In The Beginning

(I wrote this article for our new members who might not know the history of Jeep Exclusive. This is not all of it by any means.)

As we approach our I7 Jeep Jamboree, I began to think about how we got to this point. We were just a newly formed club. We had very few members, but the club’s founder Roger Williams was always campaigning for new members. Roy and I had never been to a Jeep Jamboree. We were totally in the dark about what it was all about. Roger and his friend Ann Reid had been to the Ouachita Jamboree in Hot Springs, Arkansas and could not say enough about how much fun they had. Now we are talking about a guy who had very little Off Road experience. He was so excited about it. The next year Larry and Sandy went with them to the Ouachita Jamboree. When they came back they were very excited also. So, you guessed it, Roy and I went the next year. We knew of no such thing as a locker. Everyone was totally stock, but we had the time of our life. Roger began talking to Mark Smith of Jeep Jamboree about having a Jamboree in Amarillo. We never dreamed he could pull it off. He also talked to the Chamber of Commerce and then to Tom Christian who owned the Figure 3 Ranch. Roger was well known in the community. Besides being a business man, he belonged to the Kiwanis club and other local organizations. Mark Smith came to Amarillo and he and Roger met with Tom at the Figure 3. After that meeting the plans were made for the very first Jeep Jamboree. Trails had to be built, plans for food, contacting the media, etc. (Just a little note here about the media. A guy from Channel 10 rode with Roger at the river and I don’t think we ever saw him again. Roger scared him pretty bad I think. But we did get on TV anyway.) We worked very hard months before the jamboree. The Chamber of Commerce gave us a lot of stuff for goody bags to hand out. We had the reception on Thursday night and then Friday the first day of the jamboree we jeeped at the Canadian River. Lunch was catered there. Back then we had some type of entertainment on Friday nights after dinner,

that is until we discovered everyone was falling asleep, because of being so tired from traveling and Jeeping all day. Early Saturday we all staged at the hotel and drove out to the ranch. We had a ball that weekend, but we were a tired bunch of people afterwards. Sadly, Roger passed away before our third Jamboree. I like to think he would have been proud of Jeep Exclusive. We made a lot of mistakes on our first two or three Jamborees, but we also learned from them. Even now things will pop up that cause concern, but for the most part I think we have it under control and it is because of all of our members who are willing to work so hard to make the

Jamboree the success it still is today. Thanks, everybody for your hard work and dedication to our club.

If anyone would like to share their experience joining the Club, like why, who or what got you interested. We could make a regular article every month in the newsletter.

Just a thought. See ya at the Jamboree!

Annette