0 Our Year in Review

by Nancy DeWitt
© Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

What a year! Each one just gets better and better, and 2013 was full of accomplishments. Most notably, we had our best year ever for attendance and gift shop sales. Based on direct feedback and on-line comments, our visitors were very pleased with their museum experience. In fact, their reviews on TripAdvisor earned us the top ranking for Fairbanks attractions for the second year in a row! It's never too late to submit your review, which you can do by clicking on this link.

Other highlights from 2013 include:

• We hosted a number of school field trips at the museum and offered rides in the Snow Flyer to almost 50 children during Tired Iron week.

• Historic fashion consultant Abigail Cucolo joined our staff for several months and accomplished a whirlwind of projects. She led fashion tours, wrote blog posts, organized our storage room, cataloged over 700 items into a database, repaired garments, and added over 30 new outfits to the galleries. She also curated our "Beauty and the Bird" exhibit and created several new displays, including ones on undergarments, Fortuny gowns, and WAVES uniforms.

• Our docents continued to provide valuable support, from educating visitors and providing security during private receptions, to dusting cars and helping Willy with innumerable repair projects in the shop.

• We worked hard to improve the visitor experience and began offering free audio tours with admission. One guest wrote of the audio tour: "Very good and really adds to the experience."

• We acquired J. Parker Wickham's library and now have a wonderful collection of resources for research.

• We participated in the Vernon L. Nash Antique Car Club annual show, Golden Days Show and Shine, and a fairly soggy Golden Days Parade. We were delighted to be selected to carry the winner of the Miss World Eskimo Indian Olympics pageant and her court in our 1919 Pierce-Arrow.

• We added a number of videos to our YouTube channel, which receives about 2,500 views a week.

• We had five articles published in national magazines, including The Bulb Horn, Horseless Carriage Gazette, Air-Cooled News, and The Classic Car. The museum was also featured in articles in Alaska Magazine, The Ruralite, and Old Cars Weekly.

• Our historian attended the National Association of Automobile Museum's annual conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was elected to the NAAM board of directors.

• Our manager attended a number of national and regional events, including the Chickasha and Bakersfield Swap Meets, the Scottsdale auctions, and the Hershey Swap Meet.

• With the help of some great volunteers, we got one of Fairbanks's first Dodge automobiles running again and helped drive it to Valdez to commemorate the first automobile trip to the coast. The story is posted here.

• In July we hosted a full house for a presentation about the 1908 Great Race by Jeff Mahl, great grandson of the winning car's driver, George Schuster. He gave a fabulous program and we thank everyone who came (and NAPA for sponsoring the event!).

• We added three automobiles to the Fountainhead Collection, including a 1902 Knox, 1906 Pope-Toledo, and 1910 Schacht. The Pope-Toledo won several awards before we shipped it north, including First in Class (Antiques) at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance, and Third in Class (A-1 Antiques) and the Ansel Adams Special Award at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

• The majority of the museum automobiles got a tune-up and some road time this year. Here are a few out getting some exercise--can you identify them all?

Thank you all for another great year!

Coming to Fairbanks to see the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum and other area attractions? Support the museum by staying right here at Wedgewood Resort. All guests receive half-price admission to the museum!

Detail: Our Year in Review

0 Presidential Wheels

by Nancy DeWitt

With the country's attention focused on the upcoming presidential election, I couldn't help but think about the evolution of official presidential vehicles over the past century. The current presidential car, known as Cadillac One and The Beast, is a highly customized, armored limousine built by Chevrolet and badged as a Cadillac. For security reasons, the doors are 8 inches thick, the windows are made from bulletproof, 5-inch thick glass and the entire car is sealed against biochemical attacks.

1907 Model G White Steamer

President Taft's 40-hp, 7-passenger
Model M White Steamer

Cadillac One is a far cry from the presidential carriages and open cars of the early 1900s. William McKinley was the first president to ride in an automobile, a Locomobile steam carriage driven by F.O. Stanley in November of 1899. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to take a public automobile ride when he rode in a Columbia electric car in a 1902 parade. Although he preferred horses and always rode in carriages for state business, Roosevelt also rode in two White steam cars the Secret Service had borrowed from the Army in 1907. Perhaps one of these was a White Model G like the one in our collection?

