According to Darrel, his name was Joe Bertrum. He said there is still a High Dollar Joe used car lot in Joplin with old cars on it. The guy, 'Joe', died in 1971 from the quick research I did on Google.
What a great idea! Then on the other hand, if I'd done that with all the cars I've had, I'd be getting a lot of phone calls. I'm sure that applies to others on the H.A.M.B. as well.
As I recall, High Dollar Joe's good sized car lot was located on East 7th Street in Joplin. He had 'em packed in there pretty good. I don't recall if he sold any new vehicles, or just used. Was only there one time during a family visit to some friends in Joplin in the late 50s. We lived about an hour away from Joplin. There is still a place at the south edge of Joplin, shown in a picture on his son's website, where an ***orted collection of "stuff and things" has been collected and stored. There was a batch of older cars from the 50s and 60s stored there for a number of years. The story was that they were impounded by an out of state bank to whom money was owed. When the note was finally paid off, most of the cars were sold to a small salvage yard/old car dealer at the west side of Joplin. I presume he either sold cars complete and/or possibly s****ped some. There are still a very few cars at the present Burtrum location, which is home to his son "Little Joe Burtrum". Here is a link to the son's web page.....kind of interesting reading. (I don't think he and his sister get along well nowadays). You'll see when you read it. http://www.grandlakevisitor.com/burtrum Cool story on finding the door panel note. I don't know the man to whom you spoke.....I've lived in Joplin since 1968.
I just looked at the Grandlakevisitor.com site and.. WOW!!! That sister of the webmaster sure has a bee in her bonnet!!! Cool info about "High Dollar Joe". OP: Cool car and story. Thanks for sharing.
Looks extremely HAMB friendly. I thought it was cool that he was in Joplin, MO home of the HAMB drags.
I have done this to cars I built and sold knowing someone in the future will be taking it apart and might get a kick out of it. I have also when remodeling our houses, I put stuff like hot rod magazines and old coins from the 40's in sealed bags with dates sealed in the walls just for the fun of knowing some day a surprise for who ever opens it up.
I remember in my youth buying LOTS of cars like this, with newspapers in them..kind of... I remember several Ford Cortinas and Capris which had old news papers inserted into a wheel arch in place of metal. Not sure that is quite what you meant but when you pay £100 for car that is what you get!
Not HAMB friendly?!?!?! Dude you can park that in my shop any day. And it is very much a HAMB friendly car. Welcome to the family......
Cool car, great story. The best part of this hobby is not the cars, but the stories and the people that go with them. More substance to the theory that we do not "own" vintage cars, we are simply caretakers. Thanks for posting.
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