Only in America

In about 1938, Mike Zanetti age 15, the son of Italian Immigrants, was hired by a prominent Italian family in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He could drive and was hired to drive a fruit truck and sell fruit to the people in and around Southwestern Wyoming.

The times were very hard for people, as our country was still in the midst of the great depression. The ranchers and farmers in southwestern Wyoming had no money and therefore could not afford to buy the fruit from Mike’s delivery truck. Mike would encounter poor folks on ranches wishing they could buy a bushel of peaches but just had no means to do it. Mike returned daily with very little sales and a truck still loaded with fruit.

The conversations he had with his boss were not pleasant. The boss insisted that he do better or he would be fired. Being very ingenious, Mike approached some of the same folks that had no money and saw old tractor engine blocks and other discarded junk in the fields next to ranch houses. Knowing what metal would bring at a local metal and junk yard, he offered the people a trade for fruit. He purchased a chain hoist that he could load heavy objects on his truck. He began bartering for all kinds of items in trade for fresh fruit. He would transport the junk back to the metal yards, selling it for cash and turning in the costs of the fruit to his boss. He often made more money than the fruit was worth. His boss once told him “Mikey, you are the best salesman we have ever had”.

Years later, Mike joined the US Army during World War II and served in the conflict as a mechanic working on power plants in Egypt. He learned skills about diesel engines that would be invaluable later in his life. After the war he married Marge Zelenka, another Rock Springs immigrant family’s daughter. Together they started a taxi company called Vet’s Taxi in Rock Springs. A few years passed and they had an opportunity to offer transportation for the Union Pacific and Little America employees. This lead to the purchase of a couple of charter buses. Soon after, they purchased a company Jackson Rock Springs Stages that offered a passenger route from Rock Springs to Jackson Wyoming.

A son, James and a daughter Leanne came along and helped with the growth of the company thru the 1960’s. An employee contract to soda ash mines in southwestern Wyoming helped the company to grow to 8 buses. In 1980, an opportunity arose for the son James and daughter Leanne to purchase the company from their parents. Along with help from Jim’s wife Jo and Leanne’s husband Dennis, they began to operate the company and added a few buses for employee contracts. In 1981 a huge construction project in Wyoming required the company to immediately double in size and it grew to over 90 buses by 1985 when the construction was over. Soon after, in 1986 the company moved a couple of buses into Salt Lake City and began to operate charters and tours to Wendover Nevada.

Knowing that the name Jackson Rock Springs Stages just did not seem to fit the operation in Salt Lake City, the company registered a doing business as name. Today the company has over 50 buses operating in southwest Wyoming and has just added their 80th bus to the Utah fleet. Over 150 employees help operate transportation for employee contracts, schools, churches, sports teams, colleges, National Park tour operators and of course Wendover. The third and fourth generations have now joined the family business, now the 16th largest private charter bus company in the states …..only in America! Mike and Marge, now passed, had wishes to offer a safe, courteous and responsible transportation system that continues today as Le Bus.

Our Buses Over The Years