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EDITORIAL:
TRAVEL
Rustic Recall: The Antique Gas and Steam
Engine Museum
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by gerald poindexter
Books tell much about history, but sometimes it’s more fun
to connect the dots yourself. That’s the beauty of touring
Vista’s Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. The look and
feel of early 20th-century American life is depicted through a 20,000-count
indoor/outdoor collection of rare and restored farm and industrial
equipment.
The site is a farm and a “working museum” that seems
curated on a whim (actually, via equipment donations made internationally
and domestically). There are no fancy exhibits and no frills. If
you come across a resident volunteer, like David Denny, you’ll
get a detailed information and probably a good, homespun story.
Otherwise, it’s a self-guided adventure where you’ll
encounter small curiosities like a display of rusted-out oil cans.
These are matched by big revelations like the ultra-cool 1903 Oldsmobile,
the Fordson Model-F tractor and other, fully-operational early-model
tractors, horse-drawn ploughs, threshing machines, and of course,
antique gas and steam engines, among other technologies.
Collectively, the museum successfully evokes key periods like The
Great Depression and World Wars I and II. It is also reflective
of American corporate history: Ford, GM, John Deere, Holt &
Bessemer (now known as Caterpillar) and International Harvester.
There’s even a pop culture lesson: Several pieces have been
props for Hollywood films, including last year’s “Pearl
Harbor."
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