Midwest Guest

Check out these great Midwest car collections!

I'm a big fan of car museums, and I suppose it may come partly from the fact that I grew up near the Motor City, partly from the fact I grew up in a family business involved in the automotive supply chain, and partly from the fact that I'm really a secretly frustrated gear head or engineer.

Automotive design, advertising and innovation have always fascinated me, and I've found a good number of automotive museums in the Midwest to help feed that interest over the years.

I'm especially thrilled when visit a museum and come away with some great images of my dream car (a 1968 Pontiac Firebird)  or find a unique vehicle or story about the automotive industry here in the Midwest.

 

 

We've visited a number of car-related museums in the Midwest, and I've read a lot of great stories about places to feed an interest in all things automotive from fellow travel writers here in, and near, the Midwest.

So, when I decided to do a round-up post about my own automotive-related stories here on Midwest Guest, I asked some of my fellow Midwest travel bloggers if I could also include links to some of their best stories about Midwest car museums.

Here is the first part of a two-part series of posts listing links to those stories!

Where I live: Driving America opens at The Henry Ford-We're members of The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and frequently visit the museum (and its companion living history campus, Greenfield Village) to walk around and take photos. You just know that a place named after automotive giant Henry Ford has to have a great automotive exhibit. Here is a post from Midwest Guest that I wrote after the museum's revamp of their massive automotive exhibit in early 2012.

 

 

The Henry Ford upgrades "The Automobile in American Life" exhibit-Here is another story I did at Midwest Guest about the "Driving America" exhibit revamp just as the museum prepared to shut the prior version of it down for a year-long revamp in early 2011. This one also includes information about the museum's rethinking of the traditional auto display that this version of the auto exhibit represented at its opening in 1987.

 

 

R.E. Olds' Lansing Legacy-We hear a lot about Henry Ford here in the Detroit area, but the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in mid-Michigan's Lansing is a nice tribute to another Michigan automotive pioneer, R. E. Olds. The young Ransom moved to Michigan's capital city with his family in 1880. Henry Ford often gets credit for creating the assembly line, but Olds first came up with the idea of moving auto parts from place to place on the plant floor via wheeled carts for a progressive car assembly system, an idea that Ford later improved upon by putting the whole system on conveyor belts. Check it out at Midwest Guest.

 

 

Combine Nature and Cars During a Day Trip to Volo, Illinois-Melissa's story at the Wisconsin Parent blog takes readers to the Village of Volo near Chicago where they can walk in a beautiful nature preserve before heading over to see the Volo Auto Museum. Melissa and her family especially enjoyed the museum's Hollywood Car Collection that features car stars from movies and television that include the Batmobile!

 

Photo: Melissa Schwartz, used with permission

Fulton, MO: Auto World Museum-Adam and his family visited this museum in Fulton, between St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri to find a great collection of vehicles ranging from horse-drawn carts and buggies to the most modern solar-powered cars nicely arranged in period settings. Adam seemed to particularly enjoy seeing the museum's Delorean, much like the vehicle used in the Back to the Future films. Read about it at the Visit Flyover County blog.

Photo: Adam Sommer, used with permission

Nashville, TN: Lane Motor Museum-Here's another car museum that Adam says seemed to really engage his car-loving toddler son. A dedicated play area for kids at the museum allowed his son to burn off a little energy playing with the museum's car-themed playthings, and the Lane Motor Museum's collection of unusual vehicles like a "two-headed" car with two front end that allowed drivers to drive in either direction without turning the car around proved pretty fascinating to both father and son! It's all at the Visit Flyover Country blog.

Photo: Adam Sommer, used with permission

Classic cars galore at Kearney museum-A visit meant as a spur of the moment stop along the Lincoln Highway at the Classic Car Collection at Kearney in central Nebraska turned out to be an engaging tour through the museum's collection of over 130 vintage vehicles. The tour left Lisa and Tim wishing they'd planned more time to see the vehicles ranging from the automobile's early days through some snazzy sports cars produced in the 1990s. Check it out at the Walking Tourists blog.  

Photo: The Walking Tourists, used with permission

Checking out a classic car collection at Skip's Antique Car Museum in Put-in-Bay-Golf carts seem to be the preferred means of transportation in Ohio's Put-in-Bay during the warmer weather, but this Lake Erie island is also home to the largest number of classic and antique vehicles per capita in the world. Check out Midwest Guest to see a bit of Skip's cool collection that includes the oldest car on the island (a 1915 Model T) and some unique vehicles like a 1930 peanut wagon,  a 1924 snowmobile and few vintage versions of the island's ubiquitous golf carts.  

 

 

Cruise into Ohio's Canton Classic Car Museum-This museum has a uniquely homey feel with an eclectic collection of cool cars and other vintage treasures like toys, furniture, clothing, movie memorabilia and more tucked into every corner of the jam-packed building that originally started out as a bicycle shop in Ohio near the nation's first transcontinental highway (the Lincoln Highway). Check out my story about the Canton Classic Car Museum at Midwest Guest.

 

 

Cruise into summer at the Canton Classic Car Museum-This is an alternate version I did of the story I did about the Canton museum at Midwest Guest with a few different images for the Ohio Division of Tourism at their Discovering Ohio blog.

