The Santa Barbara Chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America honored Carson Valley rancher Ted Bacon for 50 years of membership at its annual Christmas dinner meeting Dec. 22.
Chapter President Dana Newquist pinned a 50-year diamond membership pin on Bacon's lapel as about 50 members and guests applauded. Bacon joined the Santa Barbara chapter in 1958 after his first antique automobile, a 1912 Cadillac he had found abandoned in a Minden ditch, was restored in Santa Barbara, according to the club.
Since then, Bacon has purchased and restored 90 "beautiful antique automobiles," many of which he found in Southern California, and which are now housed in a private museum in Minden.
"Ted is one of the outstanding collectors of antique cars in the West," Newquist said in presenting the award. "We recognize him tonight for his dedication to our club and to the AACA over his half-century of membership in the Santa Barbara chapter."
Bacon initially began collecting antique cars after meeting William Harrah, owner of Harrah's Casino and founder of the Horseless Carriage Club in Reno, in the mid-1950s.
Bacon has been a member of the board of trustees of the National Automobile Club (The Harrah Collection) for 25 years.
Bacon and his wife, Lee, who was born and raised in Santa Barbara, have resided on their Jubilee Ranch on Foothill Road south of Muller Lane since 1953, when they were married.
The family owns other ranches in Markleeville and in Antelope Valley.
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