tow life
Towing through the ages
In 1916, Earnest Holmes, Sr. and six other men pulled a car out of a creek bed. Though somewhat insignificant at the time, this incident prompted Holmes to modify his 1913 Cadillac; with the addition of a pulley and crane, he created the first tow truck, the “Holmes Wrecker”.
One hundred years later, the towing industry comes together in Las Vegas to celebrate a century of towing. To commemorate this occasion, we rounded up images from across the decades to show the tow truck’s evolution over the past 100 years.
1916: Holmes Wrecker
1926: Ford Model T Tow Truck
1935: Dodge-Plymouth Tow Truck
1946: Hoselton Chevy Tow Truck
