Last night a friend and local grillfella texted me and asked if he could come by my house to show me something. He is a registered WKC member but is mostly a lurker. He pulls up in my driveway in his work van, throws open the doors and inside is 63 Plainsman.
He tells me last weekend he was cooking for about 10 guys at a party in the Oakland Hills (California). He had brought three of his own, newer Weber kettles to cook on. While he was cooking, one of the guys asked him if he knew anything about old Webers. The guy pulls out his phone and shows him a picture of what he immediately recognized as a Plainsman. Apparently there was a house in the guy's neighborhood that an old couple had passed away. Either the city or a company was cleaning out the house, throwing almost everything into a dumpster at the residence. The guys wife suggested to the people cleaning out the house that they should put all the usable or good stuff at the curb as people will pick up the items. The next day he walked by the house and the Plainsman was sitting at the curb with a bunch of other miscellaneous items. That is how he had acquired the Plainsman. My buddy explained he collected vintage Webers and what he had was a really rare item. There was a discussion as to it's value and my friend made the guy an offer. The guy said he wanted to sleep on the offer and would let him know the next day. That's how the Plainsman ended up in my friends van.
This is the fifth Plainsman that I am aware of that has surfaced in California. This newest one came from Oakland,
@SixZeroFour came from Palm Springs (this year) Mine came from San Jose, and two others came from Southern California. One of the Southern California kettles we never found out if it was saved. It was a WKC Forum post about 6 years ago on either Craigs List or FB Marketplace showing a Plainsman listed as scrap metal for free (curb alert). Sadly, at the time
@Troy had posted it very possibly had gone to the scrap yard as there are a lot of scrap metal guys in Southern Califonria.
I took the opportunity to take a side by side photo of my Plainsman and the newly acquired one. Probably the first time since the 60's that two Plainsman have been photographed together. Look at the difference in the fade lines on the bowl.
Keep the faith and keep looking. Finds like this are still out there, albeit fewer and further between.