Filled with tons of activities, as well as plenty of the aftermarket's top vendors, the annual Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival is definitely a can't miss event.
by Matt Konkle
Managing Editor
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — The spot is a 500 acre mixture of trees, foliage, rolling hills and wide open grassy pastures that hosts everything throughout the year from Tough Mudder events to Middle Ages/Renaissance reenactments.
Interstate 79 borders on one side, providing a constant hum of traffic and the occasional truck horn blast. Trees, farmland and a few business sites border on the others.
And this weekend, Jeeps fill the middle for the annual Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival.
All kinds show up for the event at Cooper Lake Campgrounds, now in its 11th incarnation — from the earliest of Willys because, you know, nearby Butler is widely known as the birthplace of Jeep, to the most recent Wrangler JL and Gladiator JT editions.
What makes Bantam really stand out for its attendees is the wide variety of things that organizers cram into the three show days. There are the obligatory Best of Bantam awards for all category Jeeps, but there are now numerous trails around the area that show goers can register to attend.
There is also a rock crawling, mud splashing Jeep playground, sponsored by Quadratec, that people can pick different tracks to ride depending on their Jeep builds and driver skill level.
Just up the path from the playground is a cream-colored hanger that contains nearly all forms of Jeep grills through the years, as well as numerous Jeep builds that people have loaned the event for the weekend. And right outside that area is a full-out World War 2 Jeep reenactment camping area.
For day one, we toured and peeked over those vehicles, which included an early 1950s ice maintaining prototype machine, donated by the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. Turns out, back in the late 1940s, the product's inventor — Frank Zamboni — used an army surplus Willys chassis with a blade mounted on it to shave ice, and then a tank filled with water to create a new, smooth sheet of ice.
We also spend time at the Bantam Playground following numerous Jeeps across the course — including a well-build Liberty that tackled the top-tier rock track. Several attempted to traverse Bantam’s mud pit and found themselves needing a tow strap after that mud made travel impossible.
However, as the day wore on and the mud began to dry a bit, more and more Jeeps cut a path through to the cheering delight of many fans in the nearby grandstands.
The Bantam Jeep Heritage Invasion continues Saturday, June 11th from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday, June 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
