A Visit With Ole' Elmer
To play the video, click the play arrow. Be sure to
turn up your sound!
Imagine sitting down and talking with a favorite uncle; this is what it was like meeting Ole' Elmer for the first time. With a thin voice and a huge laugh and smile to match, my wife and I felt at ease talking for what became 5hrs. Although this was a slow day, the phone did ring periodically which helped me to gather my questions together. Ole' Elmer is quite a character. He broke his hip in '99 then broke his foot in 2000 trying to protect his hip during a fall. He laughs about it, but that is his nature.
Apache Sales Corp. is housed in a small office /warehouse building shared with another business. What shocked me was there weren't any old camper’s, just parts that look new. Some of the parts are in fact new. They own some of the original dies and are having new parts made. I purchased some myself. They even have the camper names in new plastic. They look good.
Ole' Elmer started working for Apache in 1964 at the sum of 85cents/ hr. The owner was stubborn and refused to pay what the workers considered a good wage so they formed a union and finally got some concessions in wage. The union at its height had 700 workers. There were 30 women whose sole job was sewing canvas tops and awnings. In 1979 some of the camping trailer division parts and equipment were sold to disperse a $100,000 debt. The popup division was separate from the non-popup and RV division. They were in separate factories in different cities, so the RV and flat-side campers are distant cousins even though they are no longer are made by Apache. The name is licensed to another RV manufacturer.
The reason for the confusion as to what model /year camper people own is very simple, all parts were made in house! In a never ending attempt to make the perfect camper, if one model had a better selling feature he would make some in other sizes. The car industry did this with the ½ year models so why not him.
The first camper the owner made was for his family the next were for friends and family. Soon he started making wooden boxed chiefs at an old cement plant in 1956. Then they started making campers for SEARS (TED WILLIAMS). This ended due to a difference between what Sears wanted to pay and what the owner was willing to sell them at. Thus Apache was born as an entity.
From the flames of the 1979 dispersal sale, 7 dealers got together and purchased the then new parts and formed the Apache sales corp. and Old Elmer had a job talking about the campers he loved.
Several ideas were born that day as we sat and talked but it is too soon to say. Keep glued to the Apache web site.
TIME LINE (These are approximate dates and models.)
Chief- ?-1956 wood box /57-59+ metal box and built for SEARS (a couple companies
built them)
Raven- 1955-73 as a vinyl travel cover ,74+ clam shell cover
Eagle- 1957-73 as a vinyl travel cover ,74+ clam shell cover. The Eagle turned
sideways in 1974 with the 600 and 800 series (like the Buffalo.)
Silver Eagle 1965
Golden Eagle 1974
GENERAL COLOR CODE FOR HARD SIDES AND SOME SOFT TOPS
71-Olive green, 72-Rust, 73-Tan, 74-Dark green, 75-Apple green, 76-78-Gold,orange, 79-86-Beige
For more information on Apache Sales Corp., please visit the Parts page.
