decades right here in Williams at the headquarters of the Kaibab National Forest.
The Region 3 Dodge Brothers. Business Car has been around for 80 of the ...
Piece of Forest Service History Survives Because of Efforts of Many August 2005 By Tom Hooker, Fleet Manager Kaibab National Forest
The oldest vehicle continuously owned by the Forest Service found its permanent parking spot for the last two decades right here in Williams at the headquarters of the Kaibab National Forest. The Region 3 Dodge Brothers Business Car has been around for 80 of the Forest Service’s 100 years of existence. As we celebrate the Forest Service Centennial in 2005, I also want to celebrate all the people who made it possible for this piece of history to survive until today. The Dodge Brothers Business Car was originally a part of the “fleet” of the old Crook National Forest in southern Arizona. In the early 1930s, Ranger James W. Girdner, with help from Merril Haby, salvaged it from sale at Klondike. They then drove and skidded it down a very steep wagon road with 40 percent grades to the bottom of Rattlesnake Canyon in the Galiuro Mountains. There it was used to help build a telephone line to Powers Garden Ranger Station and haul supplies up and down the canyon. Powers Garden had been a private ranch during World War I. The two Powers boys were drafted into the war but failed to show. The local sheriff went to get them and a gun fight ensued, with the father and the sheriff being killed. The boys fled to Mexico but later turned themselves in back in Arizona and landed in the prison at Florence. They were later released and told to not return to the area. Powers Garden eventually fell into the hands of the Forest Service. Ranger Girdner wanted a new truck like all the other rangers on the Crook National Forest. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get the old Dodge Brothers out of the canyon. When he got his new 1934 Dodge, he did not like it because it would not pull a horse trailer up the grades and had little ground clearance. He wished he had his old 1925 Dodge Brothers again. It was too late, and he was too stubborn to try. For the next 30 years the truck sat abandoned at the Powers Garden orchard looking like a broken-down pickup truck. It would be seen occasionally by a passing ranger but was judged to be junk. Ranger Dick Johnson remembers seeing it in 1941. World War II came and went and the heroes of Normandy who lived came home. One who returned and joined the Forest Service was a tough paratrooper and good horseman by the name of Charles “Chuck” Ames. Chuck, Jack McCombs, Fred Galley, and the local district ranger rode horseback into Rattlesnake Canyon in 1958 or 59 and came across the old truck. A report of its sighting was made and word of it reached the Regional Office in Albuquerque. The Regional Office decided that payment for all back use was due as it had never been sold, so a bill was sent to the Coronado National Forest. The forest Administrative Officer, Norm Wesden, and Chuck, gave the bill much thought and decided that the best form of payment was to take the year’s supply of S&H Green Stamps that had been collected from purchase of fuel for fleet vehicles and send them along with a letter to the Regional Office. This they did, paying the bill and the truck was in good standing. In 1960, then-Assistant Forest Supervisor Chuck Ames, along with District Ranger Dan Williams, Assistant District Ranger Jack McCombs and Arizona Daily Star Reporter Bob Thomas, rode into Powers Garden Ranger Station to inspect the old Dodge Brothers truck. Thomas gave wide publicity to the unique vehicle after seeing it parked in the station orchard.
It would be June of 1965, after generating interest in salvaging the old truck, before Chuck Ames would again lead a group to Powers Garden. This group, which included Cecil Sims, took the old truck apart and used a helicopter to fly it out of the canyon. From there it went to the Albuquerque Forest Service shop where over the next year it was put back into running condition by Cecil Thompson, Ken Butler, Mike Chavez and Lester Soncrant. Regional Forester William D. Hurst supported the project when he arrived in 1966 and signed repair tickets. After repairs and restoration in Albuquerque, the truck was stationed at the Continental Divide Training Center in New Mexico and was used in parades and at other events. There, former Regional Forester Arthur C. Ringland, who was the first-ever regional forester in the Southwestern District, drove it in 1970. Regional Forester William D. Hurst and Forest Service Chief Edward P. Cliff took it for a ride in 1969. After the Continental Divide Training Center was closed in the early 1970s, the truck was stationed on the Apache Sitgreaves National Forests and then followed the Regional History Collection to the Coconino National Forest. The history collection was stored at the Navajo Army Depot and the truck was stored on an open trailer at Knob Hill in Flagstaff. The truck continued to travel to parades throughout Arizona and New Mexico. In 1981, I saw the truck sitting on its trailer at Knob Hill and volunteered to take over management of it from Coconino Fleet Manager Ben Ross. From that point until today, I have remained the “caretaker” of the truck. Robert “Doc” Dockerty and Fred “Perico” Avila have helped me with vehicle maintenance, restoration and repairs for a number of years. Since 1981, Doc and Perico have painted the truck twice. I have built wooden spokes, a new top and a steering wheel. Former Kaibab National Forest Engineer Carl Winslow and former Forest Supervisor Andy Lindquist supported the continued restoration of the truck. The “Old Dodge” has continued to participate in parades with a year and a half stopover at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott. In 1991, with a fresh coat of paint and a new enclosed trailer, Elaine Zamora and I took the truck to Cody, Wyo., for two weeks to participate in the National Forest System Centennial. There, it was on display outside the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and at the Wapati Ranger Station of the Shoshone National Forest. It was also in two parades in downtown Cody. Later that year, Doc and I took it to the National Forest Service Retirees Reunion in Glenwood Springs, Colo. There, Forest Service Chief Dale Robertson went for a ride and former chiefs John R. McGuire and Max Peterson proudly posed next to it for pictures. The 1925 Dodge Brothers truck has also participated in many parades and events with Smokey Bear since its first restoration 40 years ago. It has been in the Fiesta Bowl Parade the past two years. It will visit Portland this September to be part of the National Forest Service Retirees Reunion. There it will team up with the MV Chugach, the 1925 wooden ranger boat from Alaska, to help celebrate the Forest Service Centennial. None of this would have been possible without the many people who have helped to care for the old Dodge over the last 80 years.
