Jeep festival may be record setter
WORTH TWP — Enthusiasts from across the nation drove into Butler over the weekend, ready to roll their four-wheel drive systems over rocky hills and into pits of mud.
The ninth annual Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival once again provided a messy weekend romp for Jeep lovers. For miles around Cooper's Lake Campground, vehicles paraded into the festival plastered with stickers saying things like “It's a Jeep thing” or “Keep calm and hold on.”
Attendance likely broke festival records, according to Patti Jo Lambert, festival director. While final numbers won't be tallied until later this week at the earliest, Lambert said they believe Saturday hit a new high.
“We estimate that it was our biggest Saturday ever,” Lambert said. “We have no final numbers on that yet, but based on how the parking lot filled it really seems that way. The lot filled faster than it ever has before.”
Lambert said that this was only the third time that attendees didn't have to deal with any rain.
There were 2,512 registered Jeeps at the festival, compared to 2,345 last year.
Jeep appreciation at the campground spanned from Butler's early Bantam Car Co. prototypes all the way to modern day goliath Jeep Gladiators.As usual, the Jeep playground proved a centerpiece. Take it from Kristen Court, who stood watching vehicles roll over obstacles.“It's a fun time for us all to get together and enjoy Jeeps the way they're meant to be enjoyed,” Court said. She said she did the course in a past year with her old Jeep Wrangler TJ generation, and the mud was still coming out years later.Court has attended every Jeep festival since its inception, and wore a T-shirt from the first one to prove it. She said the playground is among the most improved features every year.The four-wheel drive course functions in no small part thanks to volunteers like Dan Perkins of Williamsburg, Va. He and his cousin, who lives in Michigan, do something Jeep themed together every year. In 2019, they met in the middle for the Jeep festival.
Perkins spent much of Saturday at the end of the playground, waving drivers along the proper course and congratulating them as they finished.“This was his first time doing it,” Perkins said, walking away from the passenger side window of one vehicle. “A lot of Jeep owners don't ever get to use them for this. They use them as grocery haulers or urban crawlers. But they can come out here and see what they can really do.”Perkins and other volunteers at the playground worked under the supervision of safety manager Kyle Buchter, who runs a company called Off Road Consulting.Buchter said a few people had gotten stuck, but as of midday Saturday only one driver had substantially damaged his Jeep. That driver floored it on a bump, Buchter said, lifting his front wheels a few feet into the air. When they fell back down, the drive shaft broke.He said he attended older Jeep festivals, like Camp Jeep, and can see his old excitement in today's fans.“I remember what it was like to be there, so I know exactly how fun it is to be here today,” Buchter said.
The vast majority of participants stayed away from “silly” driving behavior, he said.Waiting in line to go around again, John Hayes said it was worth coming down from Rochester, N.Y. He bought a 2016 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited recently and is diving head-first into Jeep culture.“We saw this was happening and said let's go down and check it out,” Hayes said.Longtime purists found a home in the festival's history exhibit. Bill Ringeisen, manager of the Jeep history exhibit, said new this year were 1980s Jeep grilles added to an existing exhibit of grilles.The old Jeep pickup trucks and firetrucks in the building are crowd pleasers, he explained.“Some people go crazy, they say 'Oh I have this in my shed' or 'I'm restoring one of these.'”At a Butler County Historical Society tent, the group provided historical context for those seeking it.There, one could learn how the festival came to be so many years ago. It all began with that first prototype finished by Butler's Bantam Car Co. on Sept. 21, 1940, according to the society.
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