Winter Hours: Closed for Season
The next time you visit the museum you will notice a new building. It houses our newest exhibit, a 1920 Mack Truck. The truck, previously on display in Big Creek, has been loaned to the Historical Society by Southern California Edison. These trucks were instrumental in the building of the Big Creek Project, supplying materials to the various sites.
The truck is considered a Mack AC “Bulldog” model. It is chain driven with four-cylinders and 76 horsepower. The Mack AC model is not only credited with giving Mack its famous Bulldog identity, but also with achieving a degree of success and international fame.
The AC was designed by Mack Chief Engineer Edward R Hewitt and his successor, Alfred R Masury, after the eminently successful introduction of the Mack AB line in 1914. When permission was granted in 1915 to design a line of heavier-duty trucks, engineers submitted an already completed design for the AC. They had confidently and accurately predicted the success of the AB the previous year, and proceeded immediately with their next triumph.
Production was immediately authorized, and the Mack AC truck became a legend in its own time, manufactured continuously for 24 years from 1915-1939 – the longest production run of any American automotive vehicle.
Serving with British and American troops in Europe during WWI, the AC distinguished itself with incredible toughness and dependability. The trucks, with their snub-nosed hoods, resembled Bulldogs not only in performance but also in appearance, and hence became known as the “Bulldog Macks”. This appellation grew to encompass all Mack products, and the company adopted its corporate symbol in 1922. That year, before the company’s official name became Mack Trucks, Inc., an engraving of a Bulldog tearing up a manual of hauling costs within the AC hood outline was placed on the side of every truck. In the early thirties, the first of the familiar Bulldog hood ornaments appeared.
Today, the Mack Bulldog continues as a symbol of great significance for a company as old as the turn of the 20th century.
A dedication ceremony will be held Sunday, May 25 beginning at 10:00 a.m. Please refer to other newsletter article about the dedication ceremony for the specifics.