Brightly colored gas pumps, some more than 100 years old, line the walls of Randy Nissen’s man cave. The collection began with a single find in a Wyoming field of weeds that sparked a 15-year obsession with antique pumps.
Each is restored to either an old gas station brand or in imaginative colors and designs such as the pump painted brown and gold and sporting the University of Wyoming cowboy logo.
Nissen said he’s spent the last decade and a half “jazzing up” these abandoned pumps and bringing back a forgotten era. He restores an average of two of the vintage pumps each winter and chooses the colors based on his own memories or a familiar brand.
This hobby started almost by accident and has since exploded into a collection of more than 50 gas pumps and other related memorabilia.
“I had gone to Ten Sleep and saw a pump sitting out in the weeds,” Nissen said. “I ended up buying it and restored it in the Husky brand.”
The first pump was not originally a branded pump, but a plain county pump that didn’t even have decals. Nissen chose to redesign it to commemorate his teenage years.
Throughout high school, he had worked at the Husky gas station in Worland and the place holds fond memories for him.
“Most guys that have pumps, they have it restored to where they worked,” Nissen said.
His collection now contains a few more Husky-branded pumps as well as others that he restored to feature other lesser-known brands that no longer exist such as Litening Gasoline. He has also recreated familiar brands such as Shell Oil and Phillips 66.
He doesn’t just limit his collection to pumps from the United States. He has a rare twin visibles pump from Canada that he had motorized so the replica globes rotate, displaying both sides.
When Nissen finds most of what he calls “treasures,” they are usually rusty and needing a makeover. He doesn’t try to restore the pumps to their original state, but has more fun modifying them with bright colored paint, decals and details that bring the pumps back to life.
Thrill Of The Hunt
Nissen never knows when or where the next gas pump will turn up, and it usually happens when he least expects it. He has found pumps abandoned in fields, in yards, and one in his collection had been dumped alongside a river in Colorado.
One time, his daughter was in Pavillion and stumbled onto original globes that she told her dad about. It turned out that the garage used to be a Ford dealership and Nissen found several other treasures when he went knocking.
“The old guy had bought the place back in 1950,” Nissen said. “The globes had been sitting on a shelf since then. They also had a battery charger from the turn of the century that I bought.”
Nissen only recently started collecting memorabilia from yesteryear and recalls with regret the treasures he didn’t collect or, worse, threw away before he realized their value.
One such item was a can full of old stringy yellow grease that Nissen had from an old job site. When he had moved into his new home, he tossed the can away. Years later, a similar can in worse condition sold at an auction for $900.
There was also the visible pump from his own childhood.
“I remember being told if we threw rocks around that thing, we'd get blistered,” Nissen said.
Years later, he asked his dad what had happened to that pump and was told that it was pushed over the edge of an embankment with a front-end loader. Nissen went in search of the old pump, but it was buried under at least 10 feet of dirt.
The man cave of Randy Nissen is covered with replica signs to compliment his restored gas pumps. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Randy Nissen restores an average of two gas pumps each winter. His wife, Lori, has told him he is done collecting them — for now. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
When reproducing globes for gas pumps, you can choose either to go with a familiar replica or go with a fantasy design, such as the University of Wyoming cowboy. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Randy Nissen jazzes up old gas pumps and other discarded treasures in his garage workshop. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Randy Nissen’s collection includes modern globes, both replica and vanity styles, as well as old treasures like bubble gum machines and water fountains. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Randy Nissen has rescued old, abandoned pumps from fields, yards, garages and collections from those who are downsizing. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
When redoing the booths in his man cave, Randy Nissen chose to use the Powell Panther high school colors of orange and black. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
The gas pumps come in varying degrees of rust and their beauty is in the eye of the beholder. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Some of the gas pumps that Randy Nissen recovers come with their original signs, which he also retouches. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
When the gas pumps still have their original glass, they can be cleaned with toilet bowl cleaner to bring them back to their original glamor. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
This original gas conversion sign shows how prices were calculated. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Randy Nissen’s children requested information on each gas pump so now, each pump has its own informational placard telling them what the pump is and what year it was restored. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
When not restoring gas pumps, Randy Nissen has shown off his coup at car shows across the region. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily)
Restoring The Past
When Nissen is restoring relics from yesteryear, he researches the history of each piece and, thanks to a request from his children, has placed a small placard on each pump that tells the story of each one.
He also researches exactly how each gas pump functioned.
Old timers in the 1920s did not trust the new-fangled machines, and so each pump had a “visible” glass globe installed so they could see the actual gasoline. Later versions included a spinner located on the pump to prove that the gas was really filling up the car.
Nissen’s collection shows the evolution of gas pumps and how each design was an improvement over the next.
He is meticulous with the details even if the pumps are not restored to their original state. For instance, he recreated the charts that were attached to each pump to help customers calculate their cost per gallon.
Beyond Gas Pumps
Nissen not only restores the gas pumps, he’s expanded the collection to include air pumps, gas cans, bottles, advertisement signs and anything connected to the past that catches his eye.
He even has an 1890 kerosene tank which is the ancestor of all his gas pumps. He had found the antique pump in Fremont County where it had once been in a mercantile store. Customers would fill their galvanized cans with kerosene for lamps at home, and now these cans themselves are also collectible.
He is working each winter on more projects to make sure that the past is not completely forgotten and can be appreciated by a new generation.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
