The statue in front was modeled from a photo of a hill-climber in the 1930's. The actual photo is inside the museum.
This is the earliest known Harley-Davidson in captivity. The first motorcycle was built in 1903, but it appears this example is from 1904 due to some changes that were known to have been made between those two years. One thing you'll note...it's not very big:
There are several hundred bikes in the Harley-Davidson, and nowhere near all of them are on display at one time, but there are a lot of examples from the very early years. These are examples primarily from the 1910's
This is a 1936 Model "EL", which was their first overhead-valve motorcycle. These things are worth north of $75,000 today for a good example:
This is Elvis' 1956 Harley Model KH, the predecessor to the Sportster:
Here's a two-seater from 1941:
Yep, that's one big moter-sickle!
I thought I might do mine up like this one, except I'd need to haul around a portable generator to light it up:
And who can forget this one?:
I think I saw Peter Fonda hiding behind the silver column behind the bike.
Anyway, very nice and always interesting. I headed northwest from Milwaukee to the little town of Hartford, WI. Hartford is located in rolling farm country, has a population of about 12,000, and is the home to the Wisconsin Auto Museum. Way back in the day, there were a lot of makes of automobiles manufactured in Wisconsin, and one of those was the Kissel, which was produced from 1909 to 1931 in Hartford. The museum had over 100 cars on display from 1903 to about 1980 or so.
The oldest car on display was this 1902 Rambler, which was the second-best-selling car produced in the US that year, behind the "curved dash" Oldsmobile. Looks a lot like it:
Here are a few of the cars that were on display:
This one caught my eye. It's equipped with an enclosed space behind the rear seats for your golf clubs:
And I thought this baby was interesting. It's equipped with "suicide seats" on either side of the rear seat area. I guess that's where you put misbehaving children. Look closely:
On display were a number of cars of other makes, including this 1950 Nash. One of the guys I went to High School with had one and he never had any trouble getting a date to the drive in. The front seat backs folded down to make a large bed in the car...
Here are a couple more cars that I thought were unusual:
And finally, what I think is one of the coolest cars of all time. A 1949 Willys Jeepster:
Anyway, that's it for today I'm in Dubuque, Iowa for the night and headed to Animosa tomorrow for the National Motorcycle Museum, than on across the state to Carroll, Iowa for the night.
Miles today: 281
Total: 1,237