Here’s a factoid for your enjoyment…the State of Missouri has 114 counties plus the City of St. Louis. Having been lucky enough to have been to all but one of these counties, I have become quite familiar with the abundance of small towns within the state.
One of them is the little town of Wellsville. This lead picture of an old style and newer style Dodge Ram pickup presented quite a contrast despite being from the same manufacturer and likely less than five years apart in age.
But it got better.
It’s no secret I am a huge fan of this generation of Dodge pickup; I once spent many words extolling their virtues. This is a 1991 to 1993 model. It is still reasonably solid but appears to have led a hard life.
But looking at this Dodge I saw something else parked on the street behind it. Could it be? Surely not.
Surely so. This 1986 to 1990 Dodge is a 3/4 ton model, similar – though much nicer – to one I once owned. I still miss that pickup – it was everything good and a bag of chips.
This Dodge really made my heart skip a beat.
It is no joke in saying Dodge pickups from around 1980 to 1993 are much more plentiful in these parts than are Ford and Chevrolet examples. For Dodge production being a mere fraction of the other two, this survival rate demonstrates much about their intrinsic goodness.
But as I reached the end of the street about 150 feet away, the good got better.
This was parked near the intersection, waiting for me. It’s a little bit older, having a grille of the 1980 to 1985 era, and there is a little corrosion around the rear fender wells.
Before I left town I saw two more old Dodge pickups of this long lived vintage. Perhaps one day I will again own one of these fantastic old Dodge pickups.
I’ve been to Wellsville many times previously but this was the most memorable visit of them all.
Nice selection Jason. I found the brown one on streetview.
Not much happening in downtown Wellsville I’m afraid, mostly empty storefronts.
Sadly, it would be accurate to say Wellsville is likely not what it used to be. One upshot is I did find a somewhat rare CC candidate about five minutes before finding these Dodges.
The junction of ZZ and AA? You mean there’s another state besides Wisconsin that labels their highways with letters (although in Wisconsin they only do that with county highways)? I’ve never seen that anywhere else, although I’ve obviously never been to Missouri.
Wisconsin and Missouri are it. The lettered routes here are state maintained.
Some junction signs have been problematic over time. The junction of “F” and “U” is one example. Same layout as seen in Doug’s picture.
Looks like your kind of town, Jason!
I wonder if there’s a historical reason for this town’s preference for Dodges. For example, was there actually a Dodge dealer in town or nearby years ago?
My in-laws live about an hour north of Wellsville, near Monroe City, and Monroe City appears to be a Chevy town. I call it the Impala Capital of the World. I think that there had once been a Chevy dealer in town, and since it was the only new car dealer within probably 30 miles, folks there bought a lot of Chevys… and that preference remains to this day.
Monroe City did indeed have a Chevrolet dealer. I think it was one of the dealers that lost its franchise with the bankruptcy in 2009 or so.
That is often the case when you see higher that expected concentrations of vehicles in a less populated area. Either there was only one dealer in area, or they are just that better to deal with than the other dealer near by.
When I lived in Maine the only two new car dealers in the county were a Pontiac GMC Buick, and a Ford dealer. The Ford dealer was further from where I lived (about 60 miles). Given the rural and economic nature of the county it meant lot’s of base model pontiac and GMC trucks. The Pontiacs were the crazy thing they were everywhere.
If you zoom in on the first pic, Arens was THE only car dealer in town and was a Dodge dealer. Those boys also raced on dirt tracks. They faced Dodges, of course. My brother hung around the shop constantly.
Perhaps my Ram In the River from a few days ago was trying to swim home to spawn or something…That’s quite a Twilight Zone occurrence you found there without a person in sight, you must have been in heaven. Perhaps one day you will be able to drink from that well again.
Let us hope that is the case. There are many less tasty wells out there.
What a great place to live! I can’t say that I see many of those in my area, but I’ll bet there are more in Kokomo (about 30 miles or so to the north) where Chrysler has long had a big manufacturing presence.
That 1986-90 grille is my favorite out of every one of this long run, with the exception of the original 72-73 version. I used to not like the 91-93 that much, but it has grown on me.
Yes, you absolutely need another one of these. You can’t let that van at your house think its position is too secure.
Yes, it was ten years ago today we bought that van. Time flies, doesn’t it?
man, that looks like just the sort of place I’m looking to retire to. Quiet, cheap houses, and an hour from STL if I want to travel.
That wasn’t Wellsville!
You were in Dodge City!
Reminds me of rural Oregon which has a bunch of Dodge Rams roaming around.
Dang, 114 counties in Missouri while California has only 58.
Trivia: Georgia has 159 counties!
8 Counties here in CT but we are a small state. Crazy one is Maine 16 counties and a lot of land area. The county I lived in was about twice the size of the state of RI.
San Bernardino County is bigger than 9 states and only 217,000 people or less than half of Montana. Heck, our Mojave Desert is bigger than 20 states.
Jason – what is the one county in Missouri you have not visited? I guess Dunklin; that one looks hard to get to.
I’ve been to every county in my state – but Wyoming only has 23.
MacDonald in the very southwest corner is the lone holdout.
I’ve been to Dunklin County many times; a former college friend of mine lived right on the Dunklin / Stoddard County line and I visited him at his parent’s house periodically.
All was well in Wellsville until the fire brick plant closed. As did the brick plant in Nearby Mexico Mo. Once considered the refractory products capitol of North America..It’s a ripple effect in the decline of US steel production and foundry manufacturing..
it was good to see a herd old Dodge trucks with their goat head mascots still on the hood. They once were a favorite target for thieves.
Just last week I saw a teenage kid driving a late model RAM just ahead of me. He rammed into a car at a stop sign. I thought how ironic. At least he already had his phone in hand.
Smart kid for sure! Just think, he had the foresight to realize he would need the phone real soon.
Me, I would have stopped in time.
I remember way back in early 71 when Dodge finally introduced this newer generation and my Navy squadron got one as a duty vehicle. Man, I really wanted to be assigned Duty Driver so I would get a chance to get behind the wheel. It finally happened and that truck was just as sweet as I thought it would be. Sure, it only had the slant 6…and a MANUAL transmission, but it was like a bouncy puppy, to our squadron’s tired Chevy truck.
The first 4 pictures are of my dad’s shop and a customer’s truck. The 4th picture is my dads truck. We are a dodge family with the shop being a dodge dealership in the 50s.
Neat! Thanks for chiming in.
Who are your grandparents? I worked there in the early seventies-are they still around?