 

 

Be sure to cruise on back here as I post still more links to stories about cool Midwest car collections on December 4!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved (unless otherwise noted)

Visiting Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana

The Studebaker company traces its origins to February 16, 1852 when brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker opened the H&C Studebaker blacksmith shop at the corner of Jefferson and Michigan Streets in South Bend, Indiana.

I love car museums and saw a trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana as enough of an excuse to drive further across the state to visit the National Studebaker Museum before heading back home to Michigan.

 

 

Several younger siblings joined the Studebaker brothers in the fledging blacksmith and carriage business, and the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company soon became the world's largest manufacturer of wagons and buggies.

The company began manufacturing "horseless carriages" in 1902 with the introduction of an electric car that received a pretty good endorsement when Thomas Edison purchased the second electric vehicle produced by the company.

The Studebakers produced more and more self-propelled vehicles, introducing gas models in 1904 and ceasing production of horse-drawn carriages by 1920.

The company thrived during the 1920s, moving their car manufacturing back to their home base in South Bend from Detroit to replace their carriage making operation in Indiana.

Studebaker struggled with the approach of the Great Depression during the 1930s. It went into receivership in 1933, regaining its solvency in 1935.

The next several decades saw the company produce some of its best known and best loved vehicles, but Studebaker's fortunes faded in the wake of World War II. A merger with Packard during the mid-1950s didn't help.

 

 

The company axed Packard by 1958, ceased manufacturing cars in South Bend by 1963 and closing the final Studebaker plant in Hamilton, Ontario in 1966.

Studebaker enthusiasts fondly remember the 1939 Champion, 1947 Starlight Coupe, the "Bullet Nose" Studebakers of the 1950s, the 1959 subcompact Lark, the 1963 Starliner Hardtop and the sporty 1963 Avanti.

Studebaker's closing gave rise to the question of what to do with the collection of vehicles and other artifacts collected by company.

 

 

The collection included carriages used by Lafayette as well as Presidents Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Lincoln and McKinley. The Lincoln carriage, an 1889 purchase by Clement Studebaker, carried the President and his wife to Ford Theater on the night of his 1865 assassination.

The company gave the 37-vehicle collection and Studebaker archives to the City of South Bend when the city agreed to house the collection in a place "suitable" for public display of the items.

The city showed the Studebaker collection in different facilities over the years, opening the Studebaker National Museum in a three-story, 55,000-square-foot building adjacent to the Northern Indiana Center for History in 2005.

The museum has over 120 vehicles and displays about 70 of them at any given time. The collection also includes an archive of over 70 tons of papers that include corporate minutes, correspondence, engineering drawings, photos, production records, newspaper and magazine articles and other items from Studebaker and Packard.

 

 

The main level houses many of the vintage vehicles from the late 1800s through 1934. The Upper level has a lot of the later automobiles from the company, and the lower level has military vehicles produced by the Studebakers dating from the Civil War era through World War II as well as a display set up like a 1960s drive-in restaurant and vehicles in "open storage" (some displayed on lifts, but still visible for viewing by museum visitors).

I particularly enjoyed seeing the elegant 1950s cars with their sherbet-colored paint jobs and the museum's famous "Muppet car".

 

 

The Muppet car is a specially-adapted, bullet-nosed 1951 Studebaker Commander used in the 1979 film when Fozzie Bear borrowed the vehicle from his uncle for a trip he and his buddy Kermit the Frog took to Hollywood.

You can see where the actual driver of the car sat and watched the road on a video monitor connected to a camera in the car's distinctive bullet-nose front end.

 

 

Fozzie shows off the Muppet car's colorful movie paint job and the hidden driver compartment in the car's trunk

 

The car is in need of repair and restoration. It is missing the colorful paint job it received during the filming. The museum estimates it needs $40,000 to put the car back into pristine display shape. It would be fun to see Fozzie and Kermie ride again in the car with its psychedelic paint job, and I stuck a couple of bucks into the donation box near the car to help with the restoration.

 We also saw the Lincoln carriage, which soon heads out to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. as a rare loan-out for an exhibit about the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination this spring. It returns to South Bend next summer in time for a special museum exhibit about Lincoln's death and his early life in Indiana.

 

 

The museum opens 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon until 5 p.m. on Sunday. It closes on New Years Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Admission is $8 for adults, $6.50 for seniors 60+, $5 for students ages 6 and up and free for children under 5.

Connect with the museum on the Web, Facebook and Twitter.

Want to learn more? Check out The Studebaker National Museum...Over a Century on Wheels by Andrew Beckman or Studebaker 1946-1966: The Classic Postwar Years by Richard M. Langworth.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for May 2014

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Seeing Red: How to fly with the Cardinals in St. Louis-Attending a hockey, baseball or other local sporting event while you're traveling is one of the best ways to experience a town like a local. Here Terri gives visitors to St. Louis a few tips and a list of suggested reads at the Off The Beaten Page Travel blog to help them experience a Cardinals game like a pro!

Watching the Lugnuts in Lansing, Michigan

Disability Access at Cedar Point-Jessie loves amusement parks like Ohio's Cedar Point. Mobility problems or other disability challenges? No problem says Jessie as she shows readers at the Wandering Educators blog how to easily enjoy a great day at the park with their families.

