Sep 11, 2023
Sometime phenomenons can begin as a hobby. The craze around Monster Trucks began with a man here in the St. Louis who just enjoyed Souping up his truck for extreme off roading. It, however, became big business over time, and his truck named "Big Foot" became an icon. Just press play to hear the whole story.
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Podcast Transcript: I’m Adam Kloppe, public historian with the Missouri Historical Society, and Here’s History on eighty-eight one, KDHX. ———
My nephew loves monster trucks. I know that probably isn’t the thing you were expecting to hear in a two minute history segment, but I promise I’ll bring it around. Anyway, he loves those trucks. He loves watching the highlights of the trucks doing stunts or driving over cars with their oversized tires. He has a bunch of the toys, and he convinces his parents (and sometimes his aunt and uncle) to take him to monster truck events. And he’s hardly the only kid who goes wild for monster trucks—they are big business, and between the toys, live events, video games, and everything else, the industry brings in over a billion dollars a year. ———
But it turns out that none of us may have heard of monster trucks if not for one St. Louis area man named Bob Chandler. In the 1970s and 80s, Chandler owned an auto shop outside of the city, and whenever he had free time he liked to soup up his truck for extreme off-roading. He was constantly improving on it, eventually outfitting it with tall tires from a piece of agricultural equipment so that it could go to even more outlandish places. The truck was turning heads, and Chandler decided to give it a name—Bigfoot. ———
In 1981, Chandler had an idea. He created a tape of Bigfoot as he drove the truck over some old, junked-out cars. The tape started a sensation. It was passed around among enthusiasts—no one had ever seen a truck do what Bigfoot could. Soon Chandler was getting requests to bring Bigfoot to drag races, tractor pulls, and other events. Bigfoot was often the star of the show, with fans rushing the truck to learn more about it. Other enthusiasts began building monster trucks of their own. Events were scheduled where monster trucks competed against one another in races and stunt competitions, and drivers and mechanics innovated the trucks to perform even wilder stunts. A new industry was born, and it hasn’t slowed down in the decades since. ———
Today, Bob Chandler is still involved with monster truck events, and a new version of Bigfoot still makes appearances at monster truck events all over the country. And if you want to visit Bigfoot, you can—the shop is located in nearby Pacific, Missouri. I guess I’ll have to take my nephew out there so he can see the truck for himself. ———
Here’s History is a joint production of KDHX and the Missouri Historical Society. I’m Adam Kloppe, and this is eighty eight one, KDHX St. Louis. ———