Cole Land Transportation Museum

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Cole Land Transportation Museum
File:Cole Land Transportation Museum, Bangor, ME IMG 2596.JPG
Established 1989
Location 405 Perry Road
Bangor, Maine, USA
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Type Transportation
Website www.colemuseum.org

The Cole Land Transportation Museum is a depository of land transportation vehicles used on dirt roads as well as state and interstate highways in the U.S. state of Maine. The museum was assembled over many years and opened to the public in 1989 by the industrialist and philanthropist Galen Cole in his home city of Bangor, Maine.[1] It is located at 405 Perry Road and is open seasonally from May 1 to November 11.

Features of the museum

The museum contains the former Maine Central Railroad Company station house that was located in Enfield, Maine. The structure was the original building from which Cole's father, Albert J. "Allie" Cole (1893-1955),[1] started a business in 1917 hauling the mail. There is also a Maine Central Railroad car and the front car of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad engine, which one may board and watch taped recordings about various museum exhibits. The Cole Museum houses a blacksmith shop, later a garage in East Lowell, Maine, where Allie Cole shod his horses. Many vehicles of the Cole Express Company are displayed to reflect the history of the company.[2]

The Cole Museum features vintage automobiles, including a Stanley Steamer, a Ford Fairlane, a Ford Galaxie, a Buick, a Volkswagen, and the Oldsmobile 98, the official vehicle of Governor Joseph E. Brennan of Maine, who served from 1979 to 1987. There are early horse-drawn wagons and a prairie schooner, which is a scaled-down covered wagon. The museum also includes early motorcycles, mopeds, a few bicycles, snowplows and a snow roller, which are important for the Maine winters, farm tractors, a potato harvester, a horse-drawn hearse, a bus, trailers pulled by trucks, and delivery trucks of dairy products and ice. A special room includes a command car used in World War II, in which Galen Cole had been a young soldier.[2] There are also outdoor military vehicle exhibits of both World War II and the Vietnam War.

The museum's recordings include the moving life story of Galen Cole's handicapped sister, Dorothy, who lived only to the age of forty. She was wheelchair-bound her whole life, but was an inspiration to all whom she met.[3]

Gallery

  • Statement of Cole Land Transportation Museum legacy IMG 2061.JPG

    Museum legacy statement (click to read)

  • Bangor and Aroostook Railroad emblem IMG 2529.JPG

    Bangor and Aroostook Railroad emblem

  • Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, Bangor, ME IMG 2511.JPG

    Bangor and Aroostook Railroad engine

  • Railroad section shack, Bangor, ME IMG 2507.JPG

    Railroad section shack

  • Blacksmith shop, Bangor, ME IMG 2509.JPG

    Blacksmith shop

  • This circular saw cuts wood into segments to fit a wood-burning kitchen stove.

  • Jigger wagon, Bangor, ME IMG 2527.JPG

    Jigger wagon used by a Maine wholesaler to move merchandise

  • Getchell Brothers Ice Company transport wagon constructed in early 1900s and restored in 1965

  • Oshkosh snowplow

  • Roller for crushing smaller quantities of snow

  • Horse-drawn hearse, made at the Maine State Penitentiary in 1895, and used until the 1930s

  • 1928 Buick, Bangor, ME IMG 2537.JPG

    1928 "Lady B" Buick

  • 1960 Ford Fairlane, Bangor, ME IMG 2589.JPG

    1960 Ford Fairlane

  • 1973 Volkswagen Beetle

  • 1947 Moped, Bangor, ME IMG 2522.JPG

    1947 Italian-made moped

  • 1946 Harley Davidson, Bangor, ME IMG 2520.JPG

    1946 Harley Davidson motorcycle

  • Dairy truck, Bangor, ME IMG 2545.JPG

    Dairy truck

  • 1937 McCormick-Deering tractor

  • 1941 John Deere Model H, Bangor, ME IMG 2514.JPG

    1941 John Deere Model H tractor

  • American Arrow bicycle, Bangor, ME IMG 2524.JPG

    American Arrow 10-speed bicycle, usually made in Belgium or Germany

  • Soap box derby car sponsored in 1950 by the Bangor Daily News

  • World War II command car IMG 2558.JPG

    World War II command car

  • Tank At The Cole Land Transportation Museum 2.JPG

    Tank outside the museum

  • Army helicopter at Cole Land Transportation Museum IMG 2062.JPG

    United States Army helicopter on the museum grounds

  • Covered bridge at the museum

  • Former church bell, Bangor, ME IMG 2560.JPG

    The museum bell once used by a disbanded church is now available on patriotic occasions in Bangor.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Cole Vehicles Cover Maine from Dirt Roads to Super Highways, 1917-1997", museum brochure, Bangor, Maine
  3. ↑ Cole Museum exhibit

External links

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