The Grand Traverse Heritage Center launches an exhibit that honors the seismic shift in modern history caused by the automobile.
Getting in Gear: The Automobile in Traverse City opens Saturday with a mini car show, games for all ages, music of bygone eras and treats. From noon until 4 p.m. that day, visitors can check out the exhibit, which traces the region's love affair with the internal combustion engine dating to 1899, when R. B. Cobb of Charlevoix drove the first car into Traverse City.
From that momentous event, the car has changed how people lived, worked and played in the region. The exhibit includes stories of how cars changed the region as well as information on Henry Ford's legacy in Traverse City and the growth of car dealers in town.
"Up until then, the agrarian, horse-driven world had dominated," said Dan Truckey, executive director of the Grand Traverse Heritage Center. "The agrarian lifestyle, everything, changed after the automobile, it all changed."
Truckey and a bevy of volunteers gave the public a sneak preview of the Getting in Gear exhibit during the Heritage 'n Wheels Car Show. Held September 16 in conjunction with the annual Heritage Days Celebration, the show lined Sixth Street with cars from all eras.
The Getting in Gear exhibit will feature a range of automobile memorabilia and minutiae, some of it drawn from the collection of Dennis Kuhn. The Buckley native has been collecting anything and everything automobile for at least 35 years and portions of his "automobilia" are included throughout the multi-media presentation. Other items include stock certificates, dash plates and original advertising — anything with a company name or logo on it.
"I collect threaded hubcaps built before 1930, cars built before 1930, radiator emblems and hood ornaments and anything with the name of the car," said Kuhn, who boosts his inventory at swap meets and by trading with other collectors. "I've got roughly 900 names represented in my collection."
Kuhn also owns the only Napoleon truck he knows about, a 1919 model he purchased and had restored five or six years ago. The Traverse Motor Car Company moved to Traverse City in 1917, changed its name to the Napoleon Motor Car Company in 1919 and manufactured an estimated 600 vehicles before closing in 1923.
"It's the only remaining one unless someone's got one stuck in the barn somewhere," he noted of his Napoleon truck. "It's the same as other trucks that year, except the big cast iron radiator with Napoleon cast right into it."
"Napoleon cars, they made them first and they didn't sell too well," added Kuhn. "They had a better market for the trucks, from what I gathered from all the information."
Two summer interns with the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, Whitney Nielsen and Erika Winter, conducted much of the research and writing to create Getting in Gear. The Hagerty Family Charitable Fund is underwriting the exhibit, which will be up through April of 2007.
"It's been a lot of fun to put together," said Truckey. "It was fun to look at the ways in which cars were developed in the area: the first service stations and the first car dealerships and how regulations came to Traverse City with the first stoplights and the first accidents."
For more information on the Getting in Gear exhibit, call the Grand Traverse Heritage Center at 995-0313 or see their website at www.gtheritagecenter.org. The Heritage Center is located at 322 Sixth St. in Traverse City and hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 4 p.m and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and a $1.50 for students; children ages 12 and under are free.