Film history abounds in Ohio-What do movies like "The Fortune Cookie", "The Shawshank Redemption", "Back Home in Indiana" and the more recent "Draft Day" have in common? Check out Vince's post at the Discovering Ohio blog to find out how filming for at least part of each of these films took place in Ohio.  

Have You Forgotten about Louis Bromfield?-Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield wrote many books, with some of them providing the basis for a dozen Hollywood films over the years. Bee takes us on a tour of his home at Ohio's Malabar Farm, which also provided a key scene for one of Hollywood's great romances-the wedding of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Check it out at beesfirstappearance blog.

Peoria, IL: Caterpillar Visitors Center-Adam says a visit to the Caterpillar Visitors Center was especially appealing to his four-year-old son, but this sounds like a fun experience to me, too. Climbing on tractors, pushing buttons, "driving" the machines...yup, I'd be all about it! Check this unique, interactive museum out at the Visit Flyover Country blog.

Wheels O' Time-Positively Delightful!-What began as a barn built by a couple of car enthusiasts to store their growing car collections in 1978 is now a multi-building museum housing a collection that includes antique cars, trucks, clocks, model trains, toys and a train engine with a caboose where visitors can climb aboard in Dunlap, Illinois. Check out Maureen's story about it at her Positively Tuesday blog.

Love checking out unusual vehicles. This one is at the Gilmore Car Museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Preparing for the Final Bout of 2014-Check out roller derby action in Cincinnati with Ronny at the Queen City Discovery blog. I remember watching women's roller derby on late-night television years ago, and my hairdresser has been in roller derby teams around town. This seems like a sign to me that I should finally get out to see a bout one of these days!

The South Haven Lakeshore by Day-I love following Aaron's travels online where he likes sharing his adventures in coffeehouses and around Midwest locations like this beach lighthouse in western Michigan at his The Adventures of elATLboy blog. By the way, congrats to Aaron and Erin on their recent marriage! Here's to many happy travels ahead for the two of you.  

Capturing the Spirit-I always like seeing what is happening in the tourism industry around the Midwest, so I appreciated seeing Muriel's take on the marketing efforts of various Nebraska-based groups and destinations. Check it out this group of videos Muriel collected at the Nebraska Outback blog.

Driftless for a Day: Hiking Wayalusing State Park-Kenneth takes readers of the Wisconsin Explorer blog on a hike at one of the state's great state parks. Wyalusing sits where the Wisconsin River meets The Mississippi River and you'll see plenty of images of views from the park's 600-foot-tall bluffs and along the park's Sentinel Ridge Trail.

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

Want more Midwest news and links? Subscribe to my bi-monthly Midwest Guest newsletter!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Elmore, Ohio rides into the twentieth century

I first heard about Elmore, Ohio when I read a ghost story about the village's headless motorcycle rider. That mysterious story may be just a village legend, but trains, automobile, bicycles and a turnpike had a lot to do with Elmore's ride into and through the twentieth century.

Elmore developed during the 1820s and 1830s as a settlement established by pioneers like Israel Harrington near the site of an old supply depot established by General William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812.

The coming of a railroad line through the village and building of a train depot in 1869 spurred Elmore's economic growth through the latter half of the nineteenth century.

A sign at the edge of town notes the importance of bicycle and automobile manufacturing to the development of Elmore.

Harmon Becker moved to Elmore in 1869 with his family and established a saw mill and stave factory in the village with his sons James and Burton.

The Beckers capitalized on the increasing popularity of bicycles during the late 1800s by becoming bicycle manufacturers in 1892. That year, the bicycle company employed 50 workers to produce 500 bikes.

The Beckers soon expanded the company by purchasing an empty organ factory in nearby Clyde.

Elmore bicycles became popular nationally and sold for $100. By 1898, the company employed 80 workers to produce 1,500 bicycles.

The Beckers switched to building automobiles in 1898 because they did not want to sell to the American Bicycle Company, a trust formed to control competition, supply and prices.

The first Elmore car hit the road by 1900. By 1903, the company produced three cars per day.

The Beckers stressed having a valve-less motor that did not require cranking in its advertising.

The Beckers liked the lightweight two-stroke engine because they felt making smaller cars would boost sales. The 1904 Elmore Convertible Runabout, the company's smallest automobile, seated four and sold for $650, making it one of the most economical cars on the market.

Elmore automobiles also performed well in the long-distance automobile races popular in the early 1900s. An Elmore Pathfinder won a race from New York to the site of St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 to the surprise of many people, and the company's cars continued to fare well in races over the next few years.

William C. Durant, founder of General Motors, purchased the company in 1909 to become a division of GM.

By 1910, the Elmore was no more when GM ousted Durant and streamlined GM by cutting divisions to stabilize its finances.

The Harris-Elmore Library in Elmore displays one of the company's bicycles and an Elmore auto. The Plymouth Historical Museum in Plymouth, Michigan also displays an Elmore auto.

See vintage photos of Elmore bikes, cars and advertising materials at Ohio Memory, a site by the Ohio Historical Society and state library, or the Sandusky County Scrapbook site.

