During World War II, the Eau Claire State Teachers College (ECSTC) was required to get Certificates of War Necessity to be able to use the vehicles regularly and were allowed a certain number of gas rations per quarter depending on how many miles the vehicle was driven. Much of the correspondence in the collection is between the ECSTC and the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT), largely from the Wausau branch of the office which would have been Eau Claire’s district office of the ODT. The correspondence covers the registering and acquiring of the Certificate of War Necessity for the school bus, 1937 Lafayette sedan, 1939 Ford pickup truck, and discussion of the necessity of a tractor and other machinery for property maintenance. It also includes several petitions by the ECSTC to obtain and increase the number of gas rations cards allotted for the various vehicles and equipment used by the university. The bus and sedan are listed in several places as being used to transport students, and later soldiers, to and from different community locations like the YMCA and the local high school for training.

Also included in the collection is correspondence and forms related to the purchase of the previously mentioned 1939 Ford pickup truck by the ECSTC in December 1943. The vehicle was purchased by Wisconsin’s Board of Regents of Normal Schools for the ECSTC from the U.S. Treasury Department. In addition to correspondence and forms related to the sale of the truck, there is also correspondence between the ECSTC and the Wisconsin Motor Vehicle Department in January 1944 to acquire a certificate of title for the truck as they were not given one in the sale.