The good stuff to be found on the Facebook page “Missouri’s Historic Highways” just keeps coming. One theme I saw in exploring there are various cars used by the Missouri State Highway Patrol from 1931 to 1964.
The Patrol was formed on July 21, 1931. Initially there were 155 troopers to patrol the 114 counties within the state. There were not enough cars to go around as there were thirty-six 1931 Ford Model A roadsters purchased initially. These cost $413.18 each. The website usinflationcalculator.com says this equates to right at $7,000 in 2019 value; the Bureau of Labor Statistics equates that value to $6,700.
While this example is a marked car, in 1954 the Patrol bought their first unmarked cars in something other than black. They were all equipped with a 160 horsepower Y-block V8; Ford ads from the time reveal it to be a 256 cubic inch mill. This was the first year Ford offered an overhead valve V8 engine, finally laying the old flathead to rest.
In 1956 the Patrol began replacing cars at 25,000 miles instead of their traditional 65,000 miles. By 1959 (featured here) they were even obtaining two-door hardtops as patrol vehicles. This Dodge appears to be a 1957 model.
Their car purchase in 1956 was four hundred units. By 1957, an order for 455 new 1958 Chevrolets was made.
Here’s one of those two-door hardtops. It appears to be a 1960 Dodge. What series? From blowing the picture up, I’m wagering it’s a Matador, as the shape does not appear correct for a Polara. Yes, there was a Dodge Matador for 1960; it was the lower trim series.
The Dart, a full-sizer at that time, did not have a nameplate on the front fender.
These last two pictures are part of an anti-littering campaign in 1964. These pictures were taken on US 54 north of Jefferson City. There are so many good things in this picture, not least of which is that 1964 Dodge.
But something else also caught my eye. That tan Chrysler is making its presence known. So let’s take a better look.
The Chrysler is a Saratoga two-door hardtop. Scouring oldcarbrochures.com does not clarify whether this is a 1957 or 1958 model as the chrome on this one does not match what is shown for a Saratoga for either of those years. There were only 4,466 Saratoga two-door hardtops produced for 1958, less than half the volume from 1957.
There is still a little bit more to come from my latest mining expedition.
Yes it is a 1960 Matador. My Father had a 1960 Dodge dart Phoenix convertible which was the same size as a Plymouth. The matador was “Full Size” at a low trim level. I believe California had a minimum wheelbase requirement for CHP and they most likely bought the most units.
In 1962, Dodge had the 880, a Chrysler with a Dodge nose. My Father ordered one, a blue on blue convertible. it came in a a blue car with a black top and interior. His long time Dodge dealer said all blue convertibles get a black top. No sale.
He ordered abd bought a Catalina convertible.
How about that 2-door hardtop @ Hwy. marker 129 …..
Two-door police cars are one of those things that — from a modern perspective — are hard to believe that they ever existed… let alone were common.
Here’s one of my favorite recruitment flyers from the Virginia State Police highlighting just such a vehicle:
The bad guys in the back seat can’t get out …..
They can’t in a 4-door either. There’s no inside door handle.
Police cars in Montevideo, Uruguay were Brazilian VW Beetles between around ’82 and ’86. With a 1300 engine….Not your ideal, comfortable (for the cops) car.
Why not two-door sedans? They were cheaper. And the front doors were longer, which makes all that getting in and out easier for the patrolman.
California used Mustangs and Camaros for their CHP. Very effective.
Realistically, highway patrols don’t arrest and haul folks to the jail nearly as often as city cops.
The Kentucky State Police used two door sedans as patrol vehicles through the sixties and maybe into the seventies. They were almost always Fords purchased from one of two dealers that seemed to alternate having the lowest bid. A cynical person might think that this was somehow fixed but no one ever really complained about it, other than the dealers who were frozen out of providing vehicles to the state. The state of Kentucky has 120 counties, many of which even today have fewer than 15,000 people residing there. In many of these counties the state police is the only reliable, professional police force and this results in the KSP vehicles accumulating lots of miles in a short period of time.
Presumably the practice died off in the ’70s, as 1969 was the last year Ford offered a full-size 2-door sedan.
