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Old Nat Geo article about Tuckers in Oregon

socal4t12

socal4t12

Member
Surfing around I found 2 very cool documents out there. You might have to copy and paste the links into your address bar.

One is from the Nov 1949 National Geographic. Its a story about the Snow Survey being done via TUCKER snowcats, all in one shot! 500+ miles over 22 days from California to Washington. Very cool pictures.

http://ngm-beta.nationalgeographic.com/archive/sno-cats-mechanize-oregon-snow-survey/#

Second is an article about a guy in the survey office cleaning out some old files and coming across the original article, paperwork, and photos. The history almost got thrown out!

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/downloads/centennial/article1920060508.pdf

This made me to wonder,,,,,what exactly happened to the 2 original cats and trailers supplied for the expedition? Maybe someone at Tucker could provide a bit more history of this event and the missing machines.
 
Under these harsh conditions, both machines still were able to average 3.2 miles per gallon in fuel consumption.


too much to drink
What they had loaded in the trailer. An oil rig

Regards Nikos
 
Hey Socal, I have one of the Tuckers in that trip, After the Cascade trip it was then sold to the City of San Francisco for more snow pack survey up in Yosemite Valley at Hetch Hetchy reservoir. It was then sold to a gentleman here in Northern Cali where he used it to access his winter cabin, then sat for 40+ years in a barn till I got it. I got her running and moving but have not had the snow to really try it out. Search the forums for 1949 Tucker it should show up, My photobucket account is not working right now..
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/Norcalvintage1/Tucker SnoCat/null_zps2e11d7fd.jpg

Thanks Norcal
 
whats the trick to getting the first link to open? It loads but shows nothing
 
Huh, don't know the trick. It's a big article, so it might take time. Worked fine in my computer. Try going to the Nat Geo site and searching Nov 1949. It will come up after you join the beta version so you can read all the articles for free.
 
NorCal said:
Hey Socal, I have one of the Tuckers in that trip, After the Cascade trip it was then sold to the City of San Francisco for more snow pack survey up in Yosemite Valley at Hetch Hetchy reservoir. It was then sold to a gentleman here in Northern Cali where he used it to access his winter cabin, then sat for 40+ years in a barn till I got it. I got her running and moving but have not had the snow to really try it out. Search the forums for 1949 Tucker it should show up, My photobucket account is not working right now..
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/Norcalvintage1/Tucker SnoCat/null_zps2e11d7fd.jpg

Thanks Norcal
Click to expand...


Very cool. Did you know about the article? I'm glad that the history is still out there. Maybe there is some info on the cats running into Yosemite out there to be found. Maybe you should think about making the survey run again for Oregon this year. It would be a great story for the 65th anniversary of the article.
 
Hey NorCal,

Very cool that you have the cat that is in the article. I have one that looks like the other one. '46 What I can't understand is why it is a 500 machine? Do you know the ser. no. of the 443 that you show with it? That is a very early 443.

Forget making that trip this year, there is not enough snow. I did about half of that trip in 1980's.during a big snow year. Also, part of that trip is on a highway that now is plowed all winter.
 
socal4t12 said:
Very cool. Did you know about the article? I'm glad that the history is still out there. Maybe there is some info on the cats running into Yosemite out there to be found. Maybe you should think about making the survey run again for Oregon this year. It would be a great story for the 65th anniversary of the article.
Click to expand...

Yes I bought a copy of the mag on Ebay on researched the heck out of it last year. I have a friend that has a friend that works for the park service in Yosemite and has been looking thru old archive photos for snow cat pics but nothing yet.... I got to hand it to the men that did that Cascade journey back then, especially the guys hand digging a sidehill slope, I could not imagine that the skis up front would sidehill very good.
 
stupid, national geographic site and I have to have face book to view! that sucks i wont do face book so guess I dont get to look at that, funny my grandpa is in the 1976 book so kind of depressing.
socal4t12 said:
Surfing around I found 2 very cool documents out there. You might have to copy and paste the links into your address bar.

One is from the Nov 1949 National Geographic. Its a story about the Snow Survey being done via TUCKER snowcats, all in one shot! 500+ miles over 22 days from California to Washington. Very cool pictures.

http://ngm-beta.nationalgeographic.com/archive/sno-cats-mechanize-oregon-snow-survey/#

Second is an article about a guy in the survey office cleaning out some old files and coming across the original article, paperwork, and photos. The history almost got thrown out!

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/downloads/centennial/article1920060508.pdf

This made me to wonder,,,,,what exactly happened to the 2 original cats and trailers supplied for the expedition? Maybe someone at Tucker could provide a bit more history of this event and the missing machines.
Click to expand...
 
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