Until his passing in 1998 at the age of 90, Gene shared the story of the tangerine Chief time and again with trusted enthusiasts. Being a witness to many of those engagements throughout the first 37 years of my life, I can attest that his telling of this bike’ s origins never changed. Even so, I didn’ t want to rely solely on my own memory for this documentation.
Unfortunately, many of the folks who knew the story firsthand are long gone, and I didn’ t have the forethought to record interviews while they were alive. But there are still a few people who were around the shop back then or knew Gene in his later years, had seen the Chief, and had heard the account firsthand. I reached out to my remaining family members. I reached out to Bob Nelson Jr., now in his 90s, who worked at Gene’ s shop in the 1950s when he was in high school( his father, Bob Nelson Sr., was one of Gene’ s closest friends and riding buddies). I talked with several highly respected and knowledgeable Indian motorcycle experts, including those who knew Gene well and visited with him regularly through the years. During these conversations, I never shared what I knew until late in our discussion, making certain not to influence their recall.
The consistency across the independent interviews was stunning. Each recalled that the bike was one of the final ones assembled by the factory from remaining parts. Several shared that they understood it was assembled after a run of police bikes were produced and that it had many police- spec parts. All recalled that the bike was always kept in the back of the shop and that it appears today as it did back then. The experts confirmed it is among the last Chiefs produced by Indian.
Gene actively rode the Chief for a time, accumulating about 2,600 miles. Nearly all the bike’ s total mileage was clocked within the first year or two of Gene’ s ownership. He stopped riding it after stepping out of a
Right: Today, the Chief holds a place of honor in Eric’ s garage along with memorabilia from Gene’ s shop, including a painting Eric made of Gene sitting on the Chief. Below: Gene’ s former shop today.
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