Page 2 - Jeep Jamboree Ultimate Guide To Safe Common Sense Off-Roading

INTRODUCTION

Founded in 1953 by Mark A. Smith, affectionately known as the
father of modern four-wheeling, Jeep Jamboree continues to offer
off-road adventure weekends that bring together the outdoors,
down-to-earth people, and their Jeep 4x4s.

Mark organized the first-ever Jeep Jamboree and voyaged across
the Sierra Nevada Mountains by way of the old Rubicon Trail. In
1954, Willys Motors — then manufacturer of Jeep vehicles became
involved with the adventure, and Jeep Jamborees have been an off-
road tradition ever since.

As the founder of Jeep Jamboree, Mark popularized the sport of
recreational off-roading in the western United States and turned the
Rubicon Trail from a little-know passage into one of the most
respected off-road trails in the world. But his impact on the sport
was bound by no border. In search of the ultimate off-road conquest,
Mark led the Expedición de las Americas, a 20,000-mile trek from the
southernmost tip of South America near Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, above the Arctic Circle.
This was the first nonmilitary expedition to cross the Darien Gap, an impossible landscape that took the
only successful army detachment an excruciating 100 days to traverse. But in typical Mark fashion, his
team did it in only 30.

While he could have retired right then and there,
with nothing left to prove and a new Jeep tattoo on
his rear, he helped scout and brief contestants at the
1987 Camel Trophy event, quite possibly
the world’s most intense overlanding
adventure. Competitors from around
the world traversed the entire island
of Madagascar, the first ever north-to-
south crossing of its kind.

Mark dedicated his life to learning and
teaching safe and practical off-road
driving techniques to all who would listen. Many of the
techniques depicted in this book were developed and
continually shared by Mark himself.

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