Category: road icon

Road Icon: The Apache Ramada is In
In the early 1950s, campers had to be industrious. Tent trailers were a rare commodity, so avid travelers built their own. Eugene Lewis Vesely was one of those people. While planning for a family excursion to Alaska, he built a collapsible tent atop a boat trailer. The trip never happened, but a business—Vesely Manufacturing Company—was born.
Based in Michigan, Vesely started with soft-topped tent trailers, offering a range of styles and price points, adopting the brand name Apache. (our archival photo shows the Golden Eagle and, near as we can tell, an early version of Vesely’s Mesa.) Two years later, in 1959, his firm had grown into the world’s largest manufacturer of camping trailers. In 1970, the company released the first commercially produced “solid-state” pop-up camper. These traded canvas side walls for hard, plastic ones that were cranked up into place. (A Trailer Life article from 1971 referred to them as the “tent-trailer that isn’t.”) The Ramada was the most luxurious, and spacious, of the bunch. The debut version featured a three burner stove, an icebox, and a dinette table and couch that doubled as beds in 125 square feet of living space; a later version incorporated a hideaway toilet. The craftsmanship and size helped make the Ramada a mainstay for much of the next decade.
Maria Sandown purchased a honey-hued 1976 edition last year. Nicknamed “Farrah,” the hard-sided trailer had served her previous owner for four decades. (Charlie’s Angels, starring Farrah Fawcett, also debuted in the Bicentennial year.) The exterior has zero chips or cracks and minimal rust. The sink, fridge, cooktop and heater still work, and the original floral upholstery is still intact.
Photo Credit: Vesely Manufacturing Company
“I think that’s why people love them: They’re well-constructed, they’re well-engineered. They’re comfortable,” she says of the Ramada. “A lot of thought went into these campers.”
Sandown can comfortably fit her family of three plus her pack of five rescue dogs in the rig, which she decorated with new curtains and throw pillows. The way the camper collapses leaves room for storing games and bedding inside, making packing up from this troupe’s adventures much easier.
The rectangular trailer still maintains a huge following nearly four decades after Vesely went out of business; the Apache Camper Preservation Society Facebook group counts more than 13,000 members today. Sandown, who lives in Mississippi, says people constantly stop her and ask to take photos of Farrah. Many of these strangers recall camping in an Apache as a kid.
“People are so loyal to these things,” she says. “There’s a lot of nostalgia associated with it.”
This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.
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2025-06-03
Road Icon: Join the Airstream Argosy Club
In March 1972, when the first Airstream Argosy rolled out of the company’s newly opened manufacturing plant in Versailles, Ohio, it marked a pivot for the venerable brand—one not entirely welcomed by Airstream enthusiasts. Until that point, the iconic company had almost exclusively produced high-end, shiny aluminum trailers that turned heads on the highway. That shine—that distinction, that head-turning quality—was something of a status symbol.
But while the Argosy was designed much like the standard Airstream, it didn’t have the shine. It was painted white. The sidewalls were still aluminum, but they were occasionally made from damaged panels, and the trailer’s end-caps were made from plastic and steel. By painting the trailer, the company concealed blemishes and cheaper material.
Photo Credit: Airstream
“It was a recycling method,” explains Dan Maul, the visitor experience coordinator at the Airstream Heritage Center in Jackson Center, Ohio. “We wanted to take the aerodynamic design and other cues from the Airstream and create a less-expensive travel trailer.”
The Argosy was also a way for Airstream to experiment and reach new customers amidst the 1970s economic malaise. Depending on the model, Argosy trailers could be had for a few thousand dollars less than their pure-bred counterparts; they featured concepts like wraparound windows, narrower widths on some trailers, a rear bedroom and composite aluminum flooring.
In certain eyes, it was a great success. Maul estimates a few thousand Argosy trailers sold during an initial eight-year run, and the ability to test new features helped Airstream launch into the motorhome space, too. But some Airstream owners refused to accept Argosy owners as their brethren. For decades, the Airstream Club International (which is independently run by enthusiasts) refused to let Argosy owners join up or attend events.
Photo Credit: Airstream
Due to the same economic conditions that spawned the Argosy in the first place, the Versailles plant was closed in the late ’70s. Airstream was acquired by THOR Industries and the Argosy line went out of production (though the name reemerged briefly as a fifth wheel concept). In 1991, club members finally relented, and Argosy trailers—steadily becoming classics—were welcomed at rallies.
“There are still a few members out there who remember the days when the Argosy was not permitted,” lifetime club member Kevin Allen wrote in an Airstream forum. “Fortunately, this group is a small minority.”
Today, Maul says, the Airstream Argosy is growing in popularity—not only because it’s a vintage unit, but because white panels allow owners to customize the exterior. “A lot of the hype came after the fact,” he says. “These days we celebrate all the models. It is part of our family now.”
This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.
