Photo Report: The Baker Garage 100-Years Celebration, Baker City, Oregon

[Centurion]

Last weekend, BCA members helped the Baker Garage in Baker City, Oregon celebrate 100 years in business. Members traveled from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California to participate in the event, marking the century milestone for one of the oldest continuously operating Buick dealerships in the USA.

Not only did we celebrate this wonderful small-town dealership, but we honored 59 years of service at the Baker Garage by Glenn Daugherty. Glenn began selling Buicks at the Baker Garage during May, 1954, and continues with the dealership today. Glenn acquired an ownership stake in 1972, and became sole owner during the early-1980's. Today, Glenn's son, Randy, owns and operates the dealership with his father.

The Baker Garage is in my hometown of Baker City, Oregon, located about 300 miles east of Portland in the Blue Mountain area of Eastern Oregon. There are no large population centers nearby, so the Buicks arrived from a wide geographical area. The Baker Garage generously allowed owners of the collectible Buicks to store their cars inside the dealership for both Friday and Saturday nights.

My parents began buying cars and pickup trucks from the Baker Garage in October, 1960, purchasing the town's first 1961 Buick from Glenn Daugherty.

The 100-year celebration began Friday evening with a prime-rib banquet for 110+ people at the Geiser Grand Hotel, a restored 1889 hotel located one-half block from the Baker Garage. The hotel staff worked with the dealership to prepare a PowerPoint slide show of the early history of Baker City, the arrival of the automobile in the area, and the Baker Garage. I had an opportunity to speak about my personal memories of the dealership and Buick owners in Baker City. Later that evening, my wife and I hosted Buick Club members in our third floor cupola suite for champagne and dessert.

On Saturday morning, we organized a display of our twenty-five collectible Buicks, headlined by Mark and Rinda Shaw's 1913 Buick Model 31 touring car. The photos below show the Buick display, which was open to the public from 9:00 AM to noon and well-attended by members of the Baker City community. The dealership opened up its showroom for additional displays and goodies for the public and Buick owners. The car show was laid out in front of the dealership building, which the Baker Garage has occupied since 1917.

Many people remembered my 1959 Electra, which was delivered new by the Baker Garage to a prominent merchant in the community, and it was great for me to see many members of my family as well as former high school teachers and friends. I left Baker City for college in 1971, so have not spent a great deal of time there for many years.

The goal with our Buick show was to engage people about the history of our cars and provide examples of the kinds of cars that the Baker Garage has sold over its 100 year history. From my standpoint, it was a huge success.

Here's the Geiser Grand Hotel on the left, a '58 Buick Limted from Idaho on the right:

Among the many interesting Buicks displayed was a 1963 LeSabre factory 4-speed car from Pendleton, Oregon:

Following the car display, Mark & Rinda Shaw offered rides in the 1913 Buick to members of the Daugherty family, then showed the car to Chet Smith, who is a 102-year old resident and decades-long owner of the former Pontiac and International-Harvester dealership.

I was pleased to get my nearly 97=years old father out to the car show, and here's my Dad and my wife, LynnD, as we're dropping him back at his assisted living facility:

Steve Fisher from the Seattle area brought along some of his wonderful displays of Buick promotional items from the past, and these were shown at both the Friday evening banquet and Saturday morning car show:

I think Randy Daugherty's e-mail to me this week perfectly sums up the reason for the Baker Garage's long-term success:

"It certainly was a great weekend. We also heard many positive comments and thank you’s. As I have mentioned Dad and I have never been “Front Page Guys” and we don’t look for accolades. Our reward is what happened over the weekend. A successful and great event. We just like to come to work every day take care of our customers in a fair and honest way. I believe that is how Baker Garage has been able to make it work for all these years. To think Baker Garage has survived since 1913 is amazing. Plus, currently the oldest operating Buick Dealership in the country started in 1907 (Garber Buick) in Michigan and we are only 6 years behind them. WOW!"

