Rural Montana

Written by Cyd Hoefle

Photography contributed by the vehicles’ owners

Summer Issue - 2026

Restoring antique vehicles is a true art. It takes time, patience and often more money than it's worth to return an old rig to its former glory. Yet there are folks willing to do it. Many take on restoration projects for sentimental reasons, but just as many love seeing history preserved.

April Taber

April Taber had her eye on her dad’s 1956 International Harvester pickup truck for over 20 years. It’d been resting on his property; its rusted body settled into the earth. In 2022, she finally had the opportunity to start on it.

In 1964, just a few years before her parents married, April's father, Gene Tabor, bought the truck for the farm from the original owner. Her mother, Linda, fondly remembers the truck's early days.

“We used the pickup to feed,” Linda said. “Both of our boys learned to drive in it. They started out like all ranch kids do, standing on the seat, steering while Gene tossed feed out of the back. I remember him telling them. ‘If you start heading for a tree, just turn it off’!”

When April began the restoration process, Linda was excited.

“I’d forgotten a lot of the memories,” Linda said. “But watching that old pickup come back to life has been really fun to see.”

The restoration has had a few setbacks and Gene passed away before it was completed, but April is hopeful it will be done sometime this summer.

“I wish Dad could have seen it,” she said. “But it wasn’t meant to be. He would have loved to see it up and running again.”

Shane Hooker

At 32 years old, Shane Hooker is not typical of an average tractor collector. His passion began in high school when he had his eye on a 1947 Case VA tractor that had long been abandoned on his grandparents’ ranch.

“There was just something about that tractor that touched me,” Shane said. “I never got to meet Grampa, who bought it brand new in 1948. But somehow to bring it back to life seemed the honorable thing to do.”

Shane started overhauling the small-scale tractor in shop class and completed the full restoration four years later. Today, he brings it out for parades and antique tractor shows around the area.

Restoring the Case tractor may have been the seed that sprouted in Shane to begin a tractor collection. Over the last decade he’s found and restored five Minneapolis-Moline Row-Crop tractors.

“I’m really proud of that collection,” he said. “I have the entire series from smallest to largest.”

His next project was a specific John Deere tractor built during WWII. Because so much iron and brass went to the war effort, John Deere could only produce a very limited number of the Model 42 GM. Revered by collectors, Shane found one in Eastern Montana and spent this past winter working on it. 

“This is probably my best one yet,” he proudly said. “It’s a highly sought after model and I’m excited to show it to the public.”

Shane hauls his favorite tractors by semi to the annual Huntley Threshing Bee, a two-day event that showcases early agriculture agricultural equipment common to our area.

“I love going to that,” Shane continued. “It’s fun to be part of the education of agriculture. It’s super cool to see all the history displayed and to show off my tractors to the public.”

Steve Copland

When Steve Copland was 14, his father bought him his first vehicle: a 1949 Willys Jeepster. It was 1963 and Steve drove it back and forth to school and around town with friends.

“It was a convertible,” Steve said. “And a really cool car.”

As Steve grew up and moved around the country, he always made room for the Willys. In the early 90s, he decided to restore it. He and a friend took it down to the frame and began working on it from the bottom up.

“We stripped it down to the bare bones,” he said. “Everything was redone, the engine, all the electrical, the paint. We painted it the true Willys color - a bright yellow.

Today the Willys is mostly garaged at Steve’s home in Big Timber. He brings it out on warm summer days and drives it downtown, often loaded with grandkids. He’s put it in the local parade and takes it on short drives outside of town.

“It doesn’t go very fast,” he equipped, “Except when I’m going downhill!”

Shawn Gavne

Shawn Gavne of Big Timber owns a 1917 Dodge Brothers Touring truck that his dad, Ben Gavne, bought some twenty years ago.

“Dad was visiting with an old miner from Wisconsin that was in town,” Shawn said. “They got to talking about this old rig that he had and next thing you know, Dad headed out there, bought it and hauled it home.”

During the Depression if people owned a truck, they could purchase more gas than what was rationed for a car, so many would convert their cars into trucks in order to buy more gas. The only change that Ben made when he bought it was to rebuild the box.

Shawn loves the rusted body and has no intention of restoring it.

“It’s a lot of rust,” he laughed. “You have to be careful where you’re stepping in because you might break through, but I like it that way.”

Occasionally Shawn will drive his car down main street in Big Timber and park it in front of the brewery to get a little attention. He plans drive it in the local parade on the 4th of July.

Carson Belleghem

Nostalgia motivates vehicle restoration, and 15-year-old Carson Belleghem from Big Timber fits the bill. He’s working on a 1919 International that his great-grandfather, James Allison, drove as a teenager in the early 1940s.

James used the truck to haul grain from Galata, Montana to the elevator in Shelby. The family story is that James fondly recalled “flying down the road hauling grain and thought he was special because it was the fastest work truck around.”

James became a doctor serving multiple communities across the west. Known as “Doc,” he worked until the early 2000s, when he retired to a small farm near Livingston.

A couple of decades ago, Doc tracked the truck back to Shelby, bought it and hauled it back to Livingston where he began its restoration.

“There’s not a lot of them around,” Johnny Belleghem, Carson’s father, said. “It was in rough shape, but Doc wanted that truck and so he set to work bringing it back to life.”

The truck, passed down through the family, is now in Carson’s possession. He is attempting to repair the engine to a reliable running condition. As the fourth generation in the family to own the truck, he doesn’t take it lightly.

“I remember seeing the truck for the first time when I was a little kid,” Carson said. “I thought it was cool because it was so old.”

He picked up mechanics from his father as the two of them have worked on a variety of projects including dirt bikes and cars and Carson’s excited to get the truck up and running.

Parts typically can’t be found at the nearest Napa or auto parts store, so Carson has developed the habit of always looking for an old truck like it.

“It’s exciting to have it back in the family and being taken care of,” Carson said. “I’d like to get it running and just enjoy it. Drive it around town and maybe a parade or two.”

From Rusted to Restored