Over the weekend I made it out to the late Dale Walksler's Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum in Maggie Valley, NC. Dale's collection started out of his Harley dealership in IL and eventually grew into what has moved to NC for this museum, which is a great location with phenomenal Smoky Mountain roads for riding on in the area. The collection consists of some incredibly unique items. Many vintage American motorcycles, a few imports, generators, chainsaws, cars, motorcycle cars, boat motors, motorcycle engine powered agricultural equipment, a mine cart, bicycles, a penny farthing, a monowheel, riding gear, club clothing, reconstructed workshops, diagnostic equipment, mechanical schematics, original artwork (lots of David Uhl paintings which may be familiar if you've spent time in Sturgis or Deadwood, SD), land speed racers, race motorcycles, round-the-world bikes, casting molds for parts, mechanical cut aways, demonstration units, spare parts, newspaper articles and old photos of some of the same motorcycles on display, etc. The icing on the cake is the museum experience. For $15/adult (discount available for active and former military) you not only get to wander around the museum reading the caption cards for each item and getting very close to everything, but there are knowledgeable staff on hand who know the stories behind most items in the collection, and every half hour or so they'll start the engine on something right on the museum floor. The logo does say it's "The Museum That Runs!". Something the staff bring up frequently is that the museum's vision is to be exactly that, a running museum, rather than a display of fully restored bikes. Restored bikes are great for representing what something looked like new on the dealership floor, which has its value, but there's much more history to be told from something that's been used and shows it.
The museum is complete with a gift shop and every year there is a motorcycle up for raffle with the proceeds benefiting the museum.
For more information on the museum: https://wheelsthroughtime.com/museum/
For really awesome videos from the museum staff: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMkl9z3-VTPE7lOXOjKcoUg
The museum is complete with a gift shop and every year there is a motorcycle up for raffle with the proceeds benefiting the museum.
For more information on the museum: https://wheelsthroughtime.com/museum/
For really awesome videos from the museum staff: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMkl9z3-VTPE7lOXOjKcoUg
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