Bud Bolt honored with Samuel J. Norris excellence award

OROVILLE – Carl "Bud" Bolt said the greatest honor he's ever received was the Samuel J. Norris Award for Excellence but the most fun he's ever had was traveling the country "junking" with his wife of 68 years, Laila.

The Samuel J. Norris Award, is given annually by the city to a person or organization that has significantly contributed to improving the quality of life in Oroville. Bolt was the 2023 recipient.

"I was pleased and surprise to be selected," said the Kearney, Nebraska native who will be celebrating his 96th birthday on May 20. "The previous list of recipients is pretty darn impressive – Jim Moll, Jim Lenhoff, Clay Castleberry, Stu Shaner to name just a few."

After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, as a firefighter and the fun, but futile, attempts at careers in pro-wrestling and as an electric steel guitar player in a country western band, Bolt started his career in tools for Snap-on in 1952. Little did he know at the time that his career would turn into a passion for tools that would span a lifetime and lead him and his wife on adventures to junk stores in search of old or unusual hand tools. Nor did he ever consider that the result of their excursions would, in 2006, lead to the opening of Bolt's Antique Tool Museum. The museum's collection of more than 12,000 pieces is the largest known documented collection of hand tools in the world.

The museum and Bolt's collection has been featured in television specials and newspaper and magazine articles. It is also highlighted on numerous tourism websites.

While he’d always loved tools, he was a mechanic in the Marine Corps, it was in 1956 when he was asked to talk to Salt Lake City, Utah high school students about detachable sockets that his interest in tool evolution really started to grow. Then, in 1963, he was asked to speak at an international tool conference in Dallas, Texas.

"I was asked to give a brief history on tools and effect they had on mankind. It was through my research for that talk that I got really fascinated," said Bolt. "With tools human beings can do anything. Without tools they are just another animal."

In 1969 Bolt became the California and Nevada sales manager for C.T.S. Company's MAC Tool Division.

Working in the tool industry with the last name "Bolt," he said he took a lot of ribbing and heard "just about every joke you can imagine" saying he was nicknamed "Rusty Bolt" as he aged. These days he said he's just "happy not be called ‘Deadbolt.’"

The couple and their four children moved from Cupertino to Oroville in 1973 to a house on four-acres on Mountain View Drive that became known as "The Rusty Wrench Ranch." One of Bolt's grandson's now owns the family home. Laila Bolt passed away in 2016 and Bolt resides at Country Crest Assisted Living but makes frequent visits to and remains active in his namesake museum.

Bolt got earnest about collecting tools when he retired in 1979 and he and "mom," as he refers to his wife, began "junking" together in antique and second-hand shops near and far. They continued their jaunts for tools for 25 years with Laila "loving it."

"That's when I started serious collecting. I wanted to start earlier but my lovely wife insisted I work to make a living to take care of her and kids," said Bolt. "People used to tease me saying ‘why couldn't you collect match books. They’re not as heavy.’ But it was tools that interested us."

Bolt constructed outbuildings on The Rusty Ranch to house his extensive assortment of tools and people came from "all over" to see the eclectic collection.

"We had car clubs, RV clubs, motorcycle clubs and all sorts of people visiting to see the tools," said Bolt. "We had a wonderful time."

Bolt has thousands of stories about the tools he collected over the years with more than 100 of these tales appearing in the Oroville Mercury-Register from "about 2008 to about 2016" under his byline in columns called "Antique Tool Talk." These columns have been collected into three volumes and are available for purchase at Bolt's Antique Tool Museum.

One of the "greatest" pieces in the tool collection was purchased by the Bolts in a "junky junk shop" in Kalispell, Montana.

"It's a handmade socket set. There's only one in the world and there will never be another again," said Bolt. "That was one of the most exciting finds."

Another tool in the collection is "tied directly to Abraham Lincoln when he was a young attorney in Illinois," said Bolt. It's a John P. Manny wrench, circa 1854, manufactured by Manny & Company. In 1855 Cyrus H. McCormick (1808-1883), an industrialist and inventor of the first commercially successful reaper, filed a patent infringement suit against Manny & Company pertaining to the combined Reaper and Mower that Manny & Company was manufacturing. The defendant's lawyer was Lincoln. While the venue for the case was moved from Illinois to Ohio so Lincoln did not get to present his brief, Manny & Company won the case and honored their contract with Lincoln. The retainer he earned is said to have helped advance his political aspirations and, when he became the 16th president of the United States, he appointed Edwin M. Stanton, a Manny & Company defense attorney, as Secretary of War.

"Now that's an interesting piece of tool history," said Bolt. "It's just pretty neat."

The oldest piece in his collection, said Bolt, is an 1821 tool that was used to make square holes for square bolts. The newest tools are some that survived the 2018 Camp Fire.

"We planned on not having anything in collection that was made after World War II," said Bolt. "But getting some of Camp Fire tools, that was a unique opportunity and will be a big part of history."

Of all the tools he's collected and studied, Bolt said "without question" the "monkey wrench is the most important man-made object ever made."

"Humans were making iron tools in 400 B.C. Things like tongs and rasps or tools for war," said Bolt. "In the early 1800s we wanted to become an industrialized nation. We couldn't build machines without tools. The monkey wrench had a massive effect on the nation and our ability to make machines. And those machines made industry and industry made America."

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