by Bruce Wells | Dec 23, 2024 | Petroleum Transportation
Beginning soon after its 1979 opening day, the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum has hosted an annual Jamboree attended by thousands. The museum in Walcott has more than 100 antique trucks on display, including an 1890 Standard Oil triple wagon; a 1903 Eldridge; a 1910 Avery tractor/gasoline farm wagon; and a 1911 Walker Electric Model 43.
The trucking collection off Interstate 80 at the “World’s Largest Truck Stop” began thanks to truck stop founder Bill Moon, who had a passion for trucks and truck history. Every summer, the museum at exit 284 on I -80 outside Walcott, Iowa, hosts a variety of events for truckers and other travelers, teachers, students — and transportation history buffs.
In 2024, the Iowa museum celebrated U.S. trucking history by showcasing its 1924 White Model 40 Wrecker, now on permanent display (and featured in the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes). The Model 40’s four-cylinder, 371-cubic-inch engine was produced at the White factory in Cleveland, Ohio, factory.
“If you are the least bit into cars you will find the museum interesting and well worth the stop,” notes a visitor from Legendary Collector Cars. “From what we could tell, it looks like this I-80 Exit at Walcott, Iowa, is about to become the over-the-road truckers Disneyland in a few years.”
“Bill had a passion for collecting antique trucks and other trucking memorabilia,” notes the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum website. “We are pleased to be able to share this collection with the general public. Every truck has a story to tell and can provide a unique glimpse back in time. Many rare and one-of-a-kind trucks are on display.”
The museum, which offers short films about trucking history, attracts all kinds of visitors, from those interested in antique trucks to those wanting to learn the history of modern, big rigs. Exhibit spaces, greatly expanded in 2012, today include free smartphone apps with audio narratives.
Since its inception in 1979, the Truckers Jamboree has been celebrating America’s Truckers. This event is a great place to celebrate and learn about trucking history — and those big rigs.
The descriptions provide additional details about each truck not found on the limited space of exhibit signs. Visitors can scan a “QR” code at the welcome desk to download the app. Upcoming museum visitors can download it from the website. The innovation — increasingly found at museums — allows both virtual and actual visitors to scan and download exhibit information.
Celebrating Trucking History
“The Iowa 80 Trucking Museum’s mission is to celebrate trucking and to preserve and share its history,” noted Marketing Director Heather DeBaillie in 2012. The smartphone apps, give visitors even more information about the exhibits, “and also give those who are unable to visit the museum the opportunity to learn more about trucking history,” she said.
A century of trucking technology is on exhibit at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, which on July 15, 2011, celebrated the birthday of its rare 1911 Walker electric truck, which once delivered dairy products.
The annual Jamborees in July host nearly 30,000 drivers and their families from 23 different states and Canada, according to the marketing director. During two days guests enjoyed 175 exhibits — and a Super Truck Beauty Contest with 59 contestants.
In 2011, the trucking museum hosted a birthday party for its Walker electric truck — with the party coinciding with the 32nd annual Walcott Truckers Jamboree at its next-door neighbor, the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, DeBaillie noted.
The antique truck display included more than 200 vehicles. Thousands also enjoyed an Iowa pork chop cookout; a Trucker Olympics; carnival games; a concert and fireworks display.
A 1929 International Harvester. Photo courtesy Legendary Collector Cars, which notes: “If you are the least bit into cars you will find the museum interesting and well worth the stop.”
Trucking Museum 1901 Electric Truck
The Walker truck’s 2011 centennial birthday party at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum celebrated an electric manufactured by the Walker Vehicle Company of Chicago.
The company produced electric vehicles until late 1941. Walker trucks were used mainly as delivery trucks in major cities — delivering ice cream and other dairy products, baked goods and dry goods.
Although the 1919 International Harvester’s four-cylinder gasoline engine provided a top speed of just 17 mph, it was the first truck to climb Pike’s Peak.
