Cruisers
& the Open Road

When the Patrol took to the road in 1937, troopers shared a fleet of fourteen Ford V-8 sedans — black, unmarked, and barely identifiable from the cars they pulled over. The cruiser as a public symbol — the silhouette, the lightbar, the door shield — was something the Patrol had to invent.

This gallery walks you through that invention. Each restored vehicle is paired with the year's standard-issue equipment: the radio that lived under the dashboard, the citation book on the passenger seat, the trooper's service revolver in the holster. Together they tell a story of widening responsibility — from a fourteen-man road force to a 24-hour, statewide service.

• APatrol vehicles from 1937 through the current Dodge Charger interceptor
• BTwo restored Harley-Davidson WLA motorcycles, in original Patrol livery
• CA working "code-three" lightbar demonstration table
• DEight decades of license plates, issued and seized
• EOriginal highway maps, mile-marker prototypes, and roadside signage