Bantam Building ~ Home of the Jeep

They're out there getting votes to save this building where the Jeeps were made. 

Write to the Mayor

Home of the Jeep ~ Doing Our Part

Poem about the Jeep

Butler ~ Home of the Jeep

Photo: Barbara Bloom
Tribute in poetry.

Butler ~ Home of the Jeep

Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival

August 10, 11, 12, 2012

in Butler

Butler, Pennsylvania ~ Home of the Jeep

Celebrating the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival held in Butler this weekend.

Jeep parade with 1,200 vehicles. It will start at Butler County Community College and head on Route 8 to Butler’s downtown.

Photo: Bob Emigh

Car Show 2010 ~

Photo: DeWayne Johnston

Car Show 2010
Butler is a car town: Home of the Jeep 

Karl Probst ~ Designer of the Jeep

Karl Probst [center] was rightly called the "Father of the Jeep" and thanks to him Butler was duly given the celebrated nickname "Home of the Jeep". Probst designed the vehicle in just 18 hours in 1940, and it took our Bantam company 49 days to make the original, which was cloned for use by the U.S. Army     

Thanks: Barbara Bloom

                                                                        

Proud Sign ~

 

American Bantam Car Company of Butler ~

Manfacturer of our famous small cars, and the Jeep.

Photo: Thanks DeWayne Johnston

Butler, Pa. --- Home of the Jeep

The first Jeep was designed at the American Bantam Car Company in Butler by Karl Probst. All in all, the company manufactured 2,675 of its version of the car. But the demand was so great and the Butler plant so small that the War Department authorized other larger companies in Detroit to produce their nearly identical version of the Jeep to fill the urgent military need. The Butler company went out of business in 1956.

Poem about our Jeep