Resurrection: in the Great Smokey Mountains 35 miles west of Ashville, NC
October 12th, 2006Resurrection: in the Great Smokey Mountains 35 miles west of Ashville, NC, the tourist town of Maggie Valley is home to the Wheels Through Time museum. Walking through the front door, your nose and ears tell you two things right away: it’s a different kind of museum, and it was worth the trip
Filled with antique American-made motorcycles, cars and a variety of other unusual machines, it’s called the “Museum That Runs.” Creator/curator Dale Walksler takes great delight in demonstrating that sobriquet each time he starts an antique engine on the first kick, delighting visitors with the sounds and aromas that make us all grin like fools.
The museum started as an adjunct to Walksler’s Harley Davidson dealership in Illinois, a place to show and prepare his vintage machines for use in the real world. Though the dealership was successful, Walksler’s passion for history led him to take the plunge, sell the dealership and move to North Carolina’s more favorable financial climate to start a proper non-profit museum. Walksler told us that after only three years, his collection has outgrown the purpose-built 38,000-square-foot building, so some machines are rotated to other museums.
When we arrived, Walksler was taking young visitors for their first motorcycle rides using a 1942 Harley Davidson built for military duty in England, with the sidecar on the left. All of the museum’s machines are either very unusual, extremely rare or one-of-a-kind, and many have a known history. For instance, a 1917 Harley once owned by Steve McQueen was originally used to transport carrier pigeons in England during WWI, and its carrier body was recovered years later and reunited with the bike. Of course it started on the first kick, and the V-twin rumble of that antique engine sounded more potent than modern engines of twice the size. So, too, did the museum’s 1924 Ace Sport Solo with a 74-cubic-inch inline-four, and Walksler’s one-of-a-kind 1917 Traub that was discovered inside a brick wall in Chicago. Hand-built to a very exacting standard, nothing is known about that machine or its builder, and Walksler is eager to hear from anyone who might know something about it.
The car collection includes McQueen’s 1949 Cadillac, a beautiful 1929 Duesenberg and a 1915 Locomobile–one of only two built with a Landaulet Coupe body that converts from a hard-top coupe with roll-down glass windows to a true topless, pillarless roadster. The single-place rumble seat was occupied by the chauffer when the owner wished to drive. In all, there are seven decades of automotive history on display.
The museum’s oddities include farm implements, mining machines and what might be the world’s only six-seat snowmobile, all “home-built” antiques powered by motorcycle engines of their day, including a single-seat airplane. A 1930s-vintage motorcycle workshop that was disassembled and rebuilt inside the museum provides a glimpse of the tools and service techniques of the day. Out back is Walksler’s private shop, where he can be found well after midnight engaged in not so much restoration as resurrection, making yet another antique machine look and run the way it did in its day, oil stains, worn-smooth leather and all.
If you’re planning a trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, exit onto U.S. Route 19 North in Maggie Valley and look left for the Wheels Through Time museum. And plan on spending at least half a day living with history.
JACQUES GORDON TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
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