ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) – This weekend, a 40-year tradition came to an end.
The final Krusin Klassics Car Show and Swap Meet was held at the U.P. State Fairgrounds in Escanaba. This event has brought joy to many over the years, and the Krusin Klassics have given a lot back to Delta County.
Hundreds of vintage and modern cars filled the lawns at the fairgrounds on Saturday. Bob Lewis, a racer at the Escanaba Motor Speedway, brought his stock car.
“I got in a wreck last year, so we had to repair it with duct tape and cardboard,” Lewis said.
Mark Caswell, president of the Krusin Klassics for the last 10 years, has been working with the club since its inception in 1984.
“It just happened, ya know? I don’t think any of us really intended of riding it out this long,” Caswell said. “We get people from all over. Canada. Downstate. The Illinois. Indiana. Wisconsin. Minnesota.”
The swap meet takes place in front of the entrance of the speedway. It’s for buying, trading and selling whatever you’d like. Brian Closs has been attending the event since the 1980s. He sold a little, yellow Volkswagen radio to a customer Saturday morning.
“It’s a good little radio,” Closs said. “It was put in the bedroom. And it worked good. The headlights and everything, ya know? It was kind of a neat novelty. But like everything else, it gets dusty, it’s in the way and the wife’s like, ‘You really need this?’ Throw it on the table for sale.”
This car show and sweep meet has always been a fun weekend. But it’s also been a fundraiser. Caswell says the Krusin Klassics have raised around $750,000 over the last 40 years. That money has gone right back into Delta County.
“Walk For Warmth. Goodwill. Scholarships at Bay College. Auto-related of course,” Caswell said. “Any organization or family fires and stuff like that, wherever we can help out, we do.”
The Escanaba Downtown Development Authority will take over the show next year. Everything will take place on Ludington Street. Caswell says the work is getting harder as the original club members get older.
“The original inception of this was a handful of guys in Coin Chevy’s garage talking about doing something like this in 1984,” Caswell said. “We weren’t doing this to make money. We were doing this because the love of, our local love of cars, to expand upon everybody else’s too. And it’s worked out really well.”
The cruise will look a little different next year. But there will still be lots of cars to love.
Copyright 2025 WLUC. All rights reserved.
发表回复