The American Bantam Car Company designed and built the first American military jeeps. And it did so in record time. In the summer of nineteen-forty, in just a few days the company created a complete design. Forty-nine days after it received a request from the War Department, a complete jeep was ready to go.

These small vehicles helped the Allied powers during World War Two. Some historians have called the jeep, one of the most powerful weapons of the war. It was used as a combat vehicle and to carry the wounded, among other things.

But the factory in Butler was not big enough to make all the jeeps that the War Department needed. The American Bantam Car Company made about two thousand six hundred jeeps before it lost the manufacturing rights to two bigger companies: Ford and Willy. The designs that the Bantam had created were given to its competitors.

More than six hundred thousand jeeps were built for the American military during World War Two ? far too big a job for the American Bantam Car Company to handle. Jack Cohen is the head of the Butler County, Pennsylvania Tourism and Convention Bureau. He says Butler’s part in birthing the jeep should never be forgotten.

“Well it’s kind of interesting, when I moved into Butler County I never knew that the jeep was invented here. Finding that information out, I was curious (as) to why no one ever talked much about that history and for probably two or three years I tried to get, to find more interest in it.”

So, Mister Cohen decided to create the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival to let people know that the jeep came from Butler. He says that on August twelfth, jeeps from many states and four countries will create what he hopes will be the longest jeep parade ever.

“We’re setting the world’s record for Guinness’ longest jeep parade. And with this many vehicles right now ? somewhere right about a thousand at this moment ? we can establish that record as long as we do the things that Guinness has asked us to do.”

Mister Cohen believes only about fifty of the original Bantam Jeeps survive today. At least four of them will be in the parade, including one that was once owned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.