Roy Spuhler was selected as the recipient of this year's Ed Dunkley award. Here is the resume submitted for his selection this year. 

Roy Spuhler's involvement with off-roading began in 1959 with the purchase of his first beach buggy. This began a period of almost weekly trips out to the Oso Flaco Dunes with his family. In 1963 he bought his first Jeep, a CJ2-A and in the spring of 1964 was one of the founding members of the Santa Maria 4 Wheelers. In 1964 he bought his blue Jeep CJ-6 that became his trademark for many years.

In about March of 1964, there was a head-on dune buggy crash that killed three people. There was a meeting out in the dunes of all interested four-wheelers and dune buggy enthusiasts to discuss safety in the dunes. The numbers of people enjoying the dunes was increasing and many of these people did not know about dune safety. This ad hoc committee developed the first set of "10 Rules of Dune Safety" and began insisting on a flag on every vehicle. The first major safety campaign started with the Memorial Day weekend activities of 1964. That summer also began saw the formation of the Sand Dune Safety Committee and Roy's first handouts. Starting with the Fourth of July weekend, Roy began camp to camp visits and handing out information on the dunes that has only recently begun to taper off.

Also in 1964 began the first flagging of dunes Highway 1. This was a never-ending job because the steel poles with flags would be run over and would have to be replaced. The worst problem with flagging Highway 1 was the wind. The wind was always moving the sand and as the sand moved and changed shape, so did the highway. This means there had to be a constant monitoring and Roy could be seen about every month out on the sand highway with his blue CJ-6 and a load of stakes adjusting the road line.

Somewhere around 1965-66 with the continued increase of use became an increase in litter. This led to the "Haul it in- Haul" it out campaign.

Roy gathered used potato sacks from people he knew in Guadalupe and began passing them out and asking dune users to carry them as litter bags on their vehicles. As the large events got bigger on the holiday weekends, Roy as a member of the Santa Maria 4 Wheelers and the California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs, began to help arrange for the use of carrot trailers to use as garbage trailers to haul away the full litter bags.

As the 1960's ended and the 70's began, Roy's responsibilities changed. The numbers of people using the dunes and camping continued to grow. The Santa Maria 4 Wheelers had their competition events on the Fourth of July weekend and the Association had their events on Labor Day weekend. That meant large numbers of people and created the need for port-a-potties. For several years Roy would haul the potties out to the dunes for the events and haul them out afterwards. In between, Roy and his old CJ-6 could be seen hauling around the pumper and tank to keep the potties clean.

The late 60's saw the work in the dunes change from physical in the dunes work to more political work to keep the dunes open to public use. Pacific Gas and Electric Company bought part of the dunes from the Union Oil Company to build a power plant. At this point the Sierra Club began a political campaign to stop the plant from being built. The result was that a compromise was reached that would allow PG&E to buy and build its power plant in an out of the way little known place called Diablo Canyon.

In about 1970-71, the State of California bought the PG&E property for a state park. At this time, all state parks required that all vehicles drive only on paved roads. In an area like the Oceano/Pismo dunes, there would be no possible way to have paved roads. This led to a meeting in the dunes with the Commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation, William Mott. The user groups spent one whole day showing Mr. Mott around the dunes and convincing him that a different kind of state park would be necessary. This began a process of the State of California developing its first Off Highway Vehicle Park (OHV).

Roy spent many nights and days attending meetings to help develop the proper usage of the dunes and how the local Pismo State Park was going to manage the dunes. As this plan was beginning to take shape the voters of the State of California created the Coastal Commission, which tried to step in and change the park plan that was developing. The Department of Parks and Recreation was reluctant to fight with another state agency, so in late 1974 Roy Spuhler and the Sand Dune Safety Committee filed a suit against Parks and Recreation asking for implementation of the camping and use plan that had been worked out. This forced Parks and Recreation then to pressure the Coastal Commission that eventually led to the creation of the "1975 Masterplan."

The State began slowly to implement the Masterplan, but in 1978 began a series of cutbacks that effectively stopped all work on the Masterplan. This period went on for about five years, in which no progress was made. It was also in 1978 that Parks and Recreation stopped Roy from going camp to camp with his handouts on dune safety and collecting money for the Sand Dune Safety Committee. The Sand Dune Safety Committee had become an annoyance to Parks and Recreation because they were always inquiring about the Masterplan and access from California Hwy. 1. This was just about the end of local organized opposition to dune closures. During this period there were large areas closed off for use, the fences that mar the beauty of the dunes appeared, and the Oso Flaco entrance was closed. Roy continues to go to meetings on selecting a new southern entrance, but each new plan only points out that the best southern entrance is the one they closed.

As the term OHV became more prevalent and the State began collecting the Green Sticker money, the State created a new commission, the Off Highway Vehicle Commission. Roy then began to attend the OHV Commission meetings because of issues involving the sand dunes. At this point he began to branch out and began to attend more meetings and visit proposed sites with the Commission. With increasing age and health not as good as it used to be, he has had to curtail some activities and one of these has been his travels around the state going to Commission meetings.

Now we are in February 1992 and the "1975 Masterplan" is still far from being completed, the State is cutting back on park expenditures, and a new group that wants to throw out the Masterplan and make the dunes a foot only park. So where is Roy Spuhler 30 years after the first dune committees? Walking around the California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs Inc. State Convention handing out literature and lining up support for the next round to protect the Oceano/Pismo dunes for future generations of OHV users.

Update April 1992, the battle over the beach is no longer just a matter of foot versus OHV, now we have new players. The Nature Conservancy, which manages the beach areas south of the Pismo dunes, now wants to charge a $4 entrance fee for citizens of this state to access the beach. For many years now the California Coastal Commission has fought to keep the California Coastline accessible for its citizens and now we have groups that what to start charging an admission fee to be on the beach as if it were an amusement park. So where is Roy now? He is at a public hearing, and getting his picture in the paper, in Guadalupe fighting for the same thing he was in the 60s, access to the beaches for all of the people of this great state. The battle here is not over OHV use, but even more fundamental, denial of use based on one's ability to pay.

Roy started to attend CA4WDC conventions with the 1964 convention in Tulare. He actually joined the Association when the Santa Maria Wheelers were created later in 1964. The sand dunes were the primary concern in the early years. The contacts within the Association led to a branching out of four-wheeling activities. The first out of the area activity was the South District Afton Canyon run in the spring of 1965. The next trip was the Jeepers Jamboree in July of 1965. This began an involvement in statewide activities that continued into the mid-1990s.

Roy made his first trip to Sierra Trek in 1972. We took the CJ 6, showed up at staging for the short wheelbase run and was told it was not allowed on that run. However one of the committee members had been Jeepers Jamboree just weeks earlier said he should have no trouble on trail, but he would have to go last, just ahead of drag. Everything went fine until winch hill one when Roy broke the input shaft on the transfer case. Roy was helped out to the start of the trail and then drove around to camp. Roy had a good time anyway and continued to go on Sierra Trek through the 30^th Trek. Roy worked with Golden Gate Jeepers on the Camp Committee 1977 - 1981, helped with the Long Wheel Base trail 1982-83 and the worked on the Short Wheel Base Trail 1988-1993.

Roy was also on the Central District's first Molina run in 1974 and participated in all but one Molina run through 1998. Roy has helped on the camp committee, the lighting committee and for several years led the Friday historical run.

Roy was also an active participant in annual Memorial Day runs starting with the Randsburg run in the early 1980s. He was never an active committee person on these runs, but as with every Association event he has ever participated in, he was always there to help where he was needed.

In 1991 Roy and Don went on their first Panamint Valley Days trip. From 1992 through 1996 Roy assisted with the Friday Historical runs through the old mining areas.

In 1996 Roy and Don branched out by joining the Friends of the Mojave Road on a trip through part of the Mojave Desert.

Why would Roy make a good choice for the Ed Dunkely Medal Of Honor?

Dedication and commitment. Roy raised his family in four wheeling and the Association. Roy became dedicated to saving the Oceano dunes for vehicular use in the 1960's and was a driving force for 30 years, or until age slowed him down. Roy has never been an event chairman but has never been to an Association event that he has not been a dedicated worked to help where he could. Roy has been committed to this Association since he became a member in 1964 and still attends convention every year and will talk four-wheeling with anyone who will listen.

We hope that someone in your area with long service and dedication will have his or her resume sent in for next year's selection. The list of qualifications will be in future issues of IN GEAR. We'll keep you posted.