News from WAAAM Museum

June 2011 Newsletter

100 Years Old... Already?

My how time flys!

Celebrations happen all the time but only once for the 100th.

WAAAM houses artifacts to brag about and we are going to have some cake, talk to the owners, and hear the engines purrrr.

Birthdays:

1911 Overland Touring Automobile.

1911 Overland Touring Car This beauty certainly did not look like this in 1954 when proud owner Jack Woolf of Portland first discovered it sitting derelict in a barn in the small town of Dales Creek, OR. After only 4 years of restoring the Overland was ready for its first show. Jack took her to Reno for the

Harrah's Swap Meet in 1958 "... and I have been driving her ever since. She is a good running little car!" It has right hand drive, crank to start, 24 hp, 45mph top speed, gas.

1911 Model T Touring Car 1911 Model T Touring Automobile.

Bruce and Barbara Weir of Parkdale OR are sharing their little treasure of a car that was restored to its present condition in the mid 1980's. This car is Fully Equipped: it has a top, two gas lamps and three oil lamps, and a tubular horn. Original cost $780.

Bruce says "I will be at WAAAM with bells on for the birthday party" Sporting a 4 cylinder, 20 hp, left hand drive and a crank to start.

1911 Altman -Taylor Steam Engine.

1911 Steam Tractor It is a huge machine designed to save the backs of many a farmer! Imagine the racket of a fourteen thousand-pound steam engine farm tractor with just 16 horsepower. Good thing those farmers could grow food... as the noise would scare away anything worth hunting! Altman-Taylor built steam engines for 39 years!

June 11th is the Get 'em Going Day.

See the cars operate

and

enjoy a bit of birthday cake!

Motorcycles and WAAAM

As most of you know there are about two dozen antique motorcycles on display in the museum. Given this fact, we've been promoting WAAAM among motorcycle groups who are certainly in a position to appreciate these treasures. Two groups, in particular, have responded this year: Damtour and the Rose City Motorcycle Club. Each group sponsors one or more tours inviting motorcyclists to visit locations spanning the Pacific Northwest. Every rider travels at his own pace and schedule during the spring and summer months, usually discovering places new to them. One of these new places is WAAAM. For these modern tours the riders all have modern bikes but they also have a full appreciation for the realities of riding motorcycles in the pre-WWII era when even production

motorcycles were experiments in design. Early motorcycles were built on bicycle frames, reliability was little more than a dream and comfort an afterthought. It's quite a contrast to the fast, comfortable and reliable machines we ride today.

Damtour

For the past three years, as a WAAAM volunteer I have been riding in Damtour. A tour that each year takes in twenty different dams in the Pacific Northwest, most of them way off the beaten path of the interstate highways. At Damtour gatherings and in their online discussion forum we have been promoting WAAAM to Damtour riders and they've responded with enthusiasm, visiting the museum and posting messages and photos on their forum about their visits. Even better, they make return visits, bringing others. In 2008 the Powerdale Dam on the Hood River was one of the tour stops and this past winter one rider toured WAAAM after revisiting the former site of that dam which had been removed in 2010.

Rose City Motorcycle Club Grand Tour

Portland's Rose City Motorcycle Club, tracing back to 1911, is one of the oldest clubs chartered by the American Motorcyclist Association. Every year the RCMC sponsors several tours including their Grand Tour that takes riders to fourteen places ("checkpoints") across Oregon and five more in surrounding states. This year the tour organizers contacted WAAAM asking us to be a checkpoint for the 2011 tour. At each checkpoint riders present their Grand Tour Passport book for a stamp that confirms they visited. While there's no requirement that the riders come into the museum, we send them all to the entrance door to see what they'll miss if they don't come in. So far all who haven't come in have said they'd return with fathers, brothers, friends in tow. On Saturday, May 7 Museum Director Judy Newman arrived at the museum to see a parking lot full of motorcycles. That was the date of the Rose City Oregon 500, a one-day ride of about 500 miles through Oregon and many riders combined the Oregon 500 with the Grand Tour, stopping at WAAAM to get their Grand Tour Passports stamped. Even though she was unprepared for this early morning crowd Judy didn't miss a beat. She opened the doors and set about inviting the riders in for their stamp, promoting the museum and giving a teaser tour (that aforementioned peek in the door) to several.

So what motorcycles do we have on display?

Here's a partial list: 1912 Indian, 1923 Henderson, 1927 Harley Davidson JD, 1924 AJS, 1938 AJS, 1923 Douglas and 1948 Schwinn Whizzer. If you have something as cool as these please call us! We'd love to help you show it off.

See you soon.

Ken Olsson, Museum Coordinator

Fathers Day and the Best Gift Ideas

The WAAAM

Model T Driving School

What does your Dad need for Fathers Day?

Driving Lessons you say?

Our Model Ts are cranking up and you are invited to attend our 6 hour driving school. Yep, we are serious. You will learn about the care and feeding of the "Tin Lizzie," and how to drive the car that changed the world (hint... it is not as easy as it sounds.) The class includes lunch at the Museum and a photo of you in the Model T. Upon successful completion you will be awarded a Model T driving certificate from WAAAM. A drivers license is required.

Don't miss this amazing opportunity. It will be an unforgettable day! Lunch is included. Special Bonus - Successful graduates will have the opportunity to drive WAAAM's Model A as well as the Model T.

Model T Driving School Prices:

$150 Non Member -- $125 Member -- $75 WAAAM Volunteer

Call WAAAM 541-308-1600 or Email WAAAM

Classes are forming now

Saturdays: June 18, July 16 & August 20

Space is Limited -Sign up today!

More gift Ideas ?

A Membership at WAAAM Gives All Year !

WAAAM has a BIG presence on YouTube

Check this out! Roy Pettit has posted another video for WAAAM on YouTube. In case you missed May 14th..., we had another great day operating some of the precious artifacts. Motors purrrr, propellers turn, the Tin Lizzie cranks...

See "Second Saturday"

Plan on spending a "Second Saturday" with us

Volunteer Spotlight

Introducing Connie Peters

Always happy to give a tour, Connie is one of the gems of WAAAM. Volunteering here for the last two years, she says" I have learned so much, an I enjoy my fellow volunteers and visitors immensely".

Connie just loves flying, being in an airplane and learning about the aircraft and stories surrounding it all. " I have been around flying my whole life. My family were the original Flying Farmers in the Sherman County area. My mom took just 2 lessons in a Piper J-3 and then soloed! She just wanted to prove she could do it too. She Did!... I wanted to fly our WACO spray plane but my husband said "no, no one flys it but me". That was my favorite, so since I couldn't fly that... I did not learn," Though she does not have her pilots license (yet!) she is considering taking a few lessons this summer. Is it any wonder the 1928 Boeing 40 is her favorite plane?

Here at WAAAM, Connie is signed up for the Model T Driving School and has a goal of driving the museums 1914 Ford Model T Depot Hack. " I want to learn so I can take people for rides on Second Saturday" says Peters and I do love the '35 Packard on display.

Connie and her husband Herm (who volunteers at WAAAM too) also volunteer at the Hood River Senior Center and have for the last 15 years. Together they have 5 children, 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild on the way.

Thank you Connie. You help make WAAAM wonderful!

Issue 6-2011

In This Issue

100 Years Old

Motorcycles and WAAAM

Fathers Day

Volunteer spotlight

I Phone

YouTube & WAAAM

Second Saturdays