PITTSBURGH — Thirty miles north of Pittsburgh, where industrial giants like U.S. Steel were just beginning to forge the metallic backbone of the nation’s upcoming World War II machine, a tiny company that made even tinier cars developed the prototype for a vehicle that would revolutionize the way soldiers traveled: the Jeep.
The inaugural Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival, which runs through Sunday, features a parade of more than 1,200 Jeeps; a “playground” where aficionados can drive over rocky obstacles, hills and bridges, and fair-like entertainment and eats. But, most importantly, it shines a spotlight on Butler and the defunct American Bantam Car Co., which has made the city of nearly 14,000 residents almost famous.
“It’s not what you would call an invention like a light bulb. It’s a design,” said Bill Spear, an Alaska Jeep enthusiast and expert on American Bantam’s history. “But, that being said, it’s one of the most enduring and original designs in automotive history.”
The thumbnail version of the story is that American Bantam was one of just two companies — out of 135 manufacturers solicited — to bid on a contract to produce a new lightweight, all-terrain vehicle as top federal and military officials quietly prepared in 1940 for the United States to go to war.
Willys-Overland is often credited with inventing the Jeep because it emerged from the war with the rights to the vehicle’s design and trademarked the name soon afterward. Willys was also the only other manufacturer to submit a bid, but it couldn’t meet the government’s 49-day deadline to build a prototype. Only Bantam did that.
And yet — possibly due to favoritism, New Deal politics, or bureaucratic infighting — Bantam was pushed to the sidelines. A congressional inquiry into how that happened was trumped by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, as Willys and Ford won government contracts and made history, producing nearly all of the nearly 650,000 Jeeps used in the war. Bantam would survive by making military trailers, torpedo motors and aircraft landing gear, before the company was bought out by what was then Armco Steel in 1956.
“It was a whole convoluted year of infighting over who would produce the first Jeep,” Spear said. “Some of the greatest names of the era were involved and they’re all at cross-purposes and trying to take credit. It was like throwing a bunch of meat in a shark pool.”
Jeep fanatics even debate the origin of the name. Chrysler doesn’t take sides, noting only that some believe it resulted from the slurred pronunciation of the letters “GP,” the government’s designation for “general purpose” vehicle, while others insist GIs named it after a character in the Popeye comic strip. Eugene the Jeep, the sailor’s jungle pet, was known for its ability to maneuver out of tough situations.
“Everywhere I go there’s kind of a Harley following. And everybody that I know who are Jeepers are the same way, and I thought, `My gosh, we’re missing an opportunity to talk about this history in Butler,” said Jack Cohen, president of Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau.
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