History of the Club
How we got started by Britt Blakeman
The club was started in the summer of 1998. I had been into Carquest getting some stuff. I had kicked around the idea of trying to get some kind of a club going. Probably the reason was because a friend of mine and I were the only ones I knew that had jeeps set up with lockers and I knew that there had to be others that liked to play hard.
I was talking to Don Ganterbien and John Peterson. I asked them how they thought a 4x4 club would go in Elko. Both seemed to think it would go over good. Don even volunteered to help organize it.
I stopped by the newspaper on the way home and put an ad in the Auto Misc. section that read “Anybody wanting to join or help organize a club in the Elko area give me a call at 753-8689”. I think the third person to call was Loran. He said that he was thinking about the same thing but I just beat him to it and that he would help me organize it.
The first meeting of the minds was Don Ganterbien, Rick Highland (Lorans brother), Loran and myself. Our original plan was to keep it simple, every month somebody else would pick a trail.
It wasn't long and we had quite a large group of people on the list. Of the list Mike Martsolf was around 10. I remember Connie said that he had called saying he had built 22 rigs and had been a member of a club in Colorado. He also said he would help organize. I don't remember just where Don Martin came in on the list but he had been a member of a club in Arizona and was also willing to help organize.
We had a meeting of the people that would be the charter officers at my house in about Nov. or Dec. of 98. We appointed ourselves for the first year and would have elections the next year. Mike Martsolf Pres., Don Martin Vice Pres., Britt Sec./Treasurer, Matt Valteierra Trail Boss, and Loran Highland Member at large.
The first year I think we had 16 paying members. That’s how we got started.
© 2004 - 2007 Bangin' Bones 4-Wheel Drive Club
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