Sixty years. That's how long the Ford Bronco has been carving trails through American culture, and honestly, that timeline feels both impossibly long and surprisingly short when you're talking to people who live and breathe this stuff. As we approach the Bronco's 60th anniversary, it's wild to think about how a utilitarian 4x4 that started life in 1966 has evolved into something approaching a religion for its devotees.

I spent time talking to some Bronco obsessives — and I mean that in the most respectful way possible — to understand what makes it so special that people dedicate their entire automotive lives to it. What I found wasn't just car enthusiasm; it was something deeper, more communal, and more generational.

Tim Hulick and His 14-Bronco Empire

Picture this: 1977, Virginia Beach. A grade-schooler on a school bus spots a parking lot full of 4x4s. Among all those lifted rigs, one in particular — an early Bronco sitting on what looked like massive tires — catches young Tim Hulick's eye.

"That's the first time I fell in love with a vehicle," he tells me from his Iowa base, where he now keeps his 14 Broncos.

Hulick's collection reads like a Bronco museum manifest: a September 1965-built '66 Roadster with 30,000 original miles that's basically a time capsule, a '66 with what they call a "pony interior" (only two known to exist), and a '74 he calls "Cheeto" that's painted orange and represents everything he loves about the original Bronco experience. Cheeto is his daily-driver favorite.

His three daughters — Kayley, Morgan, and Cassie — grew up around the vehicles and caught the Bronco bug. When his youngest, Cassie, got one of the first 2021 Broncos in Iowa, Hulick asked her which she preferred, old or new. Her answer is one of the reasons Bronco is attractive across several generations.

“It's a very world-class looking vehicle that you can't get out of your head.”

Cassie Hulick, second-generation Ford Bronco fan

"I like the new ones, but those early Broncos are my favorite," she said. "There's just something about them. They're so unique. You get in them, and it's just a very world-class looking little vehicle that you can't get out of your head."

Jake Gertsch's Nine-Bronco Ranch

Jake Gertsch is based in Montana with five kids, and he operates on an entirely different level. Having owned 40 Broncos spanning every generation, he represents something you see a lot in car culture but rarely to this extent: the multi-generational enthusiast who's successfully passed the obsession down to his kids.

"My first vehicle was a Bronco, and I think that's why I'm still into them today," he said. He got his first one, an '83, when he was 16 and has basically never been without one since. But what's fascinating is how he's managed to make Bronco the family's shared language.

His kids can identify Bronco generations on sight. When his daughter Adria got married, they drove away in the family's '73 — the one they call "The Green Bean."

When they're going anywhere as a family, the first question is always, "Which Bronco should we take?"

Gertsch's collection ranges from a first-gen vehicle to a Bronco Raptor. He had originally ordered a First Edition, parked it behind his workplace, and then a driver having a seizure slammed into it. It was totaled. Ford couldn't give him another First Edition, but it could get him into the Raptor program. Sometimes automotive destiny works in weird ways.

"After having a Bronco Raptor, it'd be pretty hard to go to another Bronco," he said. His appreciation for next-level performance is crystal clear.

Tamara Gravelle's Second-Act Adventure

Tamara Gravelle proves it's never too late to reinvent your relationship with cars. At 60, this retired physician assistant from Michigan had no plans to go off-roading when she ordered her 2021 Wildtrak. Now she's the founder of the Southern Michigan Ladies Bronco Group, which has grown to 543 members, and she's spent $30,000 modifying her Bronco, which she named Fiona after the tough older sister in the TV show "Shameless."

“My kids can't believe their 60-year-old mother's out there off-roading.”

Tamara Gravelle, Southern Michigan Ladies Bronco Group founder

"I never knew I was going to do any off-roading with it," Gravelle said. But then she took a beginner's class, joined the Michigan Bronco Club, and discovered she loves rock climbing. Her favorite memory? Conquering the Marblehead ledges on Drummond Island — something she never thought she would want to do, much less accomplish.

When people ask what her adult kids think about her new hobby, she laughs.

"They can't believe their 60-year-old mother's out there off-roading and rock climbing and spending all this money," she said. "And I tell them, yeah, I'm spending all your inheritance on my Bronco."

Casey Wagoner's 94,000-Mile Love Story

Casey Wagoner represents the current iteration of Bronco enthusiasm — the people who got 2021s and immediately started pushing them to their limits. Based in Michigan, Wagoner has put 94,000 miles on his 2021 Bronco, and not gentle highway miles. We're talking about Moab expeditions and technical rock crawling.

“It's by far the most comfortable vehicle I've ever owned.”

Casey Wagoner, Bronco adventurer extraordinaire

His recent trip to Moab with his 15-year-old son tells you everything you need to know about where Bronco culture is heading. They tackled Hell's Revenge, Poison Spider, Golden Spike, and made it through half of Pritchett Canyon.

But the underrated story here is one of comfort: Despite 25 hours driving back from Moab, Wagoner never felt uncomfortable in the seat. That's the synthesis of 60 years of Bronco evolution right there — the capability that people expect since the originals with the refinement of modern engineering.