Randy displayed his own collector Buick, a beautiful, all-original 1973 Riviera, as part of our show:

Of course, there was an additional component of the weekend's fun, and that was the tour from the Seattle area for the many cars that made the trek, so I'll add to this topic as time permits.

Preparing to leave the Geiser Grand Hotel on Sunday morning:

Edited May 10, 2013 by Centurion (see edit history)

[Centurion]

More from the Baker Garage.

The Super Wildcat engine was well-represented by the '64 Wildcat from Western Oregon and the '65 Riviera Gran Sport from Pendleton:

Dennis & Marcia Kent's 1949 Roadmaster Riviera is a great over-the-road warrior, traveling with us from the Seattle area:

The "Roadmaster Ride" was beautifully exemplified by Dale and Diane Wilkins' stunning '57 convertible from Gig Harbor, Washington:

Edited May 10, 2013 by Centurion (see edit history)

[Thriller]

Cool. Looks and sounds like it was a great event.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Good show!!

Only wish I had been there.

Ben

[Centurion]

Ben, your 1950 Special or Super would have been perfect here!

I tried to persuade the owner of a beautiful '50 Special 2-door Sedanet to bring the car down from Tacoma, but no success on that one.

During my little presentation on Friday night, I mentioned the 1950 Special 4-door jetback that was in my neighborhood as a kid, noting that I had caught some rides to school in that old beauty. The sound of the straight-8 and Dynaflow are forever etched in my memory.

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

Brian: Great job. I could "feel" it through the photos.

I would have liked to see it.

Any Buicks from the 30's early 40's?

[Centurion]

Brian: Great job. I could "feel" it through the photos.

I would have liked to see it.

Any Buicks from the 30's early 40's?

No, Dave, but I tried to get those Buicks to Baker City. The travel distances involved from the more populous areas posed a great challenge in terms of getting the earlier cars to this event. There are very few BCA members in rural Eastern Oregon.

Would love to have had your '38 Special there!

[bhclark]

Awesome. Simply Awesome.

The Wilkins' '57 was on display in Seattle if I recall and is the car that made me wake up and recognize the '57 Buick!

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

No, Dave, but I tried to get those Buicks to Baker City. The travel distances involved from the more populous areas posed a great challenge in terms of getting the earlier cars to this event. There are very few BCA members in rural Eastern Oregon.!

Understood.

[ol' yeller]

Great job Brian! I wish I could have brought my Reatta but it was my Mother In Law's 87th birthday weekend. I hope to make it to the "Open" in June.

Greg

[Guest Rob McDonald]

Dang. By your lead-up, I knew this was going to be great event and could have/should have figured out a way to be there. Heck, it's only a 15 hour drive - I drive 10 hours just to get my BMW serviced in Spokane (I have an ongoing feud with BMW Canada - long story). Thanks for sharing these great stories and fabulous photos. My dad would have been 97, too, but I lost him a long time ago.

[variablepitch]

Brian, what a great group of pictures from the Baker City Celebration! Thanks for posting these, it must have been a great time for everyone involved!

[JZRIV]

Awesome pics - What a beautiful selection of quality cars. Weather looked perfect. Also sounded like a very well organized event.

Thanks for posting

Edited May 13, 2013 by JZRIV (see edit history)

[Centurion]

Thanks, all, for your kind comments.

When we left for Baker City with all the Buicks gathered east of Seattle, I noted that the greatest memories that my wife and I have with the old Buicks are our times together on the road. These three-and-four day tours have been priceless times together, affording lots of opportunities to spend time with one another. When I'm together with my Buick "co-adventurers", we always find ourselves remembering -- and laughing about -- some of our experiences together. One popular memory that we joked about during the weekend was a flea-bag motel in southeastern Wyoming that had been our overnight destination while we were traveling to Colorado for 2009 BCA National Meet. That one's always good for a laugh, and we recount how we made the best of the situation by preparing a parking lot barbecue dinner. Even the town's mayor joined us.