Elmore sustained another blow to its economic well being in 1949 when passenger service ceased at the train station. Trains ceased rolling altogether through Elmore by the early 1970s.

The old train depot remains a source of pride in Elmore as the lovingly restored home to the village's museum and the Elmore Historical Railroad Club.

Building of the Ohio Turnpike through the area in the 1950s adversely affected Elmore and many places closed as traffic bypassed the area.

The turnpike also reduced a plot of land owned by Joe and Marie Schedel. The avid gardeners created a Japanese-style garden and built a summer home on their remaining property. Today, the Schedel Arboretum and Gardens is a public attraction and botanical preserve of national note.

Today, Elmore is a 1,500-resident village with a downtown consisting of several blocks of commercial, retail and industrial businesses. Victorian-style lamp posts and signs downtown hark back to the village's earlier success as a railroad and manufacturing center.

Elmore parks are home to the refurbished train depot and a restored 1860s-era log cabin. A scenic rail -to-trail route used by runners, bicyclists, walkers and inline skaters passes by the depot as part of Ohio's North Coast Inland Trail.

You can learn more about Elmore's earliest history at the historic Harrington Cemetery a few blocks outside of downtown Elmore.

Elmore's location about 25 miles southeast of Toledo gives residents easy access to big city amenities, but its location along the Portage River in the heart of northern Ohio farm country also gives residents and visitors an opportunity to enjoy small-town life.

Want to learn more about the history of Elmore, Ohio? Check out Elmore and Genoa by Jennifer Fording.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Favorites at The Henry Ford

What to do in the Detroit area when the weather gets cold and snowy and you're yearning for a nice walk?

One great solution to that dilemma for us, especially when the temperatures dip below zero and the wind chill dives to unmentionable sub-zero readings as it's doing here this month is to relieve a bit of our cabin fever by talking a stroll through history at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.

Regular readers at Midwest Guest know that we have memberships at The Henry Ford and we often enjoy visiting to photographing its outdoor living history facility, Greenfield Village. We also enjoy checking out the cool artifacts in the warm environs of the indoor museum, making full year-round use of our museum memberships.

Over the years, Tim and I have amassed quite a collection of images of our favorite historical objects and exhibits in the museum, and I'm sharing some of our favorite artifacts and exhibits here in hopes that it may encourage you to visit The Henry Ford or help support your own local museum by visiting and purchasing a membership:  

 

 

Driving America-It should come as no surprise that automobiles play a starring role at a museum named after one of America's best known automotive pioneers. Gear heads will find plenty to admire at The Henry Ford. "Driving America" covers 80,000 square feet of space in the museum with 130 vehicles, more than 60 showcases of automotive-related artifacts and a 100-seat "drive in" theater that plays films, as well as hosting special theatrical events or musical performances. The museum closed most of their automotive exhibit for nearly a year before re-opening a re-imagined version of the exhibit in early 2012 that featured museum goers' favorite cars and roadside artifacts, as well as many new interactive features designed to encourage guests to delve deeper into the history of America's love affair with cars and their impact on American popular culture and everyday life.

 

 

Rosa Parks bus-The Henry Ford commemorates February as Black History month in a big way each year with events and special exhibits, but one of the most prized artifacts it proudly displays year-round is the Montgomery, Alabama city bus that Rosa Parks rode into history after refusing to relinquish her seat to a white man in December of 1955. The bus sat, sadly neglected in an open field, for several decades before The Henry Ford acquired it to loving restore and display at the museum. Museum visitors can board the restored bus and sit in the place that Parks refused to vacate in 1955.

 

 

Lamy's Diner-Experience a meal in a 40-seat 1940s-era roadside diner. I loved this artifact when the museum first included it in its exhibit about the car and how it affected American culture, but I was overjoyed when the museum reworked the classic roadside diner to allow visitors to enjoy a quick meal. We love stopping to sit at the counter and ordering retro favorites like a sandwich and a quintessential Detroit beverage like Faygo Rock & Rye.

 

 

McDonalds sign-This 1960s McDonalds 26-foot-tall sign is one of my favorite pieces in the museum because of the personal attachment I feel to it. This particular sign stood at its original location on John R in Madison Heights long after many of the chain's locations replaced the neon version of this sign with more modern versions of their famed "Golden Arches". I loved driving by this sign featuring McDonalds' original Speedee logo for many years on my way to work, so I was happy to see it find a new home in the museum when McDonalds finally replaced it at the restaurant with a more modern sign.

 

 

Wienermobile-This 1952 vehicle is reportedly one of the museum's most photographed artifacts and often draws a crowd of kids on their way to the museum's Wienermobile Cafe where they can grab a quick hot dog or other snack. The modern versions of the famed hot-dog-shaped vehicle are larger and plusher, but I like this classic version of the Wienermobile just fine.

