Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Calso Gas Station Locations

UPDATE 5/29/07: "MYSTERY CALSO" HAS BEEN FOUND! Scroll to the bottom of this thread to learn more.....

ORIGINAL POST:

I'm new to the OldGas forums....I hope I'm posting this on the right one. I have a rather odd question that I hope someone might be able to help me answer.

I have an (ex-US Army) 1942 Ford GPW jeep that after the war belonged to a Calso gas station somewhere in the Northeast US. I am hoping to be able to pin down the location of this particular station. All I have to go on is the lettering that was found on the jeep during its original restoration:

"_ _ _ _ ERY CALSO STATION "

The first four letters of the name were illegible, but I believe they are probably a place name. This name that was seven letters long and ended in -ery. It could also potentially have been the name of a street or the Calso station's owner, but I'm currently working with the theory that it was the name of a town or borough.

As many of you probably know, Calso gasoline was sold in different parts of the country by various stations under different company names. However, there were 2,360 Calso-branded gas stations, which operated only in the NE United States, and only from 1946 to 1958 (when the Calso name was changed to Chevron). As I understand it, the Calso logo by that point in time was red, which was also the color of the jeep when the above lettering was painted on it.

In order to solve this mystery (unless someone out there happens to remember a red-painted WWII jeep that used to sit at their neighborhood Calso station!), I'm trying to find a list of the locations of Calso gas stations. Does anyone happen to know if such a list exists, and if so, how I might be able to get a copy of it?

Awhile back, I tried contacting Chevron's historical research department about this via their website, but never got a response. Since the Army did not retain records concerning where specific jeeps were stationed or were later sold as surplus, finding the location of this particular Calso station is my only hope for tracing the history of this vehicle.

Any help or advice would be very, very much appreciated!

Thanks so much,
Maury Hurt

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 02-27-2007).]

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 05-29-2007).]

I think its the MYSTery Calso Staion

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Scott Wright-
http://www.frontrangegas.com/powerine.htm

Welcome to the site Maury..... Scott, that wasnt nice.... LOL. Funny, but not nice. Maury, Calso was Chevron, It was just maketed under the Calso Name in those areas. As far as finding out who the jeep belonged to, good luck. I would try looking at the paint, where the first four letters were. Maybe the paint isnt as oxidized there, so you might be able to see a small rise there. What I'm saying is, because the paint faded away there, maybe the letters faded, and protected the paint underneath. Possibly a charcoal rub there might tell you. Put a piece of paper over the area, and give a light rub with charcoal, to see if you can bring the letters up.

As far as the good people at Chevron, I've had good luck with them in my endeavors. But as far as former stations, that might be like "A needle in the haystack" search. Good luck.

Actually, I thought it was pretty funny too!

Just to clarify....I'm not so much hoping to find out who owned the jeep as where this Calso station was located. Chances are that the jeep would have been sold as surplus in that same general geographical area...probably from an Army base near where it was purchased.

Through some other information that came out during its restoration, I've been able to figure out that the jeep was based somewhere in the Eastern US during the war, but to date that's as far as I've been able to get.

The restoration was done by someone else several years before I bought the jeep. Unfortunately, after the Calso lettering was found, the entire body was sandblasted, thus removing any remaining traces of it.

Thanks again for your e-mail, Jeff.....I've already e-mailed John Harper at Chevron and just heard back from him. He seems very willing to try to help as much as he can, so we'll see what he is able to come up with. I'll certainly update this thread as soon as any new information is forthcoming!








[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 02-28-2007).]

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 02-28-2007).]

Maury:

Most state DMV offices will do a Title Search for you (for a fee, of course). You might be able to track the Jeep back to the original private owner. That would limit your search to a smaller geographical area.

Later . . .

Jim




Always buying Ethyl Globes, Ethyl Single Lenses & Misc. Ethyl Items.

Hi Maury- try Convery Calso- Perth Amboy NJ- on Convery Blvd. there were a lot of Calso in the area as California Oil Was Located in Perth Amboy NJ- hope this might help thanks don

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Wanted 5 quart cans

That's two more ideas that hadn't occurred to me....Thanks!....I'll start calling DMV's in the most likely states tomorrow.

I'll also forward the info about a possible Calso station on Convery Blvd. in Perth Amboy to the Chevron historical folks....hopefully they'll be able to tell me if one was ever located there.

