Spud Drive-In
231 S. Highway 33,
Driggs,
ID
83422
231 S. Highway 33,
Driggs,
ID
83422
4 people
favorited this theater
The Spud Drive-In is an old fashion drive-in theater where you can watch a movie in the shadow of the Teton Mountains. The theater opened on July 3, 1953 with a capacity of 76 cars. The current owners, Richard and Dawnelle Wood, bought it from Leo and Gladys Davis in 1987.
The drive-in theater, which has always been known as the Spud, has a unique marquee – a giant potato on a flatbed truck. The Woods had seen postcards with the a huge potato on a semi and thought it would be fun to duplicate it, only smaller — since they raise seed potatoes in Teton Valley and seed potatoes are small. They looked for rocks that would work, but there was the problem of accessing and moving it. Then Richard found an ad in the paper that read Ugly Old Truck, runs well. Sure enough it was ugly. They brought it home and gave it a new paint job. A friend, Larry Hull, helped build the spud. They blew insulation on a wood frame and then covered it in cement. It’s unbelievable how many pictures are taken of that ugly old truck and its potato.
Contributed by
Grant Smith
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
A Christmas Spud. I wonder how many tater tots you could make from a spud that size. LOL
The Spud Drive In has the best hamburgers I have ever had. The carmel popcorn is to die for. But don’t take my word for it try one on for size.
For the record, that style of truck is called a COE, Cab Over Engine. There is a collector following for such trucks. They are not always flatbeds.
There were tow-trucks and other models that had the driver situated over the engine. Hence the pug nose.
Here is a 2009 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/lo5wvq
Cool name for a drive in.
You do not see that every day.
An odd drive-in.
Interesting that the website is down, but the phone message is current. Running first run films on a 2-day schedule.
The above address is incorrect. The address for this drive-in is 2175 South Highway 33.
2175 So. Highway 33 is the address listed on their website also. Related websites does function also.