New London to New Brighton Antique Car Run

Our museum was visited last week by about 80 people who were in the area for the 32nd Annual New London to New Brighton Antique Car Run which took place on Saturday, August 11.  The grand run of 120 miles is patterned after the London to Brighton car run in England which had its first run in 1896 and is the longest running motoring event in the world. 

Each year the group for the New London to New Brighton run enjoyes some shorter pre tour runs enjoying the area around New London and getting their cars ready for the main event on Saturday.  We were piviliged to be included on their list of pre tours this year.  There were cars from many different states as well as some from Canada taking part in this year's event.

It is nice to see all of their historic cars still in operation.  To qualify for the run, cars must be 1908 or older of any engine type, and up to 1915 one or two cylinder models.  There were about 60 cars in the run this year.  

I enjoyed being able to take photos of a few of  the vehicles and visit with their owners about the cars.  It was interesting to talk to the owners of the Stanley Steamer and learn a bit about that car.  This was the first time I had ever seen one in operation.  They said that the car can only go about 30 miles until it is time to refill the boiler with water, (or sometimes less miles than that if they waste too much steam blowing the whistle.)  The car was designed to burn kerosene to produce the steam, but the owners said they try to use jet airplne fuel which is similar to kerosene, but more hightly refined and burns cleaner.

We look forward to future car run groups coming to the museum.

1906 Cadillac

1905 Columbia

Stanley Steamer

Visitors with specific interests

Last week was an interesting time at the museum.  We had visitors from just over three years of age to one in his mid eighties.  Several people had read articles in farm magazines or online about some of the items in our museum.  The first visitor last Thursday drove over 100 miles from Underwood, Minnesota because he had read about the Ford tractors with the V-8 engines and the one with the V-12

1950 Ford 8N with V-8 engine

The same day Mark Lee from Havre, MT came to see our 1917 Maxwell and get information to help with the 1920 Maxwell he is restoring.  He traveled over 850 miles on his motorcycle to visit us.  Mark was able to take some photos and measurements to help with his restoration.  His car is similar enough to ours that this information will help him understand how some of the areas of his car should look.  He shared some of his knowledge about Maxwells, and I was able to learn some things from him also.  

1917 Maxwell Roadster

After a long absence from posting, the Schwanke Museum has decided to return to posting here as a way to keep our follwers up to date with updates to the museum, as well as informational stories about some of the vehicles we have here.

The main change to the museum was the passing of our founder Virgil Scwanke just over a year ago.  He is greatly missed by his family, as well as many customers and friends.

The Schwanke Museum continues to operate with our summer hours of 1-4pm Monday through Saturday.  We are also open at other times by reservation for groups of 20 or more.

I have been employed at the museum since May of 2017 and am still learning about the history of the many vehicles we have here.  I have also been working on a computerized list of our vehicles to make it easier to direct guests to a certain make and model they may ask about.

Last Saturday we took our 1928 Model A out for a trip to the classic car show at the Willmar Stingers baseball game.

Thank you for visiting our blog today.

Steve