Revamped Jeep Playground brings multitiered challenge to enthusiasts
Rob Morgan, Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival off-road manager, said some inspiration for the newly renovated Jeep Playground came from observing other Jeep-based events, but other design choices came from his own experience behind the vehicle’s wheel.
Located at the festival site, Coopers Lake Campground, the playground is a custom-built, off-roading obstacle course featuring climbing challenges, tight squeezes and muddy ditches.
The new design, Morgan said, is intentionally bigger and layered.
“This is what we live to do, is play with Jeeps — so these are ideas that we’ve seen in other places, and some of them, I suppose, are just ideas that we kind of came up with, to just find ways to challenge other Jeepers,” he said.
The goal was to create one space that could accommodate drivers with any level of experience. While new drivers can take their time building their confidence, veteran drivers can enjoy the thrill of pushing their vehicle to its limits.
“We’re always trying to continually look for more improvements, and we are listening to our participants and doing our best to give them what they ask for,” Morgan said.
The current, redesigned course has been in the works since October 2025. Morgan said some of the changes stemmed from ideas they came up with during a previous refresh that hadn’t yet been applied.
Morgan said volunteers do the bulk of the work. Other than a few board members involved, the planning committee and workers are volunteer Maverick Jeep Alliance club members.
“Most of our trail work and playground work is all really done by volunteers,” Morgan said. “I mean, there’s a few members of the board that are involved in the day-to-day activities, but volunteers do as much work as anybody else.”
Many of the volunteers have occupations or experience that allow them to bring valuable skills into creating the course. Morgan noted multiple volunteers are certified to run construction equipment, and they’ll occasionally make creative decisions as they go based on experience.
“Maverick has a fair amount of equipment operators in their group, which has been great because, you know, that’s a big time-saving if you actually know how to run the equipment,” Morgan said.
Morgan himself brought some skills to the table, being a graphic designer by trade, he assisted in the base design of the new course.
“I did some sketches, and I kind of just threw out a base idea of how we were going to rebuild,” he said.
David Baird, a board member for the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival, is also an employee for Toy Pipeline Inc., a donor for the festival and the construction, connecting the two groups.
“He’s kind of set that up with his company to assist in letting us use equipment to do a lot of our work, which has been great,” Morgan said.
He stressed the equipment donations and abilities of the volunteers sped up the renovation.
Armstrong County-based Toy provided equipment to the project and has a unique tie to the Jeep through its founder. Merle Toy Jr. started the excavation company with his very own Jeep and trencher after his return from the military in 1953.
With Toy sponsoring the project, volunteers were able to shape the land and transport materials efficiently.
The abundance of materials dedicated to the project required multiple 18-wheeler deliveries to the site. Up to 700 tons of dirt and 400 tons of rock were used to shape the hills and trails. Jersey barriers were laid out to line the obstacles, telephone poles were incorporated into the terrain and a large container created a tall obstacle to climb over.
These pieces created up to 60% more trail features, an expansion that excites the builders.
“That’s just more opportunity to build more obstacles and, you know, people are going to spend more time on the playground because it's a longer course,” Morgan said.
Terrain is laid out to make the challenges fitting for the enthusiasts. From slinging up mud to navigating rugged land and tight spaces, the trails feature the variety of land formations the Jeep is made to tackle.
Morgan said the goal is to continue building and changing the playground each year. The team still has plenty of obstacles in mind to challenge and explore the off-roading lifestyle.
“We’re still not done. I mean, there’s ideas we have that we’re still going to add more in the future,” Morgan said. “We constantly get feedback from people, saying it needs to be different year-to-year.”
Volunteers and builders are ready to see their hard work pay off as the opening of the festival nears.
“We’re all real excited,” Morgan said. “Its going to be a pretty drastic change from what we had in the past.”
The Jeep Playground is open every day of the festival. Three-day passes to the playground and the Cooper’s Lake trails are $75.
