Bantam Jeep Festival set to return; State awards organizers $40,000 for new Butler site

After having to cancel last year because of pandemic restrictions, the annual Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival is coming back.

It will celebrate its 10th year June 11-13 with a Jeep parade through downtown Butler and events at Cooper’s Lake Campground in Worth Township, which is near Slippery Rock, and a new Butler trail site.

In 2019, the event celebrating the vehicle’s history attracted 20,000 visitors with 2,512 Jeeps. But it was canceled last year because of pandemic restrictions at Cooper’s Lake.

“We’re optimists,” said Patti Jo Lambert of Economy, festival director of the Friends of the Bantam Jeep Association. “With vaccine distribution and restrictions for outdoor events hopefully lessened, we’re moving forward with our plans,” she said.

Although last year’s festival was canceled, the association has been busy.

It bought a 235-acre parcel in Slippery Rock and Muddy Creek townships along Route 19 last year to expand its Jeeping territory for future festivals.

It also held a smaller, attendance-capped Jeep get-together later in the year.

“Our initial plan was to expand trail riding for the Jeep event,” Lambert said. “However, we knew there are other outdoor opportunities on that land.”

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources recently awarded a $40,700 grant to the association to explore the possibilities for future activities on the site.

The grant will provide money for the association to hire an architect to evaluate what outdoor activities will work best for the site, which offers several types of terrain in the woods and grassy areas along with scenic views, Lambert said.

Possibilities include trails for ATVs, snowmobiles, mountain biking, camping and more.

The department’s grant was specifically for all-terrain vehicles, snowmobile facilities and trails and is supported by rider registration fees of those vehicles, DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said.

The association’s new Butler site is currently closed to the public and has been used only for the association’s Jeep events.

Details are available on the association’s website.