If you jump into your favorite hot rod in early fall and take a drive 70 miles northeast of Indianapolis you will run into a quaint town that has been exploding with history since the mid-1800’s. The small town of Gas City, Indiana is nestled right along the banks of the Mississinewa River. This hard working, blue collar community got its name in March of 1882, just after massive amounts of natural gas was discovered throughout the area.

As the natural gas industry plummeted the hopes of growing this town into an industrial metropolis died and the population started to decline. This didn’t stop people such as James Dean, who was born and raised not too far from here, from using this place as his stomping grounds. Somehow over the years this old piece of Americana found ways to hang on and not let the town die out.

With its population now hovering around 6,000 people in the city, the residence of Gas City are always excited when late September rolls around. This is when the population more than doubles for almost a week and the whole town welcomes the Ducktail Run down at the 90 acre Eugene “Beaner” Linn Park. This tree covered park lies right alongside the river with a large duck and swan filled lake.

This may not be significant to some, but for others who always thought the Ducktail Run got its name because of the hairstyle of a bunch of greasers, this may end a few arguments. After finding this location and planning the first show back in 1994, Jerry Caudill, one of the organizers figured the best name for the show had to be the Ducktail Run because of all the friendly ducks floating around making all kinds of racket in the lake. The first year of the show was in 1995 and by throwing flyers out and spreading the word, over 1600 cars showed up and everyone knew they were on to something real good.

Now, over 17 years later this show has grown to the point where the cars now outnumber the ducks and the town of Gas City couldn’t be happier. Denny Shanks, one of the coordinators, told us that even though this show officially starts on Thursday there were over 700 cars lined up outside the park starting the Friday before. “The city paints a yellow stripe along the road where cars can park. People will set out their little grills to make hot dogs or burgers. A few of the guys will pull out their laptops and play movies day after day. It has basically turned into a week-long event,” Denny told us.

As we mentioned the good folks of Gas City enjoy seeing thousands of hot rods roll into town. It brings the local restaurants, convenience stores and hotels a massive boost in their economy. Even the residences surrounding the park figured out how to put a little dough in their pockets. Being that spectator parking is basically non-existent, for $3 to $5 a space, they had no problem using their front and back yards for parking lots. Who can blame them and it seems to be working well since we didn’t see one empty yard for several blocks.

Back at the show there was a steady stream of cars rolling through all weekend. After the cars were registered they cruised around the almost one mile drive that circles the pond to find a good place to park. But for those who decided to wait to make their grand entrance, the search for a good place might have taken a little while. Denny estimated that they would blow past their record set back in 2001 of 3005 cars by several hundred. When you combine all those cars with tens of thousands of spectators and a very cool venue you have the perfect recipe for one of the coolest cars shows in the country.

One thing about this show is it is as much a spectator show as it is a car show. With tens of thousands of spectators from all over the country having such a good time we wondered how the show coordinators were able to draw so many people to this small little town. Mike Salter told us, “We have never charged an entrance fee for spectators. They are free to come and go as they please. And the registration fee for the cars is only $25”. They understand that people don’t have a whole lot of extra money but want them to have a great place to hang out with other hot rodders while keeping it affordable.

All weekend long there were live bands playing 50s rock and of course you don’t want to miss the old sock hop. “Every time you ask someone why they came, it’s usually because friends tell them what a fun show it is”, Denny said. With the cars lined up row after row, the great food and people from all over the country, how could you not have a great time?

Do you need some parts for your car or how about just building a car from the ground up? If so, the massive swap meet, or better known as “Jerry’s Junkyard” will have everything you can imagine in order to add that final touch or find that part you have been missing for your car. You could spend almost the whole four days wandering around digging through stuff and probably still not see it all. They have brought in junk dealers and new parts dealers, each having their niche of customers that want what they have. If they don’t have what you need, they can find it for you.

 One of those vendors was Jerry Camp who owns A+ Rod & Kustoms in Boonville, Indiana. Jerry, who has been building cars since 1968 now spends most of his year traveling to shows all over the country selling aftermarket hot rod parts and accessories. According to Jerry he gets a tremendous response through his catalog all year just from the Ducktail Run. “So many shows are dying off, this one is still growing. There’s one way to make a show grow; keep people happy and keep it cheap. They do both here”, Jerry told us. This is probably why he has been vending at the Ducktail for the past 16 years in the same location.

During the four days we had a hard time being able to see all the cars. We did our best to have somewhat of a methodical sense of making our way around the park, however, with all of the great cars it’s hard to just walk past without stopping to talk to the owners to find out what has been done to them. Paul Mathes from Kouts, Indiana drove his very highly customized 1957 Ford Ranchero. He told us he had been coming to this show since the very first year and expected to continue coming as long as he could drive. “I’ve never seen this many cars”, he added. That seemed to be the sentiment the whole weekend.

One old pastime that hot rodders love is to cruise in their cars forming a parade of classics that slowly makes its way through the crowds of people. One of the places that many would stop was over at the Killer Designs tent to talk to Darin Allen, who is one of the top pinstripers in the country. He was going 100mph the whole weekend. At the time we had talked to him he had already striped 46 cars with many more waiting in line. If you ask him what places he has been to sling some lines it will sound like an old Johnny Cash song; basically everywhere. He told us, “This is my absolute favorite show. I would never miss it”.

On Saturday night thousands of people lined the fences around the baseball field across the street from the park to witness a hot rod craze that seems to be becoming a crowd pleaser at a lot of shows nowadays. The flame thrower contest is almost a whole show in itself. The cars made their way onto the field and when they hit the igniters the crowd roared with excitement. One by one they rolled past the droves of crowds with plumes of flames trailing. But that’s just the warm up!

After everyone had made their entrance the fun really began. One by one each guy (or gal) gives it all they got. Everyone has their own secret to getting their car noticed, such as sprinkling a little brake dust in the pipes in order to turn them into giant sparklers blowing 10 feet in the air. Some even threw mesmerizing green flames out. This went on until there was only one flame throwing champion left. But just as the crowd thought it was over, the big guns came out. Several cars from the Lost Saints and Twisted Wrenches car clubs came out to blow their injected flames over 30 feet in the air. It was like having a fourth of July celebration with flames instead of fireworks.

This weekend was definitely one we won’t forget. To see this massive amount of cars and people from all over the country having a great time is a good thing. According to Denny and Mike they had people register from 42 states plus Canada. A good majority of registrants were said to have drove their cars to the run. But there is one thing Mike jokingly said, “I can’t ever remember someone from Mississippi registering”. Well Mike hopefully someone from Mississippi will read this and decide the Ducktail Run is one of those shows they just can’t miss.

Check out Rod Authority’s exclusive gallery of the event below: