Four Wheels, One Wild Ride: The Curious Case of the Bryant Jeep

Gentle Reader, we here in Sedalia sometimes get a little blind to the beauty of our area. It's natural. We all start to take things for granted when you see it every day, or it's just a given in your life.

Well, I wanted to take a second and appreciate some of the little landmarks over the years here in Sedalia and talk a bit about the whole story. Hopefully we can fill in some details you might not have known about, and heck - maybe you'll look twice at some of the stuff right here in good old Sedville.

I'm sure there are a ton of landmarks, murals, special statues, tons of stuff out there that you remember. There's stuff that's still here, and some that's long gone. But today I thought I'd start with a man made wonder that was over in our neck of the woods on the South side of Sedalia for about a decade.

Yep, today we're talking about the Bryant Motors Jeep!

A Quick History Before We Begin

Well, first of all, don't listen to the internet about this one, ha. According to Google, Kyle Herrick founded Bryant Motors in 1936.

Guys, I love Google, and Kyle Herrick is a good dude, but... he is not a creature that has lived through all of space and time, existing before and after the world came to be.  I think the old internets might be wrong on that one. Anyway, since Google is...giving me alternative facts, let's just move on.

I checked with one of the owners who bought the business before Kyle Herrick, Jack Robinson (he always told us to call him Jack, but my Dad made sure we called him Mr. Robinson, and it still sticks) .  Mr. Robinson is on the City Council now and a busy dude, but he was also my neighbor for ages.  I remember we kids in the neighborhood would get a little excited and kind of pause on Friday nights about six p.m.  That was usually when Mr. Robinson came home for the weekend, and he always, Always* drove a different vehicle home.  It was hot on the Kid News grapevine to know what he brought home this week, ha!  Anyway, Jack told me the whole thing was Kyle's idea, from beginning to end.

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Kyle took over in the eighties.  He ran the joint for almost forty years.  And one thing he did to give Bryant Motors a little "pop" of marketing genius was to mount a Jeep to the top of their sign.  Let's learn about the story.

The idea came when the Break Time gas station that was right next to the Bryant Motors lot went out of business.

They decided to buy the plot of land so they could expand the parking lot for their inventory. This was approximately 2013.

The gas station was torn down, but the sign poles stayed behind.

It seemed like a good idea to keep the poles and use it for some kind of advertising. Kyle told me directly how the whole thing came to be from his imagination.

I had the idea of the Jeep on top of the poles at that time. Crazy part is,  I was able to find the company that originally put the sign up for Break Time. They had the engineered plans as to depth of concrete footing and for the pole depth.  With those plans, we were able to get the city permits we needed once we had proven the poles could support the load of the Jeep.

So really, it seemed almost to.... roll into place.  Sorry.

So Where Did the Jeep Come From?

Kyle told me he bought it from Wes Mo Auto. Kyle said he had told them exactly what he wanted to do, and they were on the lookout for a good vehicle. So the vehicle itself was 100% real.  It was also 100% used and not new or anything like that.  But I also couldn't find anything about who sold the Jeep to Wes Mo  -  although if they lived in town, I'm sure they saw it and did a double take.  It's also likely they bought it at auction, so it's kind of ambiguous.

After Bryant bought it, they had to remove all the heavy stuff. Namely the engine.  So while it was real, it wasn't drivable.  Jeep vehicles can weigh as much as four to forty five hundred pounds, so they had to cut corners where they could.

At one point, the idea of putting a solar panel on the top of the roof of the Jeep was an idea. The thought was, the panel can fuel a battery that will turn on the headlights, and make the wheels turn.

But, you know how it is. Life gets in the way.  It was a great idea, but it was one of those "we'll get to it when things calm down" type of projects.  As we all know though, things never do calm down.  It just didn't happen.

Once they had the permits,  it took about a month to get all the details finished and get the thing in the air.  Kyle told me the crane crew showed up early one morning, and by that afternoon, the job was completed.   The Jeep stayed up there for about eight years, and it was taken down when W-K Chevrolet bought Bryant Motors.  I asked Kyle Weymouth, current owner of the dealership and building, if he had any idea what happened to the Jeep after they took it down, but he said he wasn't sure.  Kyle Herrick thinks it was sold, but nobody remembers where it went.

I bet whoever bought it knows they have it, though.  Or had it.  Maybe you can comment with a lead on that?  Who knows.  I do know this.  I would love to do another one of these on a Sedalia Landmark that you always wanted to know the history behind.  Let me know what we should look into next!

Jeepingly yours,
Behka

*Looking back on it, I'm sure my memory is a little exaggerated. I'm sure it wasn't every week.  But he did test drive some very pretty cars over the years.