drag, and US 95 heading south (to Fighting Creek) was a series of poorly marked curves that were dark and foreboding, lined with snow, darkened by fog on the long Christmas Eve night drives between my mother’s family (Fighting Creek .. not Fightin’ Creek as it is now) and my father’s (in CDA and Hayden).
Last summer on Sherman Avenue in front of the tourist area stores and restaurants, I saw a 2013-15 Mercedes – AMG G63 luxury 6×6, one of 100 produced, parked at a curb.
It is valued at $1 million plus, the only other time I had seen one was at Barrett Jackson Scottsdale.
No, CdA isn’t the logging town it was when my family moved to Spokane in 1969. The wood mill area on the lake (they used to float the logs there) is now a marina/boat dealer.
Still, because of the many locals, it isn’t a snobby “rich folk” only place like most resorts. There are still “real” shops and restaurants.