 

 

Made in America-This exhibit has some cool machinery, engines and other manufacturing artifacts highlighting the work of American innovators and inventors from the 18th to 20th centuries whose work powered the country's development through the Industrial Age. Tim and I both appreciated this mid-nineteenth century steam engine's Gothic design. You can see echoes in Tim's photo of the Gothic-style arches that I remember seeing in ornate churches and other buildings of that time period, although the beautiful lines of this steam engine spent much of its lifetime hidden inside of a lead processing factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

 

Dymaxion House- I love the circular  and streamlined architecture of this cool home designed by R. Buckminster Fuller, who was an architect, author, inventor and more. This home is a 1946 prototype of a Fuller design for an aluminum house. The two-bedroom home is about 1,100-square-feet with a design meant for easy shipping of the light-weight aluminum parts and easy assembly. The Henry Ford acquired the home in 1991, taking ten years to restore its 3,000 component parts and reassemble the structure before opening it to the public in 2001.

We've also enjoyed many of the temporary exhibits at The Henry Ford in recent years, including: Lego Architecture: Towering American Ambition that included Lego models of some cool Midwestern landmarks; Rock Stars' Cars & Guitars 2; and a special showing of the Emancipation Proclamation that drew 21,105 visitors to the museum for a 36-hour vigil showing of the famed document several years ago.

I'm looking forward to the "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" exhibit coming to The Henry Ford in May, 2014. I've seen some of the 250 items featured in this show at Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in the past, but this looks like a fun show with a leather jacket from Joan Jett, a bustier from Madonna, a Fender guitar from the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, and Lady Gaga's infamous meat dress, which I've yet to see!

This post is part of the inaugural Best of the Midwest blog hop. Have a post that fits this month's theme? Join in the fun below!

We'd love to see where you've been visiting!

Please read the following guidelines for sharing:

    
• Share posts related to the monthly topic.
    
• By linking up, you are giving me permission to share your post including one photo in any feature posts and on social media channels.
    
• Visit 2-3 other posts that have linked up, find some new places to visit & meet new friends!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Checking out a classic car collection at Skip's Antique Car Museum in Put-in-Bay

Golf carts may be the preferred means of transportation in Ohio's Put-in-Bay during the summer months, but the village lays claim as having the largest number of classic and antique vehicles per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Put-in-Bay boasts less than 150 permanent residents and the entire South Bass Island population numbers around 600.

There are over 200 vintage vehicles on South Bass Island, and the Skip Duggan Antique Car Club, founded in 2006, has  more than 120  members.

I'm thinking the math here surely makes a case for the cars-per-capita claim!

I have to admit that driving my little Ford Focus made it seem like we were driving the biggest vehicle on the road at times (especially when it came to finding parking on the island!), but there are plenty of impressively large vintage vehicles on view at the Antique Car Museum in the Perry Caves attraction complex.

The museum contains the collection of Charles "Skip" Duggan, founder of the Put-in-Bay Boat Line and Jet Express ferries and a community activist who organized first antique car parades around South Bass Island on Sunday afternoons in the late 1990s.

Duggan, who died in early 2007, built his collection of cars throughout the years and organized the parades so he and other car collectors could show off and share their cars with others.  

Duggan was especially fond of Ford Model Ts and Model As, and the museum collection contains several unique types of those vehicles as well as others.

The island also claims to be home to 26 Model Ts and 46 Model A cars.

The museum at the Antique Car Barn houses more than a dozen antique cars, plus lots of vintage road signs and gasoline memorabilia. There are some unusual vehicles like an old snowmobile originally built to deliver mail in Minnesota, a cherry-red popcorn truck and an ice truck purchased new by the Miller Boat Livery.

I found a brochure at the museum with a list of the antique cars housed there:

•  1915 Model T Speedster (the oldest car on the island)
• 1919 Dodge Touring Car
• 1920 Center Door Model T
• 1921 Model T Roadster
• 1924 Model T snowmobile (the one built for mail delivery in Minnesota)
• 1926 Model T tractor
• 1929 Model A Tractor
• 1929 Model A Ford Taxi (only 5,000 made)
• 1928 Model A Phaeton AR
• 1930 Willys Whippet Touring Car
• 1930 Chrysler Coupe
• 1930 Peanut Wagon
• 1930 Model A Roadster Pickup
• 1930 AA Ice Truck
• 1931 Victoria Tudor
• 1931 Model A 400 (only about 5,000 made)

The museum also has a few vintage golf carts, scooters and other examples of small, motorized vehicles used to get around the island over the years.

We visited the island during the week, so we didn't see the Sunday parade, although we did spot the occasional vintage vehicle on the island roads.

The Sunday parades run through the warmer months and generally feature 40-50 vehicles each week that include many of the cars in the museum.

The procession starts from near the Miller Boat Company's Lime Kiln Dock around 2 p.m. An antique police car, and maybe a vintage fire truck or two, typically lead off the parade, which tours the entire island and goes through downtown Put-in-Bay.

Kids can try to catch some sweets from the candy truck that usually ends the parade with a Put-in-Bay police cruiser escort bringing up the rear.

Check out the Put-in-Bay Antique Car Parades Facebook page or Web site for photos and videos of the weekly parades.

The Antique Car Museum is open daily May through September from 10:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on weekends in April and October from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Admission is free.  

Thanks to the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Visitors Bureau and Miller Ferries  for  sponsoring my visit to Put-in-Bay, providing lodging, ferry transportation, help arranging visits to South Bass Island and Put-in-Bay attractions  for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

R.E. Olds' Lansing legacy

I love checking out the story behind historical markers and finding connections among different Midwestern states. Visiting the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, Michigan, gave me a chance to do both of those things at once.

