WORTH TWP — While hundreds of people at the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival this past weekend spent hours testing their vehicles on the trails and obstacle courses, the real reason for the event was to honor the creation of the vehicle.

This year's festival was special because it marked the 75th anniversary of the American Bantam Car Co.'s Bantam Pilot — the original Jeep developed for World War II.

A historic display at the festival at Cooper's Lake Campground focused on Jeeps of the 1940s, while a military camp next to it offered a unique look at World War II equipment.

“Certainly the Jeep is one of the three most important vehicles used in the war,” said Pat Collins, director of the Butler County Historical Society.

The festival featured numerous speakers highlighting the history of how the vehicle can trace its roots back to Butler.

Pat Bruno, author of “Project Management in History: The First Jeep,” spoke about how American Bantam built the first Jeep.

The origins of it date back to the Austin Motor Co., which made small cars in Europe in the early 20th century.

Bruno said after the company thrived in Europe, owner Herbet Austin wanted to found a car manufacturing company in America.

“In 1929 he found an abandoned car manufacturing plant here in Butler,” Bruno said. “That was the good news. The bad news was it was the start of the Great Depression.”

The American Austin Car Co. also struggled to find success in the U.S. because of the low demand for smaller cars.

“The cars didn't sell, and American Austin went bankrupt in 1933,” Bruno said.

That's when Roy Evans, a former salesman for Austin, bought all the assets in Butler — which were valued around $5 million.

“He bought it all for $10,000,” Bruno said.

Evans rebranded the company as the American Bantam Car Co. and redesigned the small car with a more modern appearance.

“But that car didn't sell either,” Bruno said.

Seeking military work

Facing bankruptcy, the American Bantam company turned its attention to getting a military contract.

The company hired Charles “Harry” Payne to get a contract with the government.

About the same time, the U.S. was looking to develop a light-weight vehicle to be between a sidecar motorcycle and a half-ton truck in size. The calvary and infantry wanted a four-wheel drive vehicle that weighed less than 1,300 pounds.

Bruno said Payne coincidentally met with government officials the same day they had a conference discussing the need for such a vehicle.

The military previously tested the Bantam in the 1930s and it proved not powerful enough.

“It got laughed off the field,” Bruno said.

But Payne convinced officials that the Bantam could satisfy the Army's needs.

On June 19, 1940, military leaders visited Butler to tour the specific requirements of the vehicle the government desired.

While the Bantam company was expecting to negotiate a contract for the vehicle, the government put the project out to bid.

“Bantam was bankrupt and totally unprepared to put together a bid package,” Bruno said.

Quick work

But the company contracted engineer Karl Probst, who created the entire bid package in two days, narrowly meeting the government's bid deadline.

However the vehicle weighed about 1,800 pounds. With no time to correct the problem, Bantam representatives did what they needed to do.

“They fudged the bid,” Bruno said. “They retyped the weight on the application to 1,273 pounds.”

Ford Motor expressed interest in the project, but called it impossible to meet the government's specifications. Willys-Overland placed a bid, showing plans of an overweight vehicle that could be built in 75 days.

Bantam claimed it could build its design in 49 days and was awarded the contract.

However, if the company was unable to build a vehicle to meet the government's high standards, it would go bankrupt, Bruno said.

“And they knew it was going to be tested under the hardest conditions,” Bruno said.

With little time and resources, Bantam got to work. It built parts first then made blueprints around them.

“They didn't even try to meet the weight,” he said.

The prototype built in Butler was a focused effort by the leaders at Bantam.

“It was not built in the factory, but rather in a small building in the back,” said Lee Bortmas of Butler, an expert on the history of Bantam. “It's amazing that it only took about 16 people to do the work.”

The men at Bantam worked multiple sleepless nights to build the Bantam Pilot, finishing the vehicle with two days to spare.

“They had one day to test and outfit it,” Bruno said.

The government rigorously tested the vehicle and found it performed well. It even made it through a deep mud hole that only a six-wheeled truck had ever gone through before.

“That's when everyone realized they had a special vehicle on their hands,” Bruno said.

The government ignored the weight issue after determining two men could lift the back of the vehicle, and accepted the project.

“It was a revolutionary product, built in an impossible time frame, and they had no money to build it,” Bruno said.

Different types of Jeeps

Bantam completed its 1,500 cars by May 1941. More than 650,000 Jeeps were eventually produced during the war, most by Willys-Overland and Ford.

Jeeps during the war had different uses and were designed as such.

“There were so many types early on,” said Gerald Oswald of Saxonburg, who has been involved with the history side of the festival since it started.

For example, the 1943 Ford GPA was amphibious and used to cross lakes and streams.

“It was a boat with a Jeep underneath,” Oswald said.

The vehicle appears far different from the 1944 Ford GWP, that was used in North Africa. Gerald said that model was equipped with plenty of gas and water containers for long trips through the desert.

Duncan Rolls of Longview, Texas, rebuilt the original Bantam Pilot.

“It was the basis for everything that came after it,” Rolls said.

Rolls said the military demanded standardization of the Jeep during the war, meaning all parts had to be interchangeable with different models.

Ford didn't like this due to warranty concerns with civilian models, and it stamped each part with the letter F.

“Every single part down to the bolts on their Jeeps had an F,” Rolls said.

Oswald said the history display at the festival was a great way to see rare vehicles.

“None were meant to last long,” Oswald said of Jeeps used in the war. “The life expectancy of the vehicle was measured in weeks before they would be chewed up by war. So having these here is really special.”

Bortmas said each of the Jeeps was vital to victory in Europe.

“General (Dwight) Eisenhower said we couldn't have won the war without the Jeep,” Bortmas said.