DeSoto has long Kalispell history

Leonard Anderson of Evergreen hadn’t been inside Boyd’s Blacksmith Shop — now the newly opened DeSoto Grill — since he brought his neighbor’s horse to the shop for new horseshoes in the 1930s.

Anderson, 96, has a unique connection to the restaurant and its namesake. He was the original owner of the 1954 DeSoto Powermaster for which the new restaurant is named. Last week Anderson got a chance to see his beloved DeSoto, now a restored two-door “chop top,” for the first time in decades as it was parked in front of the restaurant.

A longtime mechanic before his retirement, Anderson was working at Ed Stockton’s dealership in Kalispell when he purchased the DeSoto in 1954 for $2,260.

“I put 160,000 miles on it,” he recalled, marveling at the attractive grill on the restored classic. “I always liked that front grill.”

The DeSoto was manufactured and marketed by the defunct DeSoto division of the Chrysler Corp. from 1928 to 1961.

Anderson sold the car to Art Croskrey of Kalispell, a fellow mechanic, and it has stayed in the Croskrey family ever since. Art’s daughter, Lora, who incidentally was the flower girl at Anderson’s wedding, remembers how well-loved that DeSoto was and still is.

“Dad kept the DeSoto for special occasions, and Willie [Lora’s son and now co-owner of DeSoto Grill] fell in love with it,” she said. “After Dad died he asked if he could get it. When he was in high school he drew how he envisioned [restoring] that car.”

About four years ago Willie and a few of his friends began the restoration while he was living in Portland.

“It only left my hands a couple times, for the glass and exhaust work,” he said.

The interior still needs to be completed, and it will get done as time and money allow, Willie said. He simply ran out of money for the restoration because his dog got cancer and he and his wife spent a sizable amount on the dog’s treatment.

When Willie, a 1989 Flathead High School graduate, and Shawnna got the chance to lease the restaurant formerly called The Forge, it made perfect sense to bring the DeSoto into the limelight as a classic icon for a classic building.

Once the DeSoto Grill is off and running, Willie said he will revert to his career in the auto industry. In Portland he was a parts specialist for a BMW dealership, and he’ll jump back into some facet of the industry.

“I’m a car guy,” he said.