The Iowa 80 Trucking Museum’s 1911 Walker electric truck was owned by Bowman Dairy and used to deliver milk to hospitals, restaurants and hotels, according to curator Dave Meier. It is one of only a handful of Walker Electric trucks known to still exist.
“Many people think that electric vehicles are a recent invention, when in fact they were in production over 100 years ago,” explained Meir.
Electric vehicles were popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century – until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass production of cheaper gasoline vehicles led to a decline in their use (also see Cantankerous Combustion — 1st U.S. Auto Show).
Among the exhibits at the trucking museum is one of the few surviving examples of an Avery gasoline-powered tractor. Avery Company of Peoria, Illinois, began producing coal (and straw)-burning steam tractors in 1891 — and became the world’s largest tractor supplier. It was also one of the first companies to manufacture gasoline tractors.
Manufactured in Peoria, Illinois, Avery tractors brought new efficiency to rural America — and the world. The Iowa 80 Trucking Museum’s 1910 Avery “Tractor-Gasoline Farm Wagon” (at right) was promoted with the slogan, “Makes Power Farming Possible on the Average Sized Farm.”
Created by his family, the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum was a dream of Bill Moon, who founded the Iowa 80 truck stop. Standard Oil originally built the stop in 1964 – when Interstate 80 was still under construction. In September 1965, Moon took over management and purchased it from Amoco in 1984. He managed its growth until his death in 1992.
Plan a visit to the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/oil-riches-of-merriman-baptist-church. Last Updated: December 28, 2024. Original Published Date: April 18, 2012.
by Bruce Wells | Jan 28, 2024 | Offshore History
Post-WWII offshore technologies advanced petroleum exploration and production.
Following World War II, the U.S. offshore oil and natural gas industry achieved an important technological milestone in the Gulf of Mexico when Kerr-McGee drilled the first well out of sight of land.
The Kerr-McGee Kermac No. 16 platform began drilling 10 miles from the Louisiana shore on September 10, 1947, in continental shelf waters just 20 feet deep. With the season’s biggest hurricane arriving a week later, the experimental platform constructed by Brown & Root withstood 140 mph winds — another of its contributions to offshore technology.
“Stabbing in,” once a deadly hazard for offshore divers, has been replaced with technologies like remotely operated vehicles. Painting by Clyde Olcott from the 2007 book, “The History of Oilfield Diving: An Industrial Adventure,” by Christopher Swann.
The pursuit of offshore oil demanded technological innovation as exploration led to deeper and more inhospitable waters. Offshore divers faced new challenges, including one hazard called “stabbing in” a drill bit at the well.
“Because re-inserting a drill pipe from a moving, heaving barge into the subsea wellhead was a difficult maneuver, each time a worn bit had to be replaced, a diver had to be called,” noted Underwater magazine in a May 2000 article.
“The hard-hat diver effected the ‘stab-in’ by straddling the top of the 24-inch hole between his legs, physically pulling the drill string over the target and at just the right moment instructing the drill floor, 250 feet overhead, to ‘let go.’”
Modern deep sea roughneck technology spares divers this dangerous task, reported Christopher Swann, author of The History of Oilfield Diving, published in 2007. Instead of air, divers began breathing mixtures of helium and oxygen during deep descents and carefully managed decompression ascents.
Swann’s 2007 book includes a painting by Clyde Olcott showing a diver guiding a drill pipe into the wellhead — “stabbing in.”
As an illustrator of pioneering underwater operations, Olcott (1927 – 2009) produced accurate images of commercial divers at work. His artwork documented diving technologies, beginning in the late 1950s at Santa Barbara, California, including oxygen-helium diving.
With many diving companies originating on the U.S. West Coast, Olcott’s illustrations have appeared worldwide in technical manuals, advertisements, company brochures — and as art on boardroom walls. His artwork for company presentations often introduced new offshore diving concepts, according to Leslie Leaney, a past president of the Historical Divers Society.