William Howard Taft, Roosevelt's successor, was the first president to use automobiles exclusively for transport. After convincing Congress to allocate $12,000 for a White House automobile fleet, he purchased a 1909 White Model M steamer (identical to the sixth automobile to arrive in Fairbanks) as his first official car. Taft also bought two Pierce-Arrows and a Baker electric, and then converted the White House stable into a four-car garage. Taft and his White steamer are featured in this year's White House Christmas Ornament.

Photo courtesy of Candy Waugaman

Taft's successor, Woodrow Wilson, was also a fan of Pierce-Arrows, no doubt appreciating the smooth ride of these big, powerful cars. Our museum has two Pierce-Arrows that were built during Wilson's term (1913-1921), including a huge 1917 Model 66 A-4. Warren Harding was the first president to ride to his inauguration in car (a Packard Twin-Six) and unlike his predecessors, he knew how to drive an automobile. Harding rode in at least one Packard during his 1923 Alaska visit, including the 7-passenger touring car in Juneau pictured here.

Cadillacs were a favorite among several presidents, including Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt. President Herbert Hoover bought a 1932 Cadillac 452-B V16 Imperial Limousine just before losing his reelection battle in 1932. It is identical to the one on display in our museum; in fact, for many years some thought that ours was the former Hoover V16 Cadillac. Many presidents purchased their official cars, and Hoover kept his limo when he left office. For security reasons, presidential cars today are completely destroyed when they are replaced. Fortunately, many of the earlier limos are on display in museums.

Detail: Presidential Wheels

0 Baby, It's Cold Outside...For Toyota

by Nancy DeWitt and Willy Vinton

Interior Alaska is a land of extremes, especially when it comes to temperatures. Ranging from bone-chilling lows of -50º F (-45º C) or colder in winter to surprising highs over 90º F (32º C) in the summer, Fairbanks has one the largest seasonal temperature differentials of any city in the world.


Surprisingly, many people visit Fairbanks in the winter despite-or even because--of our cold temperatures. These include tourists who come to see the northern lights, spectacular ice carvings, sled dog races and a whole host of other winter events. We have also become a hub for cold-weather testing for clothing, snowmobiles, automobiles, and airplanes ranging from the Concord to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. So it was no surprise this week when a crew from Toyota showed up at the museum recently and told us they were in town to cold-weather test the company's latest electric cars.

This group of Japanese engineers came to visit the museum on Sunday, and Willy was fortunate to be able to spend some time with them. He writes: I think they left having learned a lot about the history of the American automobile, and the engineering genious of some of the pioneers of the time.

The Toyota crew enjoyed seeing unusual cars like the Compound, Hertel and Hay, before checking out our electric cars. Pictured is our 1903 Columbia Mark XIX Surrey that they spent some time studying. 

After spending additional time examining the 1913 Argo electric limousine in the shop, I had to ask the question,"Your new electric car, under summer conditions, will travel how far"? After some discussion among themselves, the reply was "about 120 kilometers."  So, if they keep up the good work they should soon be able to match our1912 Rauch-Lang, which could run 70 miles on a charge! However, their car will have a little more creature comforts as well as travel a lot faster. Time will tell.

The 1903 Columbia is now on display, so come in and see it.

Detail: Baby, It's Cold Outside...For Toyota

0 New Arrival! 1903 Columbia Electric

by Willy Vinton

Here is one of the new additions to the museum that arrived on Monday. This little Columbia Mark XIX Surrey is a very nice car, restored from a complete original.

The Columbia history begins in 1897 and ends in 1913, during which time many changes were taking place, such as experimenting with gasoline cars, and even a high breed in 07-08 known as the Magnetic.  The model you see here was built as a taxi to be used aroound the cities, and was very succesful, with this being the only known survivor.

This is the original volt/amp gauge that tells you the status of the batteries and the amount of power being used to move the car.

As you can see from this picture, our Columbia is a very original car, with almost all of the wood and components being the ones installed when it was built 108 years ago. The twin motors give the car good performance, and as we learned yesterday, the very large brakes you see at the rear wheels are only mildly effective. Tim seems to think they are a little lacking, but with proper planning you are able to stop most of the time.

This shows the original controllers, and all the wiring that is original as well. It has the addition of a safety shutoff that you see on the floor, but the rest is all as it was. You should come in and check this one out.

Detail: New Arrival! 1903 Columbia Electric