A couple years ago, Theresa Putnam began to notice a new phenomenon at the annual Bantam Jeep Festival near Slippery Rock — someone was leaving little rubber ducks on Jeeps.
“We started talking to people, and we found out it meant we’d been ‘ducked,’ ” said Putnam, a Dayton, Ohio, resident who’s been attending the festival since it started alongside her husband, Steve, who brought along his 1988 Jeep Laredo.
“It means someone really likes your Jeep,” she said.
The mutual admiration was thick from one end of the festival to the other. Customization is a huge part of how “Jeepers,” as Clyde Hatch referred to his fellow brethren, make sure their vehicles stand out.
“We belong to a group called the Freedom Crawlers,” said Hatch, who drove from Warren, Ohio, with his wife, Jane.
Actually, the couple drove separately in their dual Jeeps. Clyde’s is military green, and Jane’s is bright red, with a patriotic theme and a dashboard crammed from end to end with rubber ducks.
“This is a 2020 Jeep,” Jane said. “Clyde’s is called ‘Old Glory,’ so I wanted to do something that would go together with his.”
Her customization includes hand-painted doors cut in the shape of an eagle.
“I probably have more invested in the doors than in the rest of the Jeep,” she said.
Information booth volunteer Ellen Roberts of Zelienople doesn’t have a Jeep at all.
“I drive an old Honda,” she said with a laugh. “But I just love the history.”
Roberts is an original member of the festival’s organizing committee and has been a volunteer since the festival began.
“It’s great to be able to show people the history and tell them about how the Jeep was invented right here in Butler County,” she said.
As noted by the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, the American Bantam Car Co. located there invented the Jeep.
In 1940, the Army asked 135 tractor and auto manufacturers to design a four-wheel-drive, 40-horsepower, 1,300-pound reconnaissance car that could haul soldiers as well as heavy artillery.
Bantam and Willys-Overland Motors of Toledo, Ohio, responded.
Bantam won the contract but couldn’t meet production demands of 75 vehicles per day.
The Army gave Ford and Willys the Bantam’s blueprints, and they produced the vehicles — 600,000 Jeeps for World War II.
The event continues Sunday.
