10-4 Magazine December 2024

Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss In 1976, Don left Alaska and began hauling for a neighbor back in Idaho who owned a shake shingle mill. The following year, Don par tnered up with the mill owner and they expanded the operation, forming a company called Bonners Ferry Shake. Eventually, the mill had three trucks – a 1967 Kenwor th, a 1978 Peterbilt, and a 1969 KW log truck. Delton Amoth (59), Don’s son and Blayne’s father, was born in 1965, and at just ten years old he was already working at the shake mill. Growing up around trucks, Delton star ted driving at 14 years old, running a 1955 International, hauling firewood to Spokane (a 100-mile drive each way). At 21, Don needed an over-the-road driver, so Delton filled that role. At this point, they decided he should probably get his chauffeur’s license, to be legal, which only required him to fill out some paperwork and pay a small fee (no training was needed)! Running all over the country in the 1978 Peterbilt 359 previously mentioned, hauling shakes and other wood products on a flatbed for Bonners Ferry Shake, Delton did this for five years, until he was 26 years old. Then, in 1990, he bought his own truck – a 1963 B-model Mack log truck – and began running that. Three years later, in 1993, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, so his father Don put Delton in charge of the mill so he could be with his wife while she fought the disease. Ultimately, she beat cancer, but after that, Don wanted to slow down, so he sold the trucking por tion of his business to Delton, and then closed the mill in 1996. Delton formed his company Aamodt Inc. in 1996 (Aamodt is the Norwegian spelling of their Amoth last name). Don worked for his son until he retired in 2004. “The Don” is now 93 years old and living in an assisted care facility in Buhl, ID. Over the next decade, Delton built the company to its peak of 12 trucks (five company-owned trucks and seven leased-on owner operators). But around 2005, after the housing bubble burst and other factors triggered the star t of the Great Not all the cool trucks you see at the shows rolled into a shop and, several weeks, months or even years later, rolled out as a “finished” project – in fact, most are not built like this. Many trucks are customized over a long period of time, and some, like the cool cabover seen here, are a “rolling restoration” done while the truck is still working and earning its keep. Blayne Amoth (31) of Bonners Ferry, ID bought this 1996 Peterbilt 362 in 2019 and has since been fixing it up, little by little, while working it full-time through the summer and fall months, creating the cover-wor thy working truck you see here. Trying to keep it as original as possible, Blayne has not deviated far from what this truck would have looked like back in the ‘90s – it even still has its original factory paint job! This story begins five generations ago, when Blayne’s great great grandparents came to America from Norway. Living in Nor th Dakota, Blayne’s great grandfather Walter was born there. In 1938, Walter and his wife Susie, along with their kids, relocated to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, a beautiful and historic small town that was established in 1893 along the banks of the Kootenai River in the panhandle of Nor th Idaho just 27 miles south of the Canadian border. Once in Idaho, Walter bought a small farm there and then began driving a milk truck in the early 1940s, going to all the local dairies, and picking up cans of milk. Walter’s son Donald, Blayne’s grandfather, who was born in 1931, eventually began driving a milk truck in the area, as well. In the 1960s, Donald “The Don” Amoth bought a 1959 single axle Ford truck and star ted buying and selling lumber. Don would purchase a load of lumber in Moyie Springs, ID, and then head east across Montana, toward Nor th Dakota, selling the lumber along the way. Once he sold it all, he would return, get another load, and then head east again, peddling the lumber. Around 1963, Don bought his first diesel truck – a nearly new 1962 Kenwor th. Driving past all the grain elevators along the way to Nor th Dakota with the lumber, Don eventually switched to hauling grain, using a flatbed equipped with grain sides. Picking up grain from various elevators in the area, the grain would be taken to Pasco, WA, where it would then be loaded on barges. Over the next few years, Don grew to four trucks hauling grain. In 1967, Don purchased a new Kenwor th with a sleeper and log rigging and began working on a pipeline project in Louisiana. The pipeline was going from Louisiana up to Michigan, and the log truck worked perfectly for transpor ting the pipes from the yards to their necessary locations along the route – much of which was off road. After a few years, Don began working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, hauling pipes and construction materials on a flatbed, from Seattle, WA to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. 10 10-4 Magazine / December 2024 A ROLLING RESTORATION