Bruce Sutherland was one of those car guys who couldn’t resist the siren call of a good auction.
‘Over the years, the magnet of an auction led to many incredibly odd purchases ranging from tornado damaged trailers to vintage motorcycles to German ATVs to strange looking motor homes.’
But Bruce’s real addiction centered around cars and trucks – mostly cars but occasionally he’d find a truck that that would satisfy his crack cocaine-like addiction to old iron.
This vintage 1966 Fargo grain truck is a great example.
Bruce was a very logical guy so he always had a reason for a purchase plus he ran under a little fear factor- a man teetering on the brink of the final divorce car had to justify everything. This old farm truck was easy to defend. Bruce had 2 horses on his acreage so, as his son Angus recalls, the old Fargo was a natural fit as a round bale hauler “ He bought it at a farm auction. I believe he got it when I was away at university – I think 2004. He got it for the sole purpose of picking up round bales for your horsy counterparts”.
Angus recalls his only trip with Bruce on a ‘bale run’ “I went on one trip with him over to a farm on 595 to pick up bales using the Valley Center Hall road. But we did a significant part of that trip on pavement – plate-less”. Bruce was very spontaneous when it came to a road trip in one of his purchases so optional things like a license plate were low on his priority list.
It contributed to the fun-the adventure found in the trip was often far more important to Bruce than the trip itself.
Unfortunately, Bruce didn’t get a lot of time to spend on his vast and varied collection, so after he passed away in 2008 the inventory was thinned out. His family made a list of “keepers” or “non-keepers”. This wasn’t as poignant as Schindler’s list-at least not to non-car people but ultimately only a fraction of Bruce’s beloved fleet made the cut. The Fargo grain truck was on the bubble according to Angus “ It’s rather unloved by everyone but me. I’d like to see it retired to the ranch for firewood duty”.
Loosely translated, that means the old truck was spared from the auction block and it’s going to an easy life on the family ranch-hauling firewood. That should be a leisurely retirement for this old brute because you could haul a Hummer in it to Alaska and not work it very hard. The Fargo is a typical farm truck- low miles accumulated thanks to seasonal harvest work plus this one was well maintained.
Thanks to the strong DNA link between Angus and his dad, this old Fargo truck escaped the auction for a long life as a family legacy-but this isn’t the first Sutherland family legacy that Angus has saved.
To drive that point home-check out this link to Angus’ resurrection of Bruce’s TR6-it’s a great read. http://www.thetr6project.com/
