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 so long as it’s not partisan, 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.
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.
Presumably the Stellantis warranty department was well-aware but yes