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One Man's Dream: Birth of the Smithson International Truck Museum
Smithson International Truck Museum
Rimbey , Alberta

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   In 1980 Ken Smithson
bought back two rundown
International 1956 gravel
trucks that he had owned
years earlier. As a truck
driver, he had once relied on
them for his livelihood. But
this time, he set his sights
on restoring the hardy
vehicles to mint condition

and he did so with a
meticulous eye for detail. He
followed up that project in
1982 with the purchase of
another old friend, a 1951 L
Series International half-
ton. He was hooked. He spent
the next eight years in a
labour of love, searching out
and refurbishing as many

International half-tons as he
could. As he worked, he
enjoyed the camaraderie of a
close-knit group of men who
toiled alongside him,
bringing their significant
trade skills to the job at
hand.
   In the end, he completed
19, all now housed in a

collection at the Smithson
International Truck Museum in
Rimbey, Alberta, Canada.
   Smithson, who had been a
farmer, a truck driver and a
heavy equipment operator, was
in many ways an ordinary man.
Yet his enthusiasm and
dedication were anything but
ordinary and he excelled at

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