Ford was still offering a two-door police package LTD as late as 1975.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Ford/1975_Ford/1975%20Ford%20Police%20Cars/slides/1975_Ford_Police-02.html
25,000 mile replacement cycles? Two-door hardtops? Non-base trim levels? It sounds like by 1960 they were BEGGING for the legislature to put them on 5-10 years of no new cruisers to reset expectations, at the end of which they’d be grateful to get a stripped base-model Rambler.
They had that replacement cycle for years. As per their website it’s currently at 55,000 miles. Resale is much higher and the program helps pay for itself.
Obviously, these are all staged photos, but what exactly is the officer at mile marker 129 supposed to be doing?
Also interesting: The “soft” berm on all of these roads, even the divided freeways. We take it for granted today that there will be a hard shoulder on the side of the road to pull over onto should it be needed, but that wasn’t always the case. More often then not, it used to be a soft berm of dirt, gravel, grass, or more likely some combination of the three.
Referring to the Mile 129 question, remember that in 1960 I-70 in Missouri was a brand new and incomplete part of the interstate highway system that was signed into law only four years earlier by President Dwight Eisenhower. This is probably a PR photo explaining the mile marker system. If I recall correctly, the 129 mile marker was around the exit to the old Highway 63 that went south to Jefferson City.
63 then was a dangerous, narrow, twisting two-lane with trees right up to the roadway. I remember those trees whizzing by as a six-year-old. My family departed Kansas City Municipal Airport on an elderly Ozark Airlines DC-3 with the intention of landing at Jefferson City for my grandmother’s funeral. A lightning strike from a thunderstorm caged the left engine and we made an emergency landing at Columbia Municipal Airport, how Cosmo Park. My rich uncle drove us from Columbia to the funeral. Those trees seemed awfully close through my back seat window.
My uncle got rich because he owned a rock quarry in central Missouri and got the contract to supply the underpavement for the construction of I-70 through Missouri. His riches didn’t change him, he still went to work every day in his old work clothes until he died in his eighties. He did own a very nice Buick that we drove in, however.
Yes, upon closer examination of the photo, it appears that they were trying to highlight the mile marker sign. It looks like they did a little bit of darkroom dodging (or is it burning? I always get those two mixed up) to highlight the sign.
Thank you for these MHP pics, Grew up in the Western Suburbs of St. Louis. Seldom saw a Highway patrol vehicle unless with my family heading to Mom’s relatives in Audrain County. (Mexico, Paris, Laddonia, etc.) I saw Mostly St Louis county patrol vehicles. As a long haired teen in the late 60s, early 70s, having a big Brown Plymouth sedan suddenly fill your rear view mirror, would tighten the boys right up.
Incidentally, Paris is where I saw a Jeep Patriot police car — I typically think of them as mall security vehicles, but I thought this Sheriff’s cruiser was unusual enough that I took a picture of it:
Wow, what a find Eric703.
Jason – The ’57/’58 Dodge patrol car is a two door sedan – not a hardtop. The forward canted “B” pillar and two windows in the rear gives it away.
I noticed the left rocker panel on that ’57/’58 Chrysler. The car is only about 8 years old but it has already suffered rust damage to the area. I guess that is just the way it was on cars in the midwest back then.
The car at Mile Marker 129 does appear to be a true hardtop though. At least to me.
Re: The Saratoga, I noticed the rocker panel damage rust too, but for the opposite reason. I was actually surprised by how little rust there was on a late ’50s Chrysler in a midwestern state in the mid 60’s! Most of them didn’t even last this long, I bet.
Correct. That’s why I said “by 1959” they were getting the two-door hardtops. The information at the Patrol’s website indicated 1959 was the first likely year but wasn’t definitive about it.
Police pursuit in a Model A sounds pretty slow, but if you’re chasing Model T’s then it’s a high performance machine.
Great photos! Love that one of the littering campaign. Looks like the cop is offering a bite of his sandwich.. 🙂
Looks like the Missouri Highway Patrol was better equipped for pursuit the their Wisconsin colleagues.
That’s a 1957 Rambler. For 1957, a 250 cubic-inch V-8 was added as an option for the Ramblers. That may have surprised more than a few people who tried to make a run for it when they saw that the police officer was driving a Rambler.
