- Credit: worldrecordacademy.com

Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival

The largest gathering of Jeeps in the world, from the place where it all began

Amanda M posted in USA News
3y ago
47.6K

Butler, Pennsylvania, United States - the birthplace of the Jeep. It's quintessential blue-collar America where everyone knows everyone, most work weeks consist of getting your hands dirty, summer days are spent kicking back with a beer, hunting, and taking your Jeep out to play in the mud. It's also about two hours away from where I grew up in an even more rural part of the state, so I'm excited to share a bit of motoring history and enthusiasm from my neck of the woods!

American Bantam was the car company from which the first Jeep prototype was born in Butler, PA by designer and engineer Karl Probst. He designed the first Jeep for purposes of creating an all terrain reconnaissance vehicle for American troops. The draft was finished on June 17, 1940. This date has now become the time when the Friends of the Bantam Jeep Association hold their annual Jeep Heritage Festival. While Jeeps were most notably mass produced by Willys-Overland Motors just a couple hundred miles west of here in Toledo, Ohio, this Pennsylvania town celebrates being the place where the idea was originally constructed.

Credit: http://www.trucktrend.com/news/1602-2016-bantam-jeep-heritage-festival-registration-now-open/photo-gallery/#photo-01

Credit: http://www.trucktrend.com/news/1602-2016-bantam-jeep-heritage-festival-registration-now-open/photo-gallery/#photo-01

The festival started in 2011 and takes place at a large campground site in Butler. Thousands of Jeeps parade through town on the way to the festivities at the campsite. In 2015, a Guinness world record was set for the "Largest Parade of Jeeps". 2,420 of these machines happily rolled through the streets to set this record that still stands today. Here's the link to that tidbit - www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-parade-of-jeeps

As simple as it can be described, the festival is all about the appreciation and love for the Jeep here in it's southwestern Pennsylvania home. There's all kinds of Jeeps taking part, ranging from WWII original models and replicas, to modern models all souped up with gigantic mud tires and lift kits. Wranglers, Cherokees, trucks, Renegades, you name it, it's there somewhere. Being in Pennsylvania with thousands of Jeeps also guarantees plenty of mud pits to roll around in. If you enter your Jeep in the festivities, you gain access to mud trails, rock climbs, and pulls to show off what your machine can do.

Credit: Youtube user TruckLiteCo

Credit: Youtube user TruckLiteCo

People take great pride in decking out their Jeep and customizing it to their liking. There's certain lift kits, lift heights, tires, suspensions, lights, roll cages, gun racks, and all kinds of things to add. (Gun racks is 100% true and I'm not only talking about the war Jeeps) All I know for certain is that the higher it is and the bigger the tires are, you got my attention.

The weekend-long blast has been successful in its short life so far, and should be for awhile with the pure passion people have for the Jeep. I do truly love a Jeep, but I have yet to attend this festival. Hopefully I covered this well enough without having been there.

If you're not from the States, how do you feel about the Jeep? The Land Rover Defender was sold over here for some time back in the 1990's, and there has been talk about bringing it back in 2019. It might be a big competitor as American consumers are opting for more larger vehicles as the years go by. It will be interesting to see what the demand is if we score the Defender here next year. But no matter what, Butler, PA will always take pride in being a part of this significant contribution to American motoring history.

Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shakersq/9044798039

Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shakersq/9044798039

Offical Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival website ~

~ Thank you for reading my silly articles, I really do appreciate it and love this community on here. Like a fool, I accidentally deleted my previous article regarding VW's announcement of the end of their Beetle, so as I learn more about using this awesome Studio feature, that hopefully won't happen again ;D ~

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Comments (21)

  • I've seen some stunning Jeeps around town this year. Somehow it feels to me that the Jeep doesn't have the gas guzzling stigma that other SUV's have. I suspect in stick form they can be small and economical as where a suburban just doesn't have that option. I don't know but you make me want to grab a 4x4 and go roll in the mud today! Thank you Amanda!

      3 years ago
    • Yes a 4 door Wrangler these days gets between 20-25mpg so it's not terrible. And there's nothing quite like a muddy adventure in a 4x4!

        3 years ago
  • great pics!

      3 years ago
  • Even local gatherings of Jeeps are quite a sight, I can't imagine how wild this is.

    Shared to the D_TRB USA facebook page Amanda!

      3 years ago
  • Hey, I love jeeps also, I used to live in Ohio, this was a great read, and a little bit of memory lane. Thank you

      3 years ago
  • I wondered what on earth happened to that VW article. I was sure I had seen it, somewhere.

      3 years ago
    • Yes, accidentally deleted :(

        3 years ago
    • It definitely happens. In fact, it's possible my gravestone will say "John Coleman, Accidentally Deleted"

        3 years ago
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