From which it came so it might go. Back in 1980 a group of frustrated, Confederate GearHeads , sat in a part Drive Inn , part malt shop in the town of Hagerman Idaho, at the time with a whopping population of 750. Of course this is not taking in the surrounding areas of Buhl, West-Point, Tuttle, Bliss, Bell Rapids, Black Mesa and Saylor Creek. Not too mention Melon Valley, Clear Springs, and even Twin Falls. This group of 10 GearHeads sat in that eat-em-up place, thinking and dreaming of the cruisers we saw in magazines and the rod shows we always thought could be here but weren’t. At least not at that point. Those 10 gear heads, said lets do up our own club. But it wouldn’t really heat up for at least a year. In April of 1980 I first met Jimmy(James Stuart Macdonald) at that years Magic Valley Early Iron Club’s Rod & Custom Show in Twin Falls. Jimmy showed up , showing off a 1949 Ford F-100 that was by all rights a real home brewed and stewed custom truck. Freightliner modified grill, bumper with diamond cut outs , done by hand with tin snips for tail lights, and baby moon hub caps. Velour seat custom floor, stock but solid Merc flathead . Me there with Little Mack, and we got to talking. That summer a hired hand of Moms had a hired helper, who became one of my life long friends came to help mow our huge lawn at the old homestead between West-Point and Hagerman. His name was Lester Allen Culbertson Jr. Who I call Bro. Bro took me to see Jimmy, and the gig was on. The fall of 1980, LexiBelle needed a home port, Jimmy, needed a bigger shop to work out of, and together , Jimmy put up $2,500.00 , Mom for me put up $5,000.00 and Pat & Jims Speed Shop in Hagerman was open for business. By mid March of 1981 the need to be at that years SLC AutoRama one of if not thee then major custom shows became a thing beyond just showing off our latest creation, it would become a marketing tool beyond anything that could have ever been conceived. A 1969 Chevy Caprice, some John Deere Construction orange/yellow and the General Jackson was built, but something was about to put a quirk in the gig. Ya’ll might call it a flaw in the slaw. On a diorama prop hunt took me to a Junior high school near Paul Idaho. Across the street there he sat, for a whopping $1,500.00 . Some rather heated discussions between Mom and I and by that Monday, the General Lee was on its way to Hagerman , after which , Hagerman would never be the same after. So Bro and I went to the SLC AutoRama, met many folks including some production types from the Dukes, and got featured in a national performance automotive publication. Groovy. 1982 was a mixed bag of things for me. The cb/4-H Truckers Club that I belonged to was in the mix of a national truckers strike. I was showing off the General, that Bro had nicknamed the Terminal General, since anything that tried to challenge that car soon was eliminated. I was arrested for doing some 100MPH plus through Hagerman which by the spring of 1982 had became Hazzard Idaho, which still wears that second name, and as I was leaving the Gooding Jail in 1982, Jimmy, myself, Ron Adams, Karl Kuhn, his brother Alfred Kuhn, Rick Lemons, Rusty Walston, amongst others sat in that malt shop in Hazzard, then called the Polish Palace, now the Snake River Grill, and the plan for hatching a hot rod club / Dukes fan club took shape. In February 1983 the Hazzard County Knytes(Knights) was born. Taking on as part of the name of itself from a hit major film called the Hollywood Knights. In March 1983 my Mom passed away. The club and Dukes cast made it possible for me to hold it together both mentally and emotionally. The Hagerman ward of the LDS Church was of no help or compassion, even though a truck trailer load of toys had been donated by me, albeit reluctantly to 14 families in the Hagerman valley, with about 8 to 12 kids per family. Many of these toys were still in their boxes, either having been played with a few times or not at all. But did I get even a shoulder to cry on by the LDS church? No, but the Knytes were there saying we care, how can we help? After that I reupped in the Confederate Marines and did duty in Burbank California, and as a weekend gig did some wrenching for the TV show the Dukes-of-Hazzard, under the watchful eye of Paul Baxley who was the stunt cheef of that TV show. The club began to blossom. Membership increased to nearly 6,000 throughout Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. We knew we had something, but never dreamed the club would become what it did or has. The Hazzard Knytes was by all fairness a marketing tool, that was envisioned to being a promotional tool to increase sales at our shop, which began as Pat & Jims Speed and Custom Shop, and by the fall of 1983 officially as the real Hazzard County Garage. The club operated as itself with no side groups until mid 1999, when a few who dug, old John Deere’s said lets include them in the club. So the first spin off was created as the Deere Dazzlerz Association, that has as its head even today, the Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan, and as such the backing of the Larry H Miller Foundation. The next spin off came in 2002 as I rediscovered my love of flying. As such the what was the BlackSheep Vintage Aviation Association, that is now us in the AyreWolvez Military Aviation Association. In 2005 the Road Commanders Association which is a remnant of our core beginnings of a cb/4-H truckers club, that has become the foundation of the entire group, was reborn. By mid 2006 the final sibling was created as the Hazzard County Choppers Club, a renegade bikers club. Over the years what the club could not find available elsewhere, or doors slammed in our face by. We as a club, created for the benefit of the club and all its members, which totals just a tad shy of 150,000 members world wide. Whether that thing whatever it is, being a radio station, which is being reignited in Buhl, by November this year. Whether that be a written publication, because newspapers of the area that promise a story or article does not honor that promise, or as now having so much trouble getting a simple TV ad done by our specs, so we create our own video TV production company. If the club needs it, if our membership or those who support the club through sponsorships need it, if its not available elsewhere, the Knytes create it.
Here is the wrap up of this:
In March of 2008, I saw news of a soon to be built a nuclear plant just outside of Hammett, and having gone through some personal problems in Pocatello, I moved from Pocatello to the tiny town of Glenns Ferry, to get a job at said Nuke plant. He being nearly freshly retired from the UCSMC and needing work , looked like a good idea. Well all knows what happened there. The Nuke plant was canned, so to salvage something out of the move, began to get in the groove of a vintage warbird restoration operation at the Glenns Ferry Airport. Along with the two side saddles of me going towing and revitalizing the Hazzard Knytes. What I had found was many not all but many of the founding members had moved away. What remained was members who were more truck, than hot rod, as well as an equal amount into vintage warbirds. By September 2008 there was a TV show I stumbled upon, on FX called the Sons Of Anarchy. The images were of what our rowdy bunch had become. In October 2008 the officers of the club met in Boise at Shorty’s Saloon, and the rebirth of the Hazzard County Knytes became the Knytes-of-Anarchy, stripping away all of the side sibling groups except for two. What remains today is the Knytes-of-Anarchy, The Deere Dazzlerz Association and the AyreWolvez Military Aviation Association.
Battles of the Knytes and Magic Valley and Mountain West Media, next blog.
L8R Confederate Aviators
Quote of the day: The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun. - P. G. Wodehouse
Psalm 116:1-2“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”
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