10-4 Magazine October 2023

10-4 Magazine / October 2023 29 or when I was driving my car past the Jessup Trucking shop, seeing the old Bullnose parked there, but I could never nail the truck down to see it up close or get time to photograph it during the 1990s. With the truck ingrained in my memory and not having seen it for nearly 20 years, a few years ago, I decided to do some research and see if I could track down the famous (and elusive) rig. If you’re wondering why I refer to the Jessup Bullnose as famous, it’s because if you ever speak with an older trucker or someone who’s interested in trucking history, many can remember seeing either the Jessup Bullnose or one of the other beautiful red, white and black Kenworths of the Jessup fleet out on the highway. Or, if you’ve ever been in the Kenworth dealership located on Holt Road in Indianapolis, when you walk from the sales department into the parts department, there is a nearly life-size photo of the truck wallpapered on the entire wall from floor to ceiling! Not to mention, in the mid-1990s, most surviving/restored Kenworth Bullnoses had been long retired by their owners from any revenue generating service, but the Jessup Bullnose wasn’t just a show piece, it still worked. During my research around 2017, I tracked down Dale’s grandson Marc Jessup, who started his own trucking company, Jessup Logistics, and is now following in the footsteps of both his father D.C. and grandfather Dale. Upon making a call to Jessup Logistics in the hopes of finding out what happened to the Bullnose, I was a bit surprised when the Jessup Logistics employee I was speaking with told me that it was alive and well and parked in the shop just outside his office! With the elusive Kenworth now located, Duncan and I arranged a time with Marc to do a photo shoot with the truck. When Duncan and I arrived at the Jessup Logistics shop that May morning to meet up with Marc and Mike, after the shop door was opened, Duncan told me, “You should have seen the smile on your face! It was priceless! It was though you had found the Holy Grail!” As Duncan and I looked over the truck (and myself practically drooling), Marc Jessup went into his office, grabbed the keys, came back out, hopped into the Bullnose, and fired up its big Cummins, pulling it out of the shop into the early morning light. Its red, white, and black paint, polished aluminum wheels, and many stainless accessories all gleamed in the Indiana morning sun. As the truck warmed up, sitting there idling, Duncan and Marc Jessup discussed where to photograph the truck and how it was going to go. As Duncan began to photograph the famous rig, both Marc and Mike began telling stories about Dale and the truck, along with reciting the history of the Kenworth, and when the truck was built to its current specs. After rebuilding the truck in 1965, Dale ran it and worked it hard. By 1986 it had got pretty tired, even though it had been maintained to the highest standard by Dale’s long-time mechanic, Raymond Sheets. It was time to give the KW an overhaul. Taking the Bullnose out of service, Dale had the NH 220 Cummins removed and, in its place,