10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

NOVEMBER 2004 WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO...

Arizona Cattle Find
California Home

Story and Photo by Truck Historian/Author Stan Holtzman

(Click on image for larger photo)

This picture, taken at the L.A. Union Stockyards in Vernon in November of 1957, depicts an Autocar and a Kenworth that just finished delivering their loads of Arizona cattle. The company, Washum Bros. Livestock Transportation of Yuma, Arizona, is still in business today, operating under the name of L.A. Yuma Freight Lines, a successful LTL carrier with late model Internationals, Freightliners and Peterbilts. I don’t know when L.A. Yuma made the transition of hauling cattle to freight, but I’m sure that it was a wise decision, as most of the Arizona cattle haulers “bit the dust” over time. Remember Calhoun Bros., Hopper, Thunderbird and Al Knudsen? They were all cattle haulers and they all are just memories. Companies that switched over into other areas of trucking and managed to change with the times are still around. L.A. Yuma is a prime example of a company that was able to adapt to a changing world. For neat old truck stuff, be sure to visit www.linerigs.com today.