We discovered a marker in Geneva, Ohio, at the birthplace of automotive pioneer Ransom Eli Olds several years ago, and I loved visiting the museum in Lansing to learn more about his life in Michigan.

Ransom was born in Geneva in 1864, where his blacksmith father, Pliny, owned a small machine shop. The Olds family moved to Cleveland in 1870 and to a small farm nearby in 1873.

Young Ransom showed a real aptitude for mechanics, but while on the farm, he learned he disliked relying on horses for basic transportation. He wondered if a steam-powered carriage might be a more reliable, predictable, economical and less smelly way to get around.

The family moved to Lansing in 1880, when Lansing was a depot town of 8,000 residents and home to the then-new Michigan State Capitol Building,

The young R.E. apprenticed at his father's new machine shop in Lansing, eventually bought into the business and began experimenting with building steam engine vehicles.

In 1887, R.E. developed a three-wheeled steam vehicle. He continued tinkering with his vehicles, moving on to developing gas-powered engines in the 1890s after seeing the newest engine technology on display at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Olds had many ideas, but he needed to expand again in order to make his ideas a reality. He sold his business to lumber and copper magnate Samuel L. Smith in 1899 and stayed on as the company vice president and general manager.

The company moved to a large factory on Detroit's Belle Isle to make gas and electric vehicles, including the prototypes of the famous Curved Dash Oldsmobile.

The Detroit plant burned to the ground in 1901, and Olds converted an undamaged foundry building into a temporary assembly factory and made 425 cars there.

Quarter-scale REO replica built in 1905, used for marketing and promotional events

People often credit Henry Ford with creating the assembly line, but it was R. E. Olds who first came up with the idea of moving parts around the plant floor on wheeled carts for a progressive car assembly system in 1901 in order to meet demand for his $650 Oldsmobiles. Ford later improved the idea by putting the whole concept on conveyor belts.

Olds left Olds Motor Works in 1904 over disagreements with the Smith family and Olds' deep desire to make affordable and easy-to-operate cars for the masses. The Smiths ended up selling the original Olds company to W.C. Durant and the then-fledgling General Motors in 1908.

Meanwhile, Lansing lobbied successfully to bring Olds back to the city.

In Lansing, Olds continued to develop Oldsmobiles, REO automobiles and a line of trucks that included the first real pick-up truck in 1915 called the REO Speedwagon.

REO Speedwagon? Yup, the popular 1970s and 1980s band got its name from a truck that band member Neal Doughty studied in a transportation history class as an engineering student.

Remember Eric Forman's Vista Cruiser in "That 70s Show"?

R.E. Olds phased out of the REO company in the 1920s and 1930s. REO continued as a truck maker through 1975 and Oldsmobile continued as an automotive company until the early 2000s.

R.E. left an imprint on Lansing throughout the years. He helped finance buildings like the Olds Hotel, which today houses the office of the state's governor. He also financed the building of Olds Hall at Michigan State University with a $100,000 donation after its Engineering Building burned to the ground in 1916.

Olds also purchased over 37,000 acres of land in Florida to develop a community for working families in 1913. He lost nearly $3,000,000 in trying to develop the area before liquidating his holdings there in the 1920s and 1930s, but the town of Oldsmar still exists today as an example of quiet "old Florida" in densely populated Pinellas County between Tampa and St. Petersburg.

R.E. Olds had many philanthropic interests, and he established the REOlds Foundation in 1914. The organization still continues to support community-based education, family, health care, animal welfare, environmental and other causes in the Greater Lansing area.

R.E. Olds died in 1950, but his legacy lives on at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, opened in 1981.

1953 Oldsmobile '88'

The museum's collection includes more than 50 vehicles ranging from the 1880s through the earliest years of the twenty-first century as well as engines, lawn mowers, bicycles, signs, and other artifacts related to Olds and his life.

The museum is open 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday year round. It is also open from noon until 5 p.m. on Sundays from April through October. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors or $12 per family.

Want to learn more about R.E. Olds and Lansing? Check out R.E. Olds and Industrial Lansing by Michael Rodriquez or Ransom E. Olds: America's First Automotive Pioneer by Daniel Alef.

Thanks to the Greater Lansing Michigan Convention and Visitors Bureau for sponsoring my visit to Lansing, providing lodging, meals and a tour of Lansing area attractions for my review during my recent visit there, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

Plymouth, Michigan: Red Ryder rifles, the Phoenix Mill, a vintage Packard and more

We recently joined about 150 people strolling along a re-created late-nineteenth-century street near downtown Plymouth, Michigan.

The occasion? A reception for public historians and history enthusiasts attending a local history conference hosted by the Historical Society of Michigan and a chance to learn about the history of a Michigan town whose beginnings predate Michigan's designation as a state in 1837.

We regularly drive out to Plymouth to see Whalers hockey games, but this was our first time visiting this museum about 25 miles west of downtown Detroit.

I discovered that downtown Plymouth escaped the fate of going through time as Podunk, the name the area's original settlers' used for what is now Plymouth's charming little downtown. They called the north end of town Joppa, but met in 1827 to consider a new name for the area.

