British family needs help solving the mystery of their old Minnesota dairy truck

image0 (2).jpeg — Roy Finch checks under the hood of his son's 1950 Dodge Pilothouse at his home in the outskirts of London. The truck is originally from somewhere in Minnesota.

By Tracy Briggs

June 26, 2024 at 10:30 AM

FARGO 鈥� Who doesn鈥檛 love a British mystery? Well, here鈥檚 one for you.

The other day a woman named Helen Finch emailed The Forum seeking help in solving a mystery.

image1 (2).jpeg — Roy and Helen Finch last year in the Lake District whilst on their 25th wedding anniversary trip around the U.K.

I wonder if you can help us here in the U.K?

Our 24-year-old son purchased a 1950 Dodge Pilothouse here in the U.K. six years ago because he loves American vehicles鈥攈e has two others as well.

We were told that it was originally owned by a dairy for deliveries and we want to try and find out, if possible, what one it was so we can have the name painted on the side as a nod to its heritage. We haven鈥檛 been able to find out what dairy it came from so we saw you .

We hope you can help.

Many thanks,
Helen and Roy Finch

As a fan of everything from Agatha Christie to 鈥淕rantchester鈥� I jumped at the chance to solve a British mystery. What shall we call it?

鈥淭he Case of the Dairy Delivery Dodge?鈥� or 鈥淭he Mystery of the Minnesota Milkmobile?鈥�

Less a 鈥榳hodunnit鈥� and more of a 鈥榳hoseisit.鈥�

I replied to Helen鈥檚 email right away. Through our correspondence, I learned that the family Helen, husband Roy and sons Thomas and Luke are all car lovers/collectors and live in the eastern outskirts of London in Romford, Essex. Thomas bought the Dodge truck when he was 18 after seeing it in an advertisement.

鈥淭he main reason he liked the old-style Dodge was his fascination and love of the film 鈥淐ars鈥� and Tow Mater (the character voiced by Larry the Cable Guy.) So you can imagine when he saw this advertised, he just had to have it,鈥� Helen said.

She said the paperwork on the truck was scant, but she knows it was already in the U.K. in 2018, and there was no documentation about how it crossed the Atlantic. However, the original 1950 license plate indicated that its first home was in Minnesota. And the seller told them it had once been a delivery truck for a dairy. But which dairy and where? It鈥檚 an udder mystery.

This is the original license plate that came with the truck. It could help solve the mystery of where the truck originally was driven.

We both knew finding exactly which dairy owned this truck and in which city would be a long shot, but I started digging through the archives anyway. It鈥檚 what all those detectives on PBS Masterpiece would do.

Unfortunately, this one has me stumped. I鈥檝e been surfing like Moondoggie on Mountain Dew through state government and private websites for information on how to track details from a 1950 license plate. Records from that long ago do not seem to be readily available. And even if they were, I鈥檓 not sure I would be allowed access to the information.

I also reached out to John Larson, who is featured in that initial story Helen mentioned in her email. John and his wife Sharon live in Moorhead and repurposed a vintage dairy truck in 2017.

He suggested connecting the Finches to one of the many international Dodge car collectors clubs that could possibly help trace a serial number. I will leave it to the two of them to communicate, with a request that they keep me posted.

In the meantime, I鈥檇 love to see if any of you have any suggestions.

For those of you who were alive in the 1950s and lived in Minnesota or neighboring states, do you recall ever seeing a dairy delivery truck like this driving around your city?

If you do, let us know!

image1 (1) (1).jpeg — The 1950 Dodge has been in England since at least 2018. It had its original 1950 license plates, but they have since been replaced.

鈥淚t would be great to have some historic identity as it鈥檚 75 years old,鈥� Helen said. 鈥淚t may be that he (Thomas) will get one of their adverts (if we could find one), put it in a frame and display it at events with a couple of milk churns. The name may be painted on the side to add authenticity.鈥�

Again, we know it鈥檚 a long shot. But even if you don鈥檛 know exactly which Minnesota city or dairy this truck might have come from, why don鈥檛 you tell me about your hometown dairy?

Perhaps we can talk the Finches into painting your hometown dairy鈥檚 name on the outside of their truck.

I mean, it鈥檚 kind of close, right?

Midwestern American dairies of the 1950s have to be pretty similar to each other.

鈥淚f he (Thomas) had the opportunity, he may one day travel to the USA,鈥� Helen said. 鈥淗e loves country music and bought himself an original Dodge brothers enamel sign and has a Stetson on the back shelf of his Chrysler together with a Texas flag.鈥�

image2 (7).jpeg — Thomas, Roy and Keith-the-dog in the back of their Dodge Ram.

He needs a Minnesota flag, too, right? We can invite the family here for a cold glass of milk and a Scotcheroo bar for a true Minnesota experience.

Most importantly, Thomas needs the name of that Minnesota dairy that owned the old Dodge before he did.

Come on, milk, cheese, and ice cream-loving friends from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Let鈥檚 get churn up those memories and help the Finches find their dairy.

Where there鈥檚 a will, there鈥檚 a whey.

If you think you might know which Minnesota dairy owned a delivery truck like this or if you just want to share the name or stories about your favorite hometown dairy, email me at tracy.briggs@forumcomm.com.