When I dragged this ugly vehicle into my neighborhood, I know my neighbors could sense their real estate values plunging. To be sure, this thing is ugly, possibly one of the ugliest I’ve ever dragged home.
But it’s also rare. And has a great story.
From the time this Ford left the dealership in 1947, it has lived in one town its whole life: Maggie Valley, North Carolina. The family who bought the Woody when it was new—yes, Woody—owned a small ski area in the resort mountain town. In the 1940s, ski lifts were expensive and exotic pieces of equipment, so someone in the family came up with a brilliant idea: they would order a Ford Woody wagon from the local dealership with a rare and expensive option—a Marmon-Herrington Four Wheel Drive system.
What could I possibly see in it? My wife asks the same thing. Actually, the car/truck is desirable simply for its rare Marmon-Herrington 4X4 drivetrain. This one was once a ski lift! MARK COUGHLIN
The ski area operator drove skiers up the hill in the 4x4 Woody, and they skied down!
The Marmon-Herrington system was cumbersome and expensive, doubling the price of a standard Woody wagon from the dealership. But it was the best all-terrain system of the day. Decades later, after the Woody had been used up as a ski lift, the harsh winters had taken their toll on the wooden body. It had rotted badly.
The original owners sold their sad old Woody to another local resident who removed the wood and welded a modified Ford truck cab onto the 1947 passenger car nose, and mounted a 3/4-ton pick-up box in the back. The same owner continued to use the vehicle for many more years in and around Maggie Valley.
By the time the second owner parked his Marmon-Herrington for good, local car and motorcycle collector (and picker extraordinaire) Steve Davis was there with cash in hand. Davis bought the odd Woody/truck and drove it to his storage yard, where it sat for a couple of decades.
Then I showed up—driving a 1939 Ford Deluxe Woody wagon I bought when I was 15 years old, no less—and Steve mentions that he has a Marmon-Herrington Woody.
The axles were frozen up and the steering column was locked, so a tractor was employed to help load this find onto the trailer.
“Have you ever heard of a Marmon-Herrington?” he asked.
“Have I heard of Marmon-Herrington? I have owned two of them over the past few years!” I said.
Davis was shocked. He said that since I was a real Woody guy, he’d sell me the car if I was interested.
So I bought it, and now I’m struggling on what to do next. The drivetrain is rare, but the chassis is rusty and the body is junk. So I’ll likely strip off the fabricated body and sell it to some rat-rodder.
Lucky for me, though, I own another ’47 Ford Woody body that I’ll mount on there. It will be a lengthy and expensive restoration when the cost of a new wooden body is considered, so I’ll most likely sell or trade the rare 4x4 Woody to someone with more woodworking talent than me.
But I couldn’t pass up a vehicle with a great story like the 4x4 ski lift—could you?
