Starting in the early evening of July 8 and ending the morning of July 10, Wheatland hosted the Blue Mountain Car Show. The Blue Mountain Car Show is a three-day event during the second weekend in July. People can visit their Facebook, Instagram, and website to learn more information. Do be aware that this year’s event has finished. I have visited the show twice. The first time was in 2020 and the second in 2021. The 2020 visit was for fun, while the 2021 visit was a bit more of a professional matter. I will be doing a reflection style post for the ’21 car show to follow up for this one.
The car show festivities actually began with a five-kilometer run and walk which started at 5:00 p.m. Friday the 8th. There were also plans for a cruise to occur at 6:00 p.m., but it didn’t come to fruition. The starting point was a local pharmacy where I spent about two hours waiting for something to happen. While there, I took five sets of car photos. I should clarify that although I’d like to showcase all of the cars I took photos of, I will only be showcasing what I thought were notable vehicles. Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The car show proper began Saturday, July 9, at nine in the morning and lasted until two or three in the afternoon. The show was located in the historic downtown, centered on the intersection of Gilcrest and 9th Streets. The perimeter of the show was about three blocks long and two blocks wide, running lengthwise along 9th and widthwise along Gilcrest. I made two trips downtown. One was around 10:30 to noon and the other was between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. Besides the car show, there were organizations and individuals doing business and supporting the local endeavor like the Kiwanis-sponsored dunk tank and corn hole tournament.
The evening of July 9 brought a demolition derby at the county fairgrounds just outside of town. Sadly, I didn’t go because I forgot to stock up on cash to pay for a ticket. Oh well, I’ll try to remember to do so next year. The event concluded the morning of Sunday, July 10 with a pair of breakfast cruises. One being in Guernsey with a cruise through Guernsey State Park, and the other a brunch up in Sunrise at the YMCA with a tour of the local Sunrise Mines. If you have read some of my PCRT Archives stories, I would hope that the second location be at least a little familiar.
Starting from Blue Mountain, there is going to be a car show every other week for the next six weeks. So Blue Mountain was on July 9, there will be other one July 23, and a third will be August 6. It is my hope to go to each one of these shows collecting photos and interviews. Hopefully they’ll be a good addition to the content of this blog.
James Meyer 