There was a strong interest in China among many people in the area during the 1820s , so t he group considered calling the town Peking (which explains the name of the nearby city of Canton, Michigan). The name LeRoy was the group's the first choice, but another Michigan town already claimed that name. The second-choice name of Plymouth became the town's new name, honoring the ancestry of many of settlers who immigrated to the area from Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Cigar making and automobile manufacturing were among industries that operated in Plymouth during the early 1900s-- industries that also flourished in many other Michigan towns at the time.

Other notable industries fueling Plymouth's development included the Phoenix Mill, a plant manufacturing parts for Ford's River Rouge Plant in Detroit that operated from 1922 until 1948, and the Daisy Air Rifle Company, which opened during the 1880s and established Plymouth as the "BB Gun Capital of the World".

The museum dedicates permanent exhibits to these companies.

A placard at the Phoenix Mill exhibit says that it was one of a group of manufacturing plants that Henry Ford established at former mill sites along on the Rouge River to use water power to produce car parts. Phoenix Mill was unique because it only employed women. The women earned the same $5 per day that Ford offered male workers at the Ford Motor Company, but they had stricter rules that they must be singles and required them to wear dresses, stockings and high heels to work.

Daisy Company began as the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company began giving away BB guns as a premium to customers purchasing windmills during the 1880s. It was also home to the fictional Red Ryder BB gun model that Ralphie repeatedly asked for during the movie, A Christmas Story. Daisy moved to Arkansas in 1958. A condominium complex now sits at the site of the former factory.

The museum also has a notable collection of memorabilia relating to President Abraham Lincoln. The collection includes wax figures of the president and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, as well as items like a bearded life mask of Lincoln, a lock of his hair and a large banner for the 1860 presidential campaign.

The Plymouth Historical Society organized in 1948 and established a small museum.

In 1971, Margaret Dunning donated $100,000 to finance a 15,000-square-foot building when the museum needed larger quarters.

Dunning donated $1 million in 1998 to build a 9,800-square-foot two-story addition to the museum.

Dunning is a fascinating woman according to what I read online. She grew up on her family's potato farm as a neighbor to Henry Ford in nearby Redford. The family moved to Plymouth after the death of Margaret's father.

Dunning worked briefly at the Phoenix Mill plant as a young woman, drove a Red Cross motor pool truck during World War II and returned to Plymouth after the war for a career in banking and as the owner of a local department store.

She still lives in the home in Plymouth where she moved at the age of 13.

Dunning, a life-long car buff, owns the 1930 Packard 740 roadster she bought in 1949 and still occasionally drives the car. Changing the car's oil and spark plugs? Dunning still reportedly does that as well!

Museum hours are 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students ages 6 to 17.

Want to learn more about Plymouth, Michigan? Check out Plymouth's First Century: Innovators and Industry by Elizabeth Kerstens, Plymouth (Then and Now) by Brian Vincent Hill and the Plymouth Historical Society or Legendary Locals of Plymouth by Leis Dauzet-Miller.

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

Hometown cuisine in Hendricks County, Indiana

We always find that checking out local independent restaurants when we travel is one of the best ways to savor the flavor of a particular location.

Check out a couple of great hometown eateries we sampled during our recent visit to Hendricks County in Indiana.

The Mayberry Cafe

Looking for some real home-style cooking and atmosphere? Head to the Mayberry Cafe, just north of the Hendricks County Courthouse Square in downtown Danville.

You can't miss the place as a lovingly restored 1962 Ford Galaxie sits out front, as if Sheriff Andy Taylor just dropped by for a piece of apple pie.

Opened in 1992 by Brad and Christine Borne, the Mayberry Cafe is a tribute to all things Mayberry, the fictional town featured in the favorite 1960s sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show.

The show told the story of a widowed sheriff of a small fictional town in North Carolina who was raising his young son, Opie, with the help of his spinster Aunt Bee and a cast of sweetly bumbling characters.

Even when it originally ran in the 1960s, the show portrayed a nostalgic look at an innocent past. Today, the show continues to have dedicated fans who grew up in the 60s, or who remember the show in its countless reruns that even continue today.

Televisions throughout the restaurant play endless loops of the show's episodes while diners enjoy a menu of Southern-style comfort food like fried chicken, chicken fried steak, meatloaf, tenderloin sandwiches and, of course, apple pie in a homey setting.

Chicken fried steak

It's definitely a family-friendly place as the owners carry out the Mayberry theme with a small toy or free sundae for kids who clean their dinner plates and contests like an annual Opie look-a-like contest or goofy hat nights when diners wearing crazy hats in homage to another Mayberry character, Goober, can enter a drawing for a free dinner.

The restaurant memorialized actor Andy Griffith's death at the age of 86 earlier this year by serving dinners free slices of "Aunt Bee's apple pie".

We had fun browsing through the restaurant's collection of press clippings and photo gallery of "Opies" in the restaurant's lobby.

The restaurant also has a dining area upstairs, for a total seating capacity of 150, and plenty of parking on the street or in a lot behind the restaurant.

Hours are 11 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Bottom line-Great themed atmosphere, home-style food and family-friendly fun. This one's a do-not-miss for fans of the television show and perfect for a homey lunch or dinner.