You guys are great!....I appreciate the good ideas and advice more than I can tell you.

Maury

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 03-01-2007).]

Maury,
I work for Chevron in Houston. I've contacted John Harper about company history in the past. However, I doubt that the company can help you with your request.

For one thing, the Calso era is old history. Chevron withdrew from marketing in the Northeast a long time ago. Today, the corporation is not really prepared to retrieve old information of this sort. That's mainly due to the mergers, reorganizations and systems changes that have occurred regularly over the years. In addition, detailed info on dealer operated/jobber supplied stations may not exist. Any available records will be spotty at best and may only be retrieved by a motivated and knowledgeable employee.

Best of luck to you in your search!!

Paul

[This message has been edited by Pablo (edited 03-01-2007).]

The suggestion to try Convery Calso on Convery Blvd. in Perth Amboy, NJ may just turn out to be the Golden Clue I've been hoping for.

It dovetails with something that was briefly mentioned when I acquired the jeep. The story was passed down to me that an Ohio farmer who owned it for many years believed that before he bought it, the jeep had been located somewhere in New Jersey.

Googling around, I got lucky again and found a Perth Amboy newspaper journalist who writes a weekly column entitled "Remembering the Past". To make a long story short, she very kindly agreed to include a request in her column in late April. This request will ask anyone who knows anything about that Calso station, or better yet a jeep that used to have the station's name painted on it, to contact me.

I've also been in contact with John Harper at Chevron, who is looking into the locations of Calso stations in Perth Amboy, at least to the extent their records will allow.

As far as DMV records go, unfortunately, the title searches offered by most states, including New Jersey and Ohio, don't go back far enough in time to be of help to me.

I'll update this thread as soon as I learn anything more, though it may be a few months. If anyone has any other ideas about how I might chase down information on my jeep or about Convery Calso, please let me know.

Thanks so much to all of you who responded so far!

I got an extraordinarily lucky break on this forum when "5-Quart" responded to my original post on this thread. He suggested that the Calso station I was looking for just might be Convery Calso in Perth Amboy, NJ.

Calso had a refinery there, and Convery Blvd. is one of the main drags through town. I was able to find a 1953 Perth Amboy phone book on Ebay, which - sure enough! - had a listing for Convery Calso Service Station .

After many hours spent searching the internet, I once again got lucky and found an extremely helpful Perth Amboy newspaper columnist. Besides getting me in touch with several people who lived in the city during the 1940’s and 50’s and remembered Convery Calso, she also included a request for information about the station or the jeep in one of her weekly columns.

A man named Jerry responded to her article and said that he had worked at Convery Chevron (formerly Convery Calso) between 1962 and 1966. He remembered the station’s old red-painted jeep quite well, as he used it daily for picking up parts. He frequently drove it on service calls as well, and sometimes used the jeep’s four wheel drive in low range to tow trucks that had broken down. The jeep then sported a blue steel top, and Jerry recalled that during the summers he would take off the side doors and drive it doorless. During the winters, he remembered a snowplow being mounted on the jeep.

Amazingly, thanks to the help of the folks on this forum, and in particular 5-Quart, I believe I've reached a successful conclusion to my quest.

To 5-Quart...Don, whoever you are...First, THANK YOU SO MUCH for suggesting that
"_ _ _ _ ery Calso" might be "Convery Calso". Your clue turned out to be the key that helped me to find what I honestly thought would probably be an un-findable "Mystery Calso" station.

I also have a question for you, Don: How in the WORLD did it occur to you to suggest that to me? Did you grow up in Perth Amboy and remembered the station?...or are you an expert on Calso stations in NJ?.....or are you simply a bonified Petroliana Psychic!!?

Please let me hear from you....I'm really curious to know!

Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this thread. You're a great bunch of folks!

Maury Hurt
Black Mountain, NC





[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 05-29-2007).]

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 05-29-2007).]

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 05-29-2007).]

[This message has been edited by maurywhurt (edited 05-29-2007).]

There was a Standard station in town a friend's parents owned. He has a handful of pictures of their service station's Jeep. Being a model builder i've always thought it would be neat to replicate in scale.

Check out my Group, Roadside Relic Dioramas on Face book. I've done several service stations in 1-24th scale .....