Life Magazine Article on The Yakima Ridgerunners
May 14, 1951
"RIPSNORTING JEEP DRIVERS BURN UP THE YAKIMA, WASH. SAGEBRUSH"
"I'm...half horse, half alligator," said Davy Crockett a century and a quarter ago. The breed hasn't died out yet, as one can see any Sunday morning by going out to the busy little community of Yakima, Wash. There at about 8 o'clock, in time to compete with the church bells, there gathers in from of Wally Klingele's gas station a group of 30-odd rip-snorting citizens mounted on souped-up jeeps and calling themselves ridgerunners. The machines are equipped with altimeters, inclinometers and exhaust-pipe amplifiers which make the four-cylinder engines sound something like four-engine bombers. But the spirit is pure Crockett. Out go the ridgerunners through the apple orchards and the hopfields, until they reach the Indian reservation, and then it's off over the sagebrush, the running rivers, the dry creek beds, the lava fields, the mudholes, up 35-degree grades, over improvised ski jumps. On an average ridgerunning Sunday - like the one illustrated here by iron-nerved Photographer Willard Hatch - at least three or four jeeps are always put out of commission. But what do $30 worth of repairs count against the milliion dollars worth of fun? "I probably won't live as long as other people," says Wally Klingele, "but goddam, I'll have fun."
JUMP is negotiated by a couple of happy, mudstained ridgerunning teams who have discovered a dip in the ground which gives springboard effect if they hit it at the right speed. Jeeps ahve extra-big tires (8.20x15, or larger) to absorb such punishment. One man was thrown out of the jeep by this escapade, but he was unhurt. (Above Picture)
RIDGERUNNERS GATHER on Sunday morning at Wally's gas station, then file off slowly toward wide open spaces where there ain't no traffic laws. (Above Picture)
RIDGERUNNERS PLAY TAG at Wally's signal: "Let's scratch." They duck and dodge each other while racing over hills and ram each other at 30 mph. (Above Picture)
RACING A JEEP, a cowboy gives up and tries for a tow as two ridgerunners pass him on a steep hillside. He complained that his horse had only one gear. (Above Picture)
INTO A MUDHOLE smacks Ridgerunener Wally Klingele, coating himself and jeep with muck and water. Jeep was immediately mired to its floor boards. (Above Picture)
MUD FIGHT BEGINS between Pat Mullins and Roger Gervais, a Yakima ladies' hairdresser who started affair by heaping muck on seat of Mullins' jeep. (Top Picture)
STUCK FOR SURE, Mullins takes the wheel and hides his face from flying mud as the jeep, hooked to another by chain on bumper, is heaved from goo. (Bottom Picture)