“When future historians want to review what was happening underwater during the pioneering days of oilfield diving, Clyde’s paintings will be ‘the picture that is worth a thousand words’,” Leaney noted in the Spring 2009 issue of the Journal of Diving History.
Saturation diving and decompression chambers were developed by the offshore industry to further increase bottom times and improve safety. With deep saturation diving, every 100 feet of depth required 24 hours of decompression and like today, time was money.
The extreme cold of deep water prompted Taylor Diving & Salvage of Belle Chasse, Louisiana, to adapt space suits designed for Nasa astronaut John Glenn to deep sea diving. Hot water pumped down from the surface and through dive-suit tubing extended bottom times.
Deep sea diving companies adapted space suits designed for astronaut John Glenn in Friendship 7 capsule. Photo courtesy NASA.
Taylor also developed an underwater welding habitat pressurized with nitrogen that greatly facilitated the critical business of laying pipeline, tie-ins and repairs.
In 1948, Shell Oil Company and others pioneered the use of underwater television cameras for survey, inspection, and repair work. The Navy also developed deep sea technologies for submarine rescue. Technologies for underwater robots began to evolve.
By the early 1960s, Hughes Aircraft Company had built the first marine “Manipulator Operated Robot” — MOBOT — for Shell Oil Company. The underwater robot used sonar and television cameras for navigation, propellers for propulsion, and an umbilical cable for control. For more about MOBOT, see ROV – Swimming Socket Wrench.
Despite state-of-the-art robotics, offshore petroleum industry and scientific needs for manned deep sea diving continued.
Diving technologies evolved to meet petroleum industry needs as drilling depths increased in the 1960s. Ad image courtesy JoAnn Cowans.
Hughes Aircraft engineer Ken Cowen in the 1960s analyzed heat domes of missiles traveling at speeds of up to Mach 3. After more cryogenics work related to heat transfer, he established offshore technology company Kinergetics, where he worked with NASA astronaut-turned-aquanaut Scott Carpenter.
As Cowans’ wife JoAnn painted award-winning oilfield scenes of Southern California (see Petroleum & Oilfield Artists), he patented sub-sea products, including diving safety equipment. The Kinergetics “Stranded Bell Diver Survival System” provided life-prolonging survival in a cold hyperbolic environment.
Early Technologies and CUSS
Along California’s coastline, the need for divers (man or mechanical) had begun as petroleum exploration followed known oilfields offshore. Drilling contractors developed special platforms and constructed drilling piers, but productive fields extended into Pacific Ocean depths far from the shoreline.
Until remotely operating devices were invented, drilling in depths of 200 feet and beyond required the endurance and capabilities of experienced hard-hat divers.
The dangers of deep sea diving prompted famed magician and escape artist Harry Houdini to patent his 1921 invention of a quick release mechanism to help divers exit their cumbersome suits.
Production methods and equipment would demand new technologies invented by offshore pioneers — including a diver’s suit patented by escape artist Harry Houdini.
In the early days of West Coast petroleum exploration, Albacore divers found new opportunities around numerous California oil seeps, especially at Santa Barbara. The geologic region there has remained active because of the movement of the San Andreas and other faults. The numerous oil seeps led to discovery of the Los Angeles City oilfield in 1892.
Faced with developing new and expensive offshore technologies, in 1948, Continental Oil Company (today’s Conoco-Phillips) partnered with Union Oil, Shell Oil and Superior Oil in a joint venture – using company initials to form the CUSS Group.
The CUSS objective was to pursue deep-water drilling and for the first time develop motion-restricted drilling ships. Experiments began with Submarex, a modified U.S. Navy submarine chaser, followed in 1956 by the CUSS I, a converted World War II barge 260 feet long with a 48 -foot beam.
CUSS I pioneered the use of underwater television cameras to assist in survey, inspection and repair work. In 1965, the vessel drilled a well in 635 feet of water, setting and cementing multiple strings of casing without using divers.