"It is by far the most comfortable vehicle I've ever owned," said Wagoner. He's owned multiple Broncos, including an '86 — his first-ever vehicle.

Kiesha Foulds and Her Hot Pink Statement

Kiesha Foulds, a nurse from central Pennsylvania, has been building her automotive empire since she was 18. She currently owns 16 vehicles, 13 of which are classics that would make most enthusiasts green with envy.

But it all started with one hot pink '73 Bronco and a stepdad who had a serious Bronco problem.

"My stepdad always had them," she said. "We had like 40-some of them in the yard. He daily drove a '79, my mom daily drove a '78, and I always wanted one."

At 18, she browsed through the yard, picked out a '73, and paid her stepdad $1,500 for it. Next, she began her first frame-off restoration, done while she was in nursing school, learning everything as she went.

"I originally wanted to do orange, and when I was browsing Google Images just for different orange colors, somehow a pink car ended up in the mix,” she said. “I didn't even like pink back then, but I was like, oh my gosh, I need to do that type of pink."

The result is impossible to miss: a hot pink '73 Bronco that's become her calling card at events across the country. She's taken it to 47 states, done overlanding trips with Ford, and built an impressive collection — all while keeping up with a busy nursing career.

Foulds isn’t just building cars, though. She's building community, particularly for women who might feel intimidated by the traditionally male-dominated automotive world.

"I have friends that are girls or other nurses or anybody really,” she said. “I've taught them how to change their oil on their vehicles and that type of stuff. And I see them light up with how empowered they feel just 'cause they can change their oil."

Amy Clouds and the Off-Roadeo Revolution

Amy Clouds brings a different perspective to Bronco culture. She's one of the people literally teaching others how to use these things properly. Based at Ford's Bronco Off-Roadeo facility in Texas, she's a trail guide who helps people discover what their Broncos (and they themselves) are capable of.

“Even before the 6th Gen Bronco launched, the community was very tight-knit.”

Amy Clouds, trail guide at Ford's Bronco Off-Roadeo facility in Texas

Clouds got into Broncos through her husband, Mike, who's been in the scene since the early '90s and is now president of the Lone Star Early Bronco Club. She’s seen the evolution of the community first-hand.

"Even before the 6th Gen Bronco was launched, the Bronco community was very tight-knit, very close," she says. "That has not changed, but what has changed is just how much it has exploded. There are so many more clubs, so many more people who are active in it."

Clouds has some incredible stories about helping people overcome their fears. Amanda, for example, had been in a terrible rollover accident and never thought she'd be able to off-road again, but she found the Off-Roadeo experience therapeutic and empowering. Similarly, a gentleman who had PTSD from a vehicle accident was able to conquer obstacles that once looked impossible.

"It was life-changing for him," Clouds said. "He equated it to so many other things in life that look like you can't do it; they look like you can't conquer it. But once you just keep pushing through and trying, you end up doing it."

Jürgen and Alexandra's Three-Year Odyssey

Perhaps the most ambitious Bronco story comes from an unlikely place: Cologne, Germany, where Jürgen Walleneit and Alexandra Rondorf are about to embark on a three-year, around-the-world journey in a Bronco that will serve as both their home and their office.

They found their Bronco on Facebook, sold by a Slovakian owner who called it his "third child" but needed to sell it due to family space constraints.

"We had to convince him that we are the right people for his baby," Walleneit said of their WhatsApp video call interview process.

Interestingly, they chose Bronco not for emotional reasons but for purely practical ones.

"The repairability all around the world," Walleneit said. "This car, you can repair it in every country we will go. You don't have so many models in the car industry you can drive around the world."

The pair has launched a YouTube channel called "Meets Moments" to document their journey, and they're planning to work with German entrepreneurs around the world, creating content and organizing events while living and working from their Bronco for three years.

It's a perfect example of how Bronco culture has evolved from American off-road icon to global platform for adventure, work, and life.

The Culture, Not Just the Car

Here's what struck me most about these conversations: None of these owners are really talking about cars. They're talking about a culture that's managed to sustain itself across six decades and six completely different generations of vehicles — and one that’s enabled them to discover new things about themselves.

The automotive landscape has been completely transformed multiple times since 1966. But Bronco culture has this weird ability to absorb change while maintaining its core DNA. Hulick can take a stock 1966 to 13,000 feet in Colorado and keep up with modified rigs. Gertsch can put his '78 next to his Raptor and they look like they belong together. Wagoner can daily drive a 2021 and feel connected to the same ethos that created the original.

"When I pull into the gas station and somebody comes over, they always have a story," Gertsch tells me. "Even if they didn't own a Bronco. They're like, 'Oh, my uncle had one just like that.' Everyone has a story with Bronco, whether it was their parents or their grandpa or their uncle or their neighbor."

As Bronco hits 60, we’re celebrating six decades of a culture that's managed to stay relevant while staying true to itself. In a world where everything feels disposable and temporary, that's remarkable.

And if you don't understand the appeal, well, as Hulick puts it: "You're either gonna love it or you're not. You need to get behind the wheel. You need to ride in one and see what happens."

Sixty years in, and we're still making converts one drive at a time.

Jason Hyde is Bronco brand manager at Ford.