The soldout 22nd annual Penn’s Woods Jeep Jamboree will be held June 20-22.
Jeep Jamboree USA President and CEO Pierce Umlauf told The Era that registration will take place Thursday, June 20 from 5-7 p.m. and the driving will take place June 21-22.
The event is held on private land and at Elk Lick Scout Reservation near Smethport.
“Last year’s was great. The team was fantastic,” Umlauf explained via phone, who added he was in Colorado at the moment. “We had well over 100 jeeps attend. Last year, we had about 14 or 15 states represented in the jamboree and we are very much looking forward to doing it again this year.”
He noted 189 vehicles and 290 participants are signed up for the event.
Umlauf said, “Our jamborees are about families. We welcome all different walks of life; it brings people together who normally may not run in the same social circle.”
He went on to explain a story about a federal judge who befriended a mechanic and said the two became best friends and would plan travels together with each other’s family.
“These are two people who never would have met if they weren’t in the jamboree,” he added.
The history of the Jamboree dates all the way back to 1953, when Mark A. Smith organized the inaugural Jeep Jamboree; he and other adventure enthusiasts traveled across the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the old Rubicon Trail. In 1954, Willys Motors — then the manufacturer of Jeep –– joined in on the adventure and Jeep Jamborees have been a tradition of off-road adventures ever since.
