On Saturday, June 28, the fifth annual Trapper Car Show kicked off. This year’s edition of the Trapper show, which has locally become quite popular, has incorporated one new huge thing to the overall show: the newly opened student center, which sits directly across the street from where the show is set up. This was truly a nice addition to the Trapper Car Show.

Having been to all five of the Trapper Car Shows I have been pleased to always find some unique and interesting cars, and this year’s show didn’t disappoint. One standout car, rare as far as stock factory muscle goes, was the 1970 Mercury Cyclone of Kari Barr. This car came from the factory complete with a 427 Cobra jet engine coupled to a four speed. It is an all original matching serial numbers car and one of only 1,631 that were made, a true survivor!

A local standout pickup from the Garland area was Denman Jones, who was born and raised in Powell, brought his 1954, five window Chevy pickup, which has a sort of robin’s egg blue and white paint scheme to the show. He told me he bought the truck back in 2018 and has spent five-and-a-half years getting it to the point it is now.

Another standout car when it came to paint and the motor was  Troy Schatz’s 1968 Corvette. Having owned a 1969 427 Corvette myself, I still have a love affair with America’s true two seater sports car which any Corvette is. Troy is from Cody and his Corvette sports custom paint and striping as well as a 427 cubic inch engine, along with headers and chrome side pipes.

One of the cars I picked up on as I walked into the show was the 1957 Olds-98 named “Mabellene.” This car is an all original classic, with only 46,246 miles on the odometer.  That wonderful rounded three piece rear window look was only done in 1957.  The car also has power windows and seats. The original owner of this car was Glen Holmes, who also brought the original Ace Hardware store to Powell. He bought this car up in Billings at Wynan Olds. Jim Frey of Cody is the owner of this car today, and as luck would have it, this car was given the Best Classic Car Award for this year’s show.

Best of Show went to Trent Greenwald of Powell with his white custom and modified white 1966 C-10 pickup. In speaking to Trent he told me he did all the work on this truck project including the painting of the truck, but he did have a little help redoing the pickup bed. His truck has a 350 block along with a four speed Muncie transmission and shifter. It has taken him roughly eight years to get this project to its present day conclusion and its first ever show, and since it won the Best of Show, I’d say his toiling with it for eight years shows!

To round out the final award, local shop owner Tate Murdoch, “Body and Paint by Tate,” was awarded “People’s Choice” with his recently finished 1936 Chevy pickup. True to form the black paint was flawless, and with the addition of the V-8 with a single carburetor and headers makes this 36 scoot right on down the highway instead keeping the four or six cylinder engine that it came with. This was Tate’s first show with this car and he told me there  will be several more additions he plans for this car.

This show was another win for the Northwest College Foundation and Alumni and for all those who showed their cars and for all who came to see those cars! I’m sure we will be right back here next year.