David Eilers

July 1955 Jeep Jamboree Report from Willys News

UPDATE: This post originally appeared August 14, 2015:

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1) Lining up on the first really flat ground they have seen on the entire caravan, the Jeepers stop at Miller Meadows for their Sunday lunch.

This 1955 article in the 1955 July/August issue of Willys News covered the recently completed Jeep Jamboree. The author reported that as part of an awards ceremony, the award for the oldest passenger went 68 year-old Mike Millard who was a former Rubicon Springs-Lake Tahoe stage coach driver. He must have had some great stories!

On another front, compare photo #5 to an original at the online archive of California. There it is dated 1958. Given this appears in a 1955 Willys News I'd say their date is incorrect.

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After breakfast at Rubicon Springs, Jeeps are assembled in the over-night camp area for the take-off to Lake Tahoe.
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A refreshing stop along the way, showing some of the unmatched scenic and timbered country the unique annual trek encounters. A clear, cool mountain stream trickles through a culvert under the group of Jeepers gathered on the road during the brief rest stop.
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Making a Jeep beside it appear tiny in comparison, this majestic sugar pine tree seems to wave its few high branches in a welcome greeting to the Jeep jockeys and their passengers as they went their way past the base of this forest giant.
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This is the nearest thing to a "paved highway" the Jeepers travel over until they reach Lake Tahoe. Except for small piles of boulders there is nothing to mark the route over this trackless granite slab.
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This sluice-box like opening is just the exact width for a Jeep to squeeze through and the going is sometimes at a snail's pace.
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In few cases were Mother Nature's creative works disturbed, but here a giant tree had fallen across the route. Jeepers quickly hacked out a section just wide enough to permit passage of a Jeep.

3 Comments

  1. Steve
    Oldest guy on the trip was a 68 year old former stage coach driver. Which was the rougher ride?
  2. JohnB
    I wonder if the CJ-5 owner got any grief from the flat fender guys for having a "soft" vehicle? Not only does it have curved fenders, but a hard top with doors! :)
  3. steve
    doesn't that experimental jeep reportedly have a bullet hole?

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