Friday,
October
4th,
2024
~ Sent to us by John McLean
While little is known about #77107’s military history, it came into private post-war ownership in St. Maries, Idaho in the 1950’s. Originally owned by local town physician ‘Doc’ Kinsolving; the GPW was well-known for having a dash-mount shotgun used for warding off trespassing duck hunters along the resource-rich ‘Shadowy’ St. Joe River.
During the 1960’s it was purchased by my wife’s grandfather who used it around his farm. In later years it was integral to his drilling and blasting company who carved Interstate 90 across Washington State’s Cascade Mountain Range between Ellensburg and Seattle. The GPW was instrumental in hauling both blasting and logging equipment as the road cut its way through dense forests en route to Puget Sound.
The GPW came to rest at about the same time as her grandfather. It was retired in the back of the hay pasture until the famed flood of 1996 when a sudden snow melt caused the river dike to break and destroyed much of St. Maries, including the family farm. When the floodwaters receded, the GPW was found intact under a large wood bunkhouse that floated onto – and become lodged above it.
Thanks to the efforts of my in-laws, it was safely recovered and moved to higher ground where it dried out and rested on a sunny hillside until 2019. Generations of post-war red and yellow paint were being erased by time and the original drab was starting to show through.
At the outbreak of Covid, our public school system ceased to function and I had three adolescent kids aged 10-16 staring at me for activity. Distracted (and with fond memories of Dick van Dyke’s character reviving a former race car), I suggested they “Call Grandma… ask if you can have the old jeep.” She didn’t hesitate and I found myself (an architect), teaching impromptu shop and history classes to three.
Consumed by wild roses, we had to cut our way to it and used a tractor to get it loaded onto a flatbed and back to our place about an hour away near Spokane, WA. For the better part of two years, the kids and I were in the shop learning how to document, dismantle and problem-solve as we got it stripped down and rebuilt. It was a constant rotation of which two were actually working…cutting and grinding, priming and painting… while the third was inevitably exercising newly-found debate skills and keeping the project in order.
Her folks checked in regularly to check progress, providing old photos and memories that suddenly became tangible. Damaged, altered and inexplicable features suddenly had both reasoning and meaning.
At a time of adolescent pause, the hands-on experience provided a chance to bring both world and family history to life. I wouldn’t trade those rust-filled days with my kids for anything in the world.
Learn as you go, right? The project wouldn’t have been possible without countless hours of late-night investigation, self-education and the amazing resource videos and suppliers like Kaiser Willys. Local machinists and specialists shared both their skills and stories as they became familiar with the effort and the kids’ world began to turn again.
To the purist who notices the historic-looking stenciled registration numbers don’t actually match, it’s okay…those eight digits are actually each of the kids’ birthdays.
- John McLean Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – If you would like to share your Willys Jeep Story please send us a line. We’d love to meet your Jeep.
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