Taste the High Country - 1950 Mack

In a nutshell, here was the problem: As the West became tamed and permanent residents settled, it became apparent that the new citizens of Greeley, in the future state of Colorado, faced the danger of becoming parched. The allotments of water rights--whose value related to development, agriculture and political power were nearly incalculable--had been oversold in the land-rush stampede that had subdivided the territory. Even after runoff from snowmelt had collected in reservoirs on the Front Range, east of the Rocky Mountains, there wasn't enough water.

Serious attempts at remedying the critical shortfall began shortly after Colorado attained statehood in 1876. One of the most far-reaching legislative accomplishments in American history came in 1922, when seven states ratified the Colorado River Compact, under which they agreed to share the water resources of that waterway. The federally managed construction of Boulder Dam, and its feed of drinking water and electricity to Las Vegas and Southern California, was one benefit. So was a plan to help the water-starved areas of northeastern Colorado.

Doing so would require a gigantic concept on par with the future Hoover Dam, moving huge amounts of water across the Continental Divide to the opposite side of Colorado. The first studies of the issue, which began in 1933, conceptualized a network of new dams and reservoirs, plus a 13-mile tunnel under the Continental Divide. Actual construction of the Colorado-Big Thompson project began in 1938 and, with an interruption for World War II, took until 1959 to finish. The job took place under tutelage of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Interior agency tasked with large-scale water management. It's been a longtime purchaser of the heaviest high-powered work trucks extant, such as this 1950 Mack LJSW owned by collector John MacFarlane of Oakville, New York.

Not only is this an exceptionally well-restored truck, it's an actual Bureau of Reclamation veteran that specifically worked on the huge Big Thompson water-diversion job. It has a Cummins 200hp six-cylinder diesel for power, linked to a five-speed Mack main transmission and a three-speed Brown & Lipe auxiliary, creating what is called a 5x3 gear combination. The ratio for each of the twin-screw axles is 9.02:1. That means this Mack can do some pulling. Speaking of which, John told us that there is a huge Gar Wood power winch behind the cab. John said it's rated at 30,000 pounds, adding that he's seen other flat-drag winches handling up to 50 tons in a straight pull.

"The Mack was first ordered by the General Services Administration in 1948 for the Bureau of Reclamation," John explained. "It wasn't delivered until November 1950. Why the two-year hiatus, I don't know. It was first delivered to Philadelphia and then disappeared for a while, and was almost just a bare chassis with just a cab: no turn signals, no fifth wheel, no winch, no nothing. What was unusual was that the frame length, from the back of the cab to the rear of the frame, was 20 feet, the most you could get with an LJSW. So it's not clear exactly what the government had first intended to do with it. Once it got to the Big Thompson site, the Bureau actually moved the drive wheels and rear suspension forward, shortened the frame, then added the winch, fifth wheel, electric sanders, a 20,000-BTU heater and more."

It's also unclear when the modifications took place. John has the original government service records via Mack, and the first one dates to 1952. What is more certain is that the Mack was part of a huge fleet of trucks, also including potent Kenworths and Sterlings, that hauled heavy equipment and materials for years on end. John said he has documentation indicating that the LJSW was converted into a tractor and assigned to haul huge loads of six-inch steel pipe, essential to feed water from one side of Colorado to the other. The winch likely dragged the pipe onto the trailer, and would have been helpful to lift the trailer so it could be connected to the fifth wheel. There are also provisions to mount a derrick's A-frame at the rear of the frame.

Other documentation shows that the Mack was mainly assigned to work areas around Loveland, Colorado, at 5,000 feet of elevation. The project team's only mistake was that they should have gotten a turbocharged or supercharged engine; the normally aspirated Cummins must have smoked terribly.

The Mack was sold off at a GSA auction in 1980, almost 30 years to the day after its delivery. A local contractor used it for a time to pull a rock crusher. It next went to a rigging contractor in Indianapolis who did a partial cosmetic restoration. When John made contact with him, the truck was spewing raw diesel through a blown head gasket--a Cummins 200 has three of them, one for each pair of cylinders. Appearance-wise, John restored it to Bureau yellow and Mack black. The cab logo replicates the Bureau design, an image of Hoover Dam inside a water drop.

"I'm glad I did it, because they're a rarity. The old tandem LJs have all been scrapped. It's a real problem with restoring old trucks, or getting the parts. When scrap steel gets up to $300 or $400 a ton, trucks like these get cut up and shipped to China."