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