However, most offshore petroleum work still required the skills of traditional hard-hat divers.
Highly advanced at the time, CUSS I used four steering propellers and six mooring buoys to hold the ship in position. During this same period, the U.S. Navy was developing its own deep sea technology for both submarine rescue and Cold War antisubmarine purposes.
Tethered to a mother ship by umbilical cables, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) in 1963 helped find the the nuclear attack submarine USS Thresher, which had sunk with all hands during deep a diving test. The recovery vessel included a 95-foot derrick amidships over a diamond shaped sea opening, still known today as a “moon pool.”
Offshore Engineering
Tapping into the prolific oilfields that extended offshore from popular California beaches brought strict state regulations.
“With leasing from the state of California to explore and produce oil and gas, well control and the ability to run multiple strings of casing became mandatory and required a totally new, unproven technology,” explained the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in a 1987 study.
Built in 1956 by a partnership of four companies, Continental, Union, Shell, and Superior, the offshore drilling vessel CUSS 1 was a converted World War II barge.
“The first floating drilling rig to use subsea well control was the Western Explorer owned by Chevron, which spudded its first well in 1955 in the Santa Barbara Channel,” the society noted.
Other offshore drilling rigs and production platform innovations followed. Petroleum engineers developed technologies to allow deep drilling in the roughest weather. But even with advanced undersea robotics, the petroleum industry has continued to rely on manned diving.
Modern atmospheric diving systems enclose the operator at one-atmosphere pressure, regardless of depth, thereby eliminating the necessity for decompression.
The modern deep sea “Hardsuit 2000” includes 16 rotary joints and two thrusters for mobility.
The “Hardsuit 2000” with 16 rotary joints and two thrusters for mobility, bears little resemblance to its traditional hard-hat ancestors. The suit can operate at depths up to 2,000 feet and remain for six hours on the bottom with no decompression required.
Women Pioneers
As the offshore petroleum industry continued to expand worldwide, it needed all the skilled workers it could find — of any gender. Journalist and professional landman Rebecca Ponton in 2019 published a collection of personal accounts from women who challenged oil industry stereotypes.
Ponton interviewed a diverse collection of energy professionals for Breaking the Gas Ceiling: Women in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry, preserving the underrecognized accomplishments of “WOW — Women on Water,” her introductory chapter’s title.
Among the stories are experiences of an offshore helicopter pilot, logistics superintendent, photographer, federal agency director, and mechanical and chemical engineers. Among her sources, Ponton interviewed Marni Zabarski, who in 2001 became the first female saturation diver in the Gulf of Mexico.
Offshore safety pioneer Margaret McMillan in the late 1980s helped establish the Marine Survival Training Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 2004, McMillan was the first woman to be inducted into the Houston-based Oilfield Energy Center’s Hall of Fame.
Pursuit of U.S. offshore oil and natural gas has continued to generate advanced technologies. Innovators and underwater oil patch roughnecks continue to push both science and offshore industry to new, deeper frontiers.
By 2011, more than 4,500 offshore petroleum platforms supplied 25 percent of the United States’ production of natural gas and 10 percent of its oil. An industry-government partnership has used offshore structures no longer producing to form the world’s largest artificial reef complex (see Rigs to Reefs).
Learn more about the evolution of offshore exploration and production technologies in Offshore Petroleum History.
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Recommended Reading: Diving & ROV: Commercial Diving offshore (2021); Breaking the Gas Ceiling: Women in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry (2019); The History of Oilfield Diving: An Industrial Adventure (2007); The Offshore Imperative: Shell Oil’s Search for Petroleum in Postwar America
(2009); Offshore Pioneers: Brown & Root and the History of Offshore Oil and Gas
(1997). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Become an AOGHS annual supporting member and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Deep Sea Roughnecks.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/offshore-history/deep-sea-roughnecks. Last Updated: February 1, 2024. Original Published Date: January 13, 2011.
