[TFoch]

I bought the body of my car in Oregon through an on-line ad.  I had someone I knew from the area take a bunch of pictures for me before I flew out and loaded it into a POD to be shipped back home (3,100 miles) to New Hampshire.  When I got it home and looked everything over there was a stencil on the driver’s door that read “Wild Ass Mining Company Tres Pinos Calif.”

So I did some research and didn’t come up with any history about any such company.  Well a bunch of my co-workers were talking about it and were determined to find out more about it.  My boss stumbled upon an obituary for the last surviving member of the Wild Ass Mining Company.

I looked at the names of the children of this person and his son was still in the area.  I googled his name and found an address.  I wrote a letter and put some pictures of the car and door in the envelope and sent it with my return address and e-mail address.  A couple of weeks later I got this response.

Tom,
    I haven't had such a good enjoyable laugh for a long time.  I shared your letter and photos with my brother and sister and my sister first response was, "Is it for sale!  I want to buy it"  I don't think she really does.
The Wild Ass Mining Company was formed in the mid 50's by my father and his friends.  I hope you won't be disappointed but it was never a real mining company.  My father and his friends would go camping in the central Sierras and Nevada every year.  I think the name evolved in the mid 50's when all the families went camping in the southern part of San Benito County in Central California, or when they were camping in Jackass Meadows in the central Sierras. The families would always celebrate birthdays, the New Year, and other occasions together.  Those were always fun times.  They would exchange unusual and creative funny gifts.  One story that I remember related to the stencil you found on the car: They were always putting it on places.  One year they put it on an old warehouse in Jarbridge, Nevada.   Several years later they went back, entered one of the bars in town and Ed threw their Wild Ass business card (Yes, they even made business cards) down on the bar.  The bartender picked it up, looked at it and said, "Oh! Your the guys who own the warehouse down at the end of the street."  They really got a kick out of that.  They always had a great time together,  The "members" were: my dad George, Ed (a county road engineer), Norman (a bank manager), Harold (a school superintendent),  Bill (grocery store owner) and Tommy (I think he worked for PG & E.  they had nicknames for each other.  My dad was Hardrock, Ed was Beer Can, Norman was Beanhole, Bill was Vittles, Harold was just Hal, and I don't remember the rest.   Ed was the creative jokester of the bunch.  One time for and engineer’s convention he created a complete model of an overhead, color coded, sewer system.  He presented it to the convention as if it were a real project.  He was a master at dead pan, dry humor.
      Tres Pinos  (Spanish for three pines) is a real town in San Benito County, California.  My father owned a feed and grain milling business called Tres Pinos Grain and Supply from the late forties until the late sixties.
I hope this helps to satisfy your curiosity as to the origin of the Wild Ass Mining Company.  I have asked my mom if she had any idea of how the stencil might have gotten on a 1933 Chevy but she didn't have any recollection of it.  None of the men, that I know of, ever owned one.  So it remains a mystery to me and to how it got there.

The “Wild Ass Mining Company” will live on in my 33.  Check out the “WAMCO” steering column drop my friend made for me.

Tom

[themoose]

Great story Tom....I often wonder about all of the places my 32 has been over the years. If cars could only talk.

Moose

[chopper526]

Great story, Tom. I like that column drop, too. I wish I had friends like that, mine cost me $50.00.

[ghost28]

 Tha t is too cool. I would like to track down an interesting story on at least one of my builds. Maybe the buick roadster since I have the most info and pictures on it. From the days of rotting away in a nebraska field, to it's previos owners attempt to bring it back to original, and now my build of it....John
 P S that is a cool collumn drop ya got there.

[TFoch]

Great story, Tom. I like that column drop, too. I wish I had friends like that, mine cost me $50.00.

I like it keeps the story going.  I'm going to sand and polish it so it should look good.  I want to send the family some pics when it's installed.

[sixball]

What a great story. It's always fun to have some link to our old cars' pasts. Even up to a few tears ago the vast open spaces of the Great Basin were wild places where a group of fun loving friends could roam and explore. Satellite technology is changing that. Now they can see you way out there. 

[YBNORML]

Pretty cool story. Fake door signage from 40 years ago, just goes to show that nothing is ever reall new;)

[sixball]

This reminded me of a friend here who had an old Mayflower moving van and did some under the table hauling in the area. When some folks returned from a few years in Honduras he picked up their belongings in Reno. Several of the crates had a stencil of a palm tree and the word MUDANZA. Keith named his moving company that and made a stencil that he put on all kinds of stuff including the door of my '53 pickup. I'm in the process of scanning some old photos and I have one of the palm tree on my door. I guess he was an early tagger.

[Kiwijeff]

Thats a great read. I found two signs under the paint work of my old 30 Model A Colonial cab pickup. I had to hand sand carefully to get them to show up. Got pics of em, and tried to track the history. Talked to many older people in the places the signs related to, but didnt find out a lot.