Future unknown for former Bantam Jeep building property, but history lives on
More than seven months after a fire destroyed Butler’s former Bantam Jeep building, the city’s mayor said he has heard no updates from the property owner about the future of the historic site.
In a recent interview, Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said he hopes the property will see development in the future, especially considering its proximity to the Pullman Recreation Complex, but had no updates from CERTA, the owner, about the parcel of land the famous building once inhabited.
“It’s best to keep moving forward with the plans for the area with somebody being diligent about keeping the legacy and the history alive,” he said about his hopes for the space.
Considering its historic significance that led to the city being deemed “the birthplace of the Jeep,” many have pondered how the history would be preserved or recognized without the building, but Dandoy said he understands why the company might not be in a rush to put a monument on the land.
“It’s not the best move to go in and say ‘we’re going to put this monument in here,’ because then another group might come in and say ‘we want to develop that.’ Now, they’d have to take down the monument,” he said.
Mackenzie Herold, executive director of the Butler County Historical Society, agreed with the sentiment that something using the land would be better than leaving it empty.
“I’d just like to see something go in, honestly. As long as it’s used and it’s something that can benefit the community, that’s good enough,” she said.
While the Bantam Jeep is perhaps its largest claim to fame, it was not how the American Bantam Car Company got its start, Herold said.
“Bantam started with small family cars basically, speedsters and roadsters is what they were called. Roadsters were four-person cars, speedsters were two,” she said.
Before the invention of the Jeep, the company operated locally and only produced less than 10,000 vehicles. While they were scarce, some of the Bantam vehicles were in high demand.
“The Bantam Hollywood is the one they were most well known for,” Herold said. “It’s a convertible coupe that a lot of Hollywood stars were interested in because it looked good on camera.”
While the early history of the company was dominated by simple yet flashy vehicles, their expertise in smaller builds ended up putting them in the running to produce what would become the Jeep.
“When the Army Quartermaster Corps met, they were talking about what they needed for a reconnaissance vehicle, Herold said. “They needed a smaller vehicle; 1,300 pounds was the maximum.
“It had to be 40 horsepower, four-wheel drive. It had to be capable of hauling soldiers, supplies and artillery across all sorts of terrain. They needed a fully operational prototype in 49 days.”
Herold said a lot of the success behind the Bantam Reconnaissance Car was due to strong leadership, such as auto designer Karl Probst, factory manager Frank Fenn and former General Motors executive Arthur Brandt.
On Sept. 23, 1940, factory employee Ralph Turner drove the then-untested prototype from Butler to Camp Holabird, Md., and managed to beat the Army’s deadline by just 30 minutes.
But things were not meant to be with Bantam and manufacturing the Jeep. Instead, the contract to produce them for the Army was awarded to Willys-Overland Motors.
“Bantam did not get the bid to make it just because they didn’t have the capacity to manufacture how many vehicles the Army needed,” Herold said.
However, Bantam still found ways to support the war effort.
“They did utility trailers and they made aerial torpedo motors. Those parts were actually used to sink the (German battleship) Bismarck during the war to the point where British officials came and congratulated Bantam for a job well done,” she said.
The Butler County Historical Society has also managed to preserve numerous artifacts from the wartime company, including a badge for the American Bantam Police.
“They would have special police officers during the wartime to monitor the activity at the plant to make sure everything was within standards and that there was no espionage or anything. It was pretty common at a lot of manufacturing plants,” Herold said.
The society also maintains some larger Bantam artifacts, including the original prototype for the Bantam Hollywood.
Herold said her goal is to hopefully get the Bantam Hollywood to run again and to set up a small car exhibit.
“It’s going to take a while, but we’ll get there,” Herold said.
The historical society has also digitized a number of wartime documents from Bantam, including monthly newsletters and a 1943 employee manual. The manual contains an introductory message from Fenn and a short history of the company.
“This (company’s) experience, and the foresight and ingenuity of Bantam engineers and management, led to the most outstanding transportation development of World War II — Bantam’s now famous Army ‘Jeep.’ The first Jeeps ever built in America were Bantams and Bantam’s further contribution to the defense of democracy throughout the world will be long in the memory of men in every country where the Allied armies have operated,” the manual read.
Herold said she believes Bantam’s story is so timeless and memorable, especially in Butler County, because the company reflected values of the community that still exist today.
“The story of the Jeep is so fascinating because the odds were stacked against them. Willy’s was a bigger name than Bantam at the time,” she said. “Bantam, for all intents and purposes, was such a small company. But they were tenacious, and they had a lot of ingenuity. They had a lot of creative brains on the team, and they just really cared about getting this project done.
“I think that’s sort of emblematic of Butler as a whole. We’re kind of a scrappy county. We’re hardworking, we find different ways of dealing with things. We have that ingenuity that really kept Bantam going.”