The fact is that we have been enjoying road trips with some of our Buick friends for twenty years now, so we knew in advance that we would have a wonderful time. Our memories of fun times behind the wheel of an old Buick always help fuel the vision for trips like this to Baker City.

My wife has read that families who go camping tend to grow closer together, as a consequence of confronting and overcoming adversity together. I heard her expressing the thought to some of our co-travelers that this same principal holds true on road trips in the old cars. When you're heading out on a thousand-mile round trip in cars ranging from 40 to 65 years old, pretty much anything can happen. And this time, it happened to me.

From the moment I backed the '59 Electra out of the garage to embark on the trip, I sensed that the brakes were not working the way they should. I still had braking ability, but thought perhaps my power booster was inoperative. I figured my thighs would get a little more exercise than usual, and, frankly, there was no time to check things out further.

We met our other Buick drivers, crossed the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River, then headed south to skirt alongside the historic Hanford Nuclear Reservation. I thought it would be cool to provide an atomic age twist to our "gold and cattle country" cruise. Alarmingly, however, I found that I was unable to slow down to make the right turn onto our designated route. I discovered that I had no brakes at all!

This could have been disastrous, but, thankfully, we were in a very rural area and I was in front of the other Buicks rather than following anyone else. When I regained my presence of mind, I discovered I could bring the beast to a stop with careful application of the car's emergency brake, and we stopped at a rest area to assess our options. It helps to travel with other folks who have far greater mechanical knowledge than me. We discerned that the master cylinder was operating fine, but a leaky wheel cylinder had resulted in the loss of all braking fluid. Solution? A friend provided a 60-mile round trip to an auto parts store in his '68 Riviera, and we picked up some DOT 5 brake fluid and a bleeder wrench. Thanks to the help of Eric Bernard, we were back on the road in short order, and managed to retain braking capability through the remainder of the weekend and trip. (Wheel cylinders are now being rebuilt!)

There was, of course, an abundance of help, and we marveled again at how patient and gracious everyone was, making use of the time to socialize and catch up with one another.

Our destination that evening was the town of Joseph, named after the great chief of the Nez Perce tribe. The town is situated in Oregon's beautiful Wallowa Mountains, and we stayed in a spotless little motel built in 1950 by "Real McCoy" Walter Brennan, who had a large cattle ranch in the area.

We phoned ahead to ask the town's restaurant -- the Stubborn Mule -- to remain open later for us, and they happily accommodated us. The food and service was fantastic; there's something really wonderful about the small towns.

Eric Bernard had prepared a special vintage "Civil Defense" presentation, utilizing a surplus 1961-vintage sanitation kit to entertain and amuse us. This was originally scheduled to take place in view of Hanford, but we made time for the presentation during the evening's dinner.

Joseph has become famous for its bronze foundries and art galleries, and it's a great place for an overnight visit. Here's a sampling of the public art displayed downtown:

From Joseph, it was a quick drive to beautiful Wallowa Lake, then 120 miles on to Baker City.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Centurion (see edit history)

[Centurion]

Following our Sunday morning departure from Baker City, we had a few interesting stops planned along the route back to the Seattle area. Among these is a beautifully-restored 1959 Texaco service station, which operates (occasionally) in LaGrande, Oregon. No one was minding the station, so we made sure we captured a few photos with the Buicks.

Other fun stops included Hamley's, which is a great saddle-maker / Western store in Pendleton, and the beautiful Columbia Crest winery in the Horse Heaven Hills of southeastern Washington. I'll share a few photos, whenever I get them uploaded.

[Thriller]

Cool road trip...thanks for taking us along for the ride after the fact.

[bhclark]

Glad you were able to get stopped and avoid an accident!

Wheel cylinders are cheap, why rebuild?

Great photos. Thanks for the report!