As a police officer once told me, “no matter how fast you drive you will never outrun a Motorola police band radio”.
Minor detail: The ’54 Ford V8 had 239 cubic inches and was rated at 130 hp. We had one, so those specs were some of the first to enter my memory banks! 🙂
Unlike civilian cars, Ford police cars had three engine choices for 1954, the 223-six, the 239 V8 and the 256 Y-block sourced from Mercury. Ford has a long history of offering law enforcement engines that the public didn’t get. They did the same with the previous flathead motors, and later during the 1970s with the 460 Police Interceptor engine.
Aha! That explains it.
Matador huh? Again, you learn something new at CC every day.
My Dad had a ’60 Dodge Dart Seneca. I thought it was the lowest trim level.
As a young adults with a new baby (me), my parents would likely have bought a lower trim level to replace their ’56 Chevy 210. Ok, maybe they went mid trim level after all, since the Two-Ten wasn’t the lowest of the Chevys at the time.
Great series Jason.
Hopefully they threw the book at the litterbug, even though paper bags are technically biodegradable. ;o) They need to start that campaign up again. Sadly, littering seems to be making a comeback. So weird in today’s times.
Your dad’s Seneca was the lowest trim level in the smaller Dart series, which was the size off the contemporary Plymouth. The Matador was the lowest trim level in the full-size Dodge.
Great photos! The Chrysler Saratoga looks like a 1957 model. The tail lights on the 1957 Chryslers were larger and more “flush” with the rear quarter panels as compared to those of the 1958 models.
For 1958, Chrysler shrunk the tail lights, while keeping the same fin shape.
“These last two pictures are part of an anti-littering campaign in 1964.”
Based on the first photo’s composition, I was under the impression the trooper caught the driver sampling some ‘shine out of his brown bag.
My first reaction too … I wonder if that was a subliminal message or just the cops who staged the photo having some fun. I assume that even for a statewide anti-littering campaign in the sixties there would have been no “art director”.
A new patrol car for $7K? If it is one that cruises at 55 mph, has no roll-up windows, bad brakes and 25 or so grease fittings to put a grease gun to every 90 days, then I’d say that’s about right. 🙂
Yes, 4 doors for a state trooper seems like kind of a waste, as most of their duty seems to be sitting still watching for speeders or going to tend to injured folks who will leave in an ambulance (or worse).
I really was hoping the Matador was a Chrysler Enforcer but Allpar says otherwise. Cool article!
This is an interesting gallery from the Arkansas State Police. Lots of two-doors and a little carnage. https://asp.arkansas.gov/photo-albums/album
Jason, given your interest in police history and vintage police cars, you might recall watching as a teenager, a TV miniseries from 1983 called ‘Chiefs’. Starring Charlton Heston, Keith Carradine, Paul Sorvino, Brad Davis, and other notable Hollywood stars. It aired on CBS over three nights, and I really enjoyed it myself. Excellent acting and story. It was also nominated for several Emmy Awards.
Here’s a YT link if it interests anyone.
Yes, I remember it, and watched it the first time it ran. Yes, I’m getting old. It was a delightfully spooky movie and I have not yet been able to find it on Roku. I’m likely not looking in the right place. It appears you have been!
What I remember is John Goodman driving a ’60 Starliner and pulling over Billy Dee Williams. Sorry, the Starliner wasn’t intended for police use but the two-door sedan was.
Some of these shows need to get their act together. 🙂
I was quite forgiving regarding historical inaccuracies given the acting, suspense, and story was so good. 🙂 I recall kids at school talking excitedly about watching parts two and three that night.
I found the characters played by Keith Carradine (Foxy Funderburke) and Brad Davis (Sonny Butts), especially engaging and memorable.
I’ve been really enjoyed all the historical imagery you have recently tracked down and posted. Thank you!
I wonder how long it took the first two officers to tighten the shoelaces on those knee-high boot?
Here is the car. I just found & bought this 1960 Dodge Matador 2 door hard top. 383, 4 barrel. Original blue paint with white top. You can see where the light was on top, siren was on fender, antenna on left rear, factory installed drivers door spot light. I am told this is one of only a handful 1960 2 door Matador’s made for the Missouri hwy patrol. I think I have found a very special car indeed.