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2025-04-15
Road Icon: The Famous RV Used by NASA
A brief cameo in Fly Me to the Moon, the 2024 Channing Tatum/Scarlett Johansson rom-com, serves as a reminder that good looks never go out of style. The aging star in question is a 1967 Clark Cortez motorhome, used in the film (as it was in real life!) by NASA to shuttle Apollo astronauts to the launch pad for the first lunar landing mission.
The boxy Cortez body, originally a compact 18.5 feet long with a still-spacious interior, was constructed entirely out of welded steel, making it tough as a tank. Debuted in 1963, the Cortez was also one of the first—if not the first—front-wheel-drive RVs to be manufactured in the United States. Early models were powered by a reliable (though not especially powerful) Chrysler slant-six engine. Mounting that motor up front gave the Cortez good handling and a low step-in, making it attractive to first-wave vanlifers. The Cortez was purpose-built by an unlikely outfit: the Clark Material Handling Company, a manufacturer of forklifts and trucks.
“The Cortez engineers were actually very brilliant,” says Mike Blumentsein, the Seattle-based moderator for the Cascade Cortez Club on Facebook. Though a family illness prompted Blumenstein to trade in his RV dreams for a 1966 VW Fastback, he has owned three Cortezes, including a ’69. One of his rigs was built by the brand’s second manufacturer, Kent Industries, which bought Clark’s Cortez division in 1970.
Photo Credit: NASA
Calling the Cortez “the Sprinter of its day,” Blumenstein notes a key selling point was the customizable interior. “There were no dealers, just a showroom,” says Blumenstein. “And they would build it to your specifications.” Most Cortezes have room to sleep four, but some ended up as mobile offices. More peculiar was an innovation that came with the 1972 model, which pushed the contents of the black tank through the catalytic converter to incinerate the waste.
By the end of the 1970s, though, the last of approximately 3,200 Cortezes ever made rolled off the production line. That heavy steel, it seemed, was no match for the gas crisis—plus, Winnebago and other competitors had turned to aluminum to create a new generation of motorcoaches.
Even so, despite concerns over rusting roofs and the bugaboo of upgrading drum brakes, fans of vintage vehicles cannot get enough of the Cortez. Among them are Laura Meredith and Andy Greaves—she goes by “L” pronounced “elle”—a husband-and-wife team in the midst of restoring a 1965 Cortez. The Virginia-based duo have documented their efforts and offer tips on their Soul of Seeker blog. “Everybody gets caught up in the visual part,” says Greaves. “They just want to talk to us about it because it’s such a unique-looking vehicle.”
For those who skipped Fly Me to the Moon but still want a Hollywood ending, there is good news: NASA’s retired Clark Cortez is on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.
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2025-02-13
Road Icon: The International Scout is the Grand Father of Modern SUVs
When the first International Harvester Scout rolled off the assembly line 64 years ago, the term “sport utility vehicle” was not yet part of America’s automotive lexicon. Equipped with four-wheel drive, beefy suspension and only two doors, the original Scouts were rugged—designed for hard work on the farm and harder miles off-road.Available with a truck bed or a full-length hardtop, the often-two-toned Scouts had few peers outside of military-inspired Jeeps of the era. In some ways, International Harvester—which mostly built commercial agricultural and trucking equipment—created the template every SUV has copied since. And before Scout was discontinued in 1980, they also spawned a cult following.
A bright orange car parked above a blue lake on a fall day. Leaves are turning in the background.
By the time Ryan Duvall moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1999, the newspaper columnist was nostalgic for the 1974 Scout II he’d driven in high school. At that point, he wasn’t aware he’d landed in the city where the original Scouts were built. But when he saw an uncanny number of them around town, he tracked down a 1976 Scout Traveler for himself and began researching the origins.He connected with other Scout owners and former employees, and in 2019 organized a meetup for International Harvester drivers. Today, he runs Harvester Homecoming and is creating a museum to honor Fort Wayne’s truck-building history. The nonprofit also hosts an annual festival that attracts upwards of 20,000 people and 500 vehicles. “I thought, the things that happened here, we should be honoring,” Duvall says. “Honoring these amazing Scouts.”Today, the community he brought together has reason to celebrate. In 2021, Volkswagen Group acquired Navistar (which had bought International Harvester in the ’80s), and launched Scout Motors—an independent American company promising a resurrection of the iconic brand.
Photo Credit: Scout Motors
The Scout Motors team sought out enthusiasts like Duvall as they prepared to launch two new vehicles, which they officially unveiled in October 2024. “We wanted to create something that felt like the original vehicle,” says Chris Benjamin, chief design officer for Scout Motors. “Something original owners would look at and say: ‘That’s a Scout.’”The new Scout will be available to consumers in 2027 in two models: an SUV (the “Traveler”) and pickup (the “Terra”), both modern electric vehicles that honor their predecessors. With 35-inch tires, low front overhang and slanted rear windows, the new Scouts are unmistakably nodding to the past. The Scout Motors team even invited Duvall and other owners to the reveal event in Franklin, Tennessee.“I had tempered my expectations. I was buckled up for something way newer than it was old,” Duvall says. “But I was wrong. I was emotional when they pulled them out. They hit a home run.”
This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.
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2025-01-07