The Coachman Restaurant and Lounge

This is a classic steakhouse in Plainfield, out near the airport, and the family-owned restaurant is a welcome sight among a number of chains and fast-food places.

Owners Larry and Becky Paynter previously had a similar restaurant called Coach and Horses Restaurant and Pub in Indianapolis, but opened this location to expand on their original concept.

They celebrated the restaurant's 23rd anniversary earlier this month.

We dined there on a Sunday evening night as a large group of Indianapolis Colts fans celebrated their team's win earlier that day. The restaurant was plenty large enough to accommodate a larger group, as well as several couples enjoying a quiet Sunday evening supper.

We opted for the prime rib, which is a specialty of the house, and available in a 12-ounce cut, as well as a smaller 8-ounce cut.

Our server was especially friendly and helpful with giving us tips about how to get around town and things to do when she found out we were visiting from the Detroit area.

Hours are 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Lounge is open until midnight through the week and until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Bottom line-Great prime rib, cold beer and friendly service made the meal for us. Nice for a hearty dinner or for a late-night drink.

Thanks to the Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau for  sponsoring my visit to Hendricks County, providing lodging, meals and a tour of Hendricks County attractions for my review during my recent visit there, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Henry Ford's Detroit home

Auto magnate Henry Ford spent some of his most professionally creative and eventful years living within a couple of miles of his plants in Detroit (on Piquette) and in Highland Park, where he revolutionized the automotive industry by introducing the assembly line and spurred the Detroit area's development by attracting workers with his then-generous and unheard-of offer of $5 per day wages.

We recently stopped to take a few pictures of the home in Detroit's prestigious Boston-Edison neighborhood. The neighborhood, which is about four miles north of downtown Detroit, is in a densely populated area of the city, but when the Fords first settled there, nothing more than empty fields surrounded the newly developing subdivision.

Ford asked the prominent Detroit architectural firm of Malcomson, Higginbotham and Clement to design a home for his family.

The firm designed over 75% of Detroit's school buildings between 1895 and 1923, including Wayne State University's Old Main building in 1895 and the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy (Tim's alma mater) in 1931.

Ford's Italian Renaissance Revival home, built in 1908, was far from an institutional-style school building, though.

The 7,500-square-foot brick house had a large front porch with Tuscan-style columns and side windows with ornamental railings (balustrades) and limestone arches. Ford built a machine shop above the garage to encourage the interest of his teenage son Edsel's in car design, made sure there was space in the garage to house his wife Clara's electric car and commissioned T. Glenn Phillips to design the home's gardens.

Ford was wealthy by this time, just as his wildly popular Model T went into production, and he paid $483,253 to build his new home at the corner of Second and a street named appropriately enough for his good friend [Thomas] Edison.

Today the home is valued just shy of $250,000, but the neighborhood is still among the most desirable places within the city limits to live.

Most of the 900 homes along the four streets comprising the Boston-Edison neighborhood (West Boston Boulevard, Chicago Boulevard, Longfellow Avenue and Edison Avenue between Woodward and Linwood) date from 1905 through 1925. They represent a variety of architectural styles that include English Tudor Revival, Roman and Greek Revival, Prairie Style, French Provincial, Colonial Revival and Italian Renaissance Revival homes like the Ford house.

Some of the Detroit area's most well known citizens lived in the neighborhood over the years. Many of Henry Ford's early business partners, stockholders and automotive rivals lived in the area, as well as Detroit "dime store" king Sebastian S. Kresge, historian Clarence M. Burton (whose papers became the nucleus of the Burton Historical Collection at Detroit's public library), Motown mogul Berry Gordy, labor leader Walter P. Reuther, boxer Joe Louis, and Detroit Tiger baseball players Ty Cobb and Willie Horton.

The neighborhood organized the Boston-Edison Association in 1921, which is the oldest continuous neighborhood association in Detroit.

The Boston-Edison neighborhood was also fairly unique in being one of few areas early on in Detroit that did not have restrictive covenants regarding who could live or purchase property there. Given Ford's later reputation for anti-Semitic sentiments, it is notable that Boston-Edison was among the first upscale neighborhoods in Detroit to welcome Jewish residents and African American residents, who started moving into what was then a partially Jewish neighborhood in the 1950s. The neighborhood remains fairly diverse today as well.

The Fords remained in the home until 1915, moving on to the much larger 30,000-square-foot Fair Lane estate in Dearborn, Michigan.

The convenient location of Boston-Edison likely contributed to Ford's decision to move as job seekers disrupted the family's privacy by showing up on the Ford's front porch.

The Boston-Edison neighborhood earned designation as a Michigan State Historic Site (1973), historic designation by the Detroit Historic District Commission (1974) and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places (1975). Michigan erected an historical marker at the Ford house in 1989.

The house is a private residence today, but the neighborhood is a must-see for fans of Detroit history and early-20th-century architecture.

Read Ford Model T: The Car that Put the World on Wheels by Lindsay Brooke, which includes a short interview with the man who currently owns the Ford house and his efforts to preserve the Piquette plant.

Check out my story Victorian splendor in Toledo's Old West End to learn about another historic neighborhood about an hour away from Detroit that is also home to a variety of late-19th- and early-20th-century architectural styles, and home to some of the most prominent citizens in Toledo, Ohio, over the years.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved