Historic Hood River
Did Someone Call a Tow Truck?
Notes
We saw this crunched car previously, but the real star of this image is the tow truck. It’s June of 1930, this is AAA’s “Official Emergency Service” which you could reach daytime at phone 2211, or night time at phone 3322 or 3354. The tow truck is very much a home built rig. It looks like they cut the back seat out of a touring car to add the lift mechanism which seems to be powered by the front end of a Chevy which has been mounted behind the cab. There’s even a small “Wreck Ahead!” sign stashed in the back.
ODOT records indicate that license plate belonged to a 1927 Buick Coupe registered in Fossil Oregon, which matches pretty well with what we see here. Car experts tell me the tow truck may have started its life as a 1919 or 1920 Cadillac Touring car. Let’s see if our friends at WAAAM concur.
I’m pretty sure the location is the “Gilbert Implements Building” on Cascade at 4th, the present site of the Elks Lodge.
Kenn
Admire the gravity or visible gas pump, had the chore of pumping the gasoline up to fill them for my grandfather.
Judy Newman @ WAAAM
We need a tow truck like that at WAAAM. Looks like a home built rig….we should build one like that on one of our old cars that needs to be rebuilt.