CRESCENT VALLEY, B.C. – Ray Kosiancic drives one of the most recognizable trucks in the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

However, it’s not some monument to technology with a sleeper and all of the other modern comforts.

Kosiancic still takes to the road in his 1937 White, a truck that his father purchased at the height of the depression for $3,000.

After racking up more than 160,000 kilometres hauling logs through some of B.C.’s roughest terrain, most Whites ended up collecting rust in scrap yards and farmer’s fields.

This truck still runs like new, however, thanks to the many years of attention and care that Kosiancic and his father, Val, dedicated to it.

“That truck was my Dad’s pride and joy,” says Kosiancic, who purchased the truck from his brother several years after his father’s death in 1989.

Kosiancic was determined to treat the truck with the same respect that his father had and, surprisingly, little had to be done to the unit to get it road-worthy once again.

“It’s all original,” says Kosiancic. “The motor was never rebuilt or torn down at all. The seats even have the original leather which was very well made.”

Kosiancic recalls how well his father treated the White, and he attributes that to the trucks current condition.

“The roads were very rough and tumble with lots of potholes, so dad would just drive carefully,” says Kosiancic. “If the roads were too bad, he’d just gear down and take his time, and that’s why so many of those trucks just fell apart.”

After a hard day’s work hauling logs, the elder Kosiancic insisted on having the truck stored indoors, away from the harmful elements.

“He would even get upset if he had a load of lumber on, that couldn’t go in the garage,” says Kosiancic. “He would get that lumber unloaded and get it back in the garage.”

The forest-green White has become a regular sight at local coffee shops, and Kosiancic enjoys reminiscing about the truck’s early years with neighbors. n