Nebraska Public Media just published a video about 85 year-old architect Mick Mitchell, who has been collecting Jeeps since he was in the 8th grade. What he has amassed in that time is undoubtedly the greatest collection of open-top Jeeps in the world, and it’s been stored in buildings Mitchell himself designed in the small city of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Check out this amazing collection.
As a general rule, I’m a big fan of public media, and this latest video just makes me like it even more. Nebraska Public Media — “the statewide public television and radio network for Nebraska, offering trusted news, cultural programs, and educational resources” — has been around since 1954 when it was called Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET). I’m sure it’s done some amazing work over those years, but its latest video may be its Magnum Opus.
Behold, 400 incredible Jeeps, all owned by one man in a town of under 15,000 people:
“I got my first Jeep in the 8th grade,” Mick Mitchell says at the beginning of the video, going on to mention that he built the buildings that house the machines. “I never let them get wet so they don’t rust anymore than they already are.”
Mitchell loves an unrestored Jeep. “If I restored everything, they would all look exactly alike. And after you saw them once, who would come back?” he tells Nebraska Public Media. And that’s a great point; patina makes your car a true one-of-one. It’s one of the reasons why I chose not to paint my brand new, self-built WWII Jeep.
“World War II was going on. I was little then,” Mitchell says in the video when asked what inspired him to start this collection. “The newsreel was all about the war and what we were doing in it. And there were Jeeps and trucks and tanks and planes — but a lot of Jeeps. And so I immediately globbed on.”
The video does a nice job giving a quick history of the Jeep, mentioning how it went from a wartime machine to a practical farm implement. It was as a farm implement that Mitchell became acquainted with his first 4×4, saying, “We could drive under a restricted license to and from school and on farm errands.” Things then escalated. “I quit counting at 263,” he went on to say, “and I suppose there’s over 400 now.”
The former owner of a Denver-based commercial architecture firm that did interior and exterior design, Mitchell used his knowledge to turn a used car lot into Jeep heaven, saying, “I’d like them to continue to live here.”
I love how he says “live,” like they’re living beings, and I love how he says in the video that he struggled deciding whether to be at work in Colorado or with his Jeeps in Nebraska. It’s clear he absolutely adores these machines, but there’s one that he loves above all the rest — and I was delighted to see that it was my own favorite military Jeep: The M38.
The M38 gets no love because it just looks like a CJ-2A or CJ-3A, and it was overshadowed by the brawnier, more “styled” M38A1 and its civilian CJ-5 variant. But to Mitchell (and to me), it is arguably the toughest Jeep ever built. Not only was it designed to be water proof (with water-proof induction and ignition systems), but it had a 24-volt electrical system, a grille that would fold forward for service (see hinges in screenshot above), and — my favorite — a huge access panel in the floor to allow easy access to the transmission and transfer case.
The M38 is durable, incredibly capable, and serviceable — the ultimate wartime Jeep. Mitchell mentions a video that shows the army driving its M38 driving underwater; definitely check that out here on YouTube.
There’s just so much gold in Nebraska Public Media’s video. In the screenshots above you can see Mitchell turning a Go-Devil engine over with a steering wheel attached to the crankshaft. This engine, and the chassis to which it’s bolted, was an education tool. “This was developed for training,” he says. “You had GIs that were -used to a team of horses and they’d never seen one of these things. And so they cut this all -apart so they could see -what made it work and then -they could work on them.”
Incredible.
Also incredible is the fact that Mitchell clearly appreciates vehicles that aren’t technically Jeeps, but were inspired by Jeeps. For example, check out this British Army Austin Champ:
And check out the Suzuki Samurai in the background here:
Mick Mitchell — what a legend. Much love to Nebraska Public Media for bringing us this unbelievable collection.
Wow!!! I’m especially impressed with how the collection is housed. And he even managed to find a cutaway unit! My company has a cutaway EMD 645 engine; it’s an excellent reference tool.
That last picture of him in the garage reminds me of the ending of Breaking Bad when Walter was in the lab one last time.
Spoiler alert!
Spoiler? On a 13 year old piece of media?
I thought David did not paint the WWII Jeep because he ran out of time? I thought the goal was to build new an authentic WWII using Ebay parts. He even picked an imaginary build date of April 1942. Its his project, but it feels like it needs the color a WWII Jeep might have received in April 1942. I always thought of him as a Walter Sobchak type on things like authenticity of a build: “Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a darn about the rules? Paint it Lusterless Olive Drab!”
That was part of it. I do think it presented better in red, but I’ll EVENTUALLY paint it.
Small towns with passionate people make the world a better place. Scottsbluff is a nice town with some things to do for a day or two. Worth the visit. The national monument and chimney rock.
“As a general rule, I’m a big fan of public media so long as it’s not partisan…”
Hmm. What a weird thing to say unprompted, especially since this is an article about *jeeps*, rather than general commentary on car news media. The people who complain about “partisan” reporting these days are just pissed off that Fox News doesn’t skew MAGA hard enough.
Quick question for you: are you similarly a “big fan” of public restrooms and/or competitive sports so long as they’re not gendered? I’ll hang up and take my answer off the air. Thanks!
Chances are he probably included that little caveat specifically to avoid comments about public media, and yet here we are. Don’t take it too seriously, this is one of the only car sites that are not politically flavored in EITHER direction, and it’s nice.
Mhm, definitely did exactly the opposite of what it should have.
Great meaning large or immense, we use it in the quantitative sense.
Something for David to keep in mind next time he visits his pal Tommy at TFL since Scottsbluff is only a 3 hour drive from Boulder.
David, I am stuck on the line “I’m a big fan of public media so long as it’s not partisan,” it’s a weird thing to throw in there. Has there ever been partisan public radio in the US? Partisan radio is usually referred to as “state run media”.
NPR bends over backwards to follow the (now laughable) conventions of reporting the news. It’s impossible to have entirely unbiased coverage but they are light years better than FOX or MSNBC.
Anyway, cool collection!
Politics ruins everything.
That jarred me a little bit too. Public media apparently has a reputation in some circles as being partisan, but the public media I’ve encountered in various states is almost quaint in how they present all sides.
And yes that is an amazing collection!
It wasn’t meant to be jarring, but I get that in the current climate, things like that tend to be. I think most people generally agree that they want public media to try to present all sides fairly. It was probably not worth including that note, so I’ll just say say that I like public media, full stop (and yeah, current public media generally does a good job at presenting all sides, which is why I’m a fan).
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
It was a really pointless sidebar to include.
Not only have I heard of that town, I’ve visited it! Way back in 2008 with my dad. Was unaware of the Jeeps though. That would have been cool to see!!
400 Jeeps. Is that a Truffaut film?
Yup. A foundational work of the “Friends? New Wave” movement. It’s why Jeep owners greet each other when they pass.
Bet that Samurai feels like the last Japanese soldier to come out of the jungle and surrender to American forces in the Philippines.
Please tell me the Samurai is his daily.
The Divco step vans were a nice surprise, too.
Did he happen to have any of the Mitsubishi Jeeps from 1953 forward?
Oh hey, in my State and only a 6 hour drive away!
The fact this exists does not surprise me at all…
In Nebraska, six hours is next door
Aw, Man! You could have had your wedding here!
That cutaway engine is really freaking cool!
Sometimes the only difference between a hoard and a collection is how the items are stored.
Indoors and out of sight will get you much further with municipalities and neighbors than scattered all over your land.
Presumably the Stellantis warranty department was well-aware but yes