What meanders through the mind of an attraction-bound car driver, snaking for hours along a two-lane road behind an endless line of fat-chassied RVs? Perhaps thoughts of the noble origins of the Recreational Vehicle...or its forefather, the Mobile Home. Where did the first trailer come from?
Answers to these questions and more may be found at the RV and Manufactured Home Hall of Fame, in Elkhart, "RV Capital of the World. Elkhart is an RV manufacturing and retail mecca, home to headquarters of nearly 40 companies, including Skyline, Coachman, and Holiday Rambler.
The Hall of Fame, here since 1991, houses a collection of antique trailers, memorabilia, historic photographs and artifacts of the Recreational Vehicle/Motor Home industries.
Though they'll be moving to larger facility in late 2006, part of the collection can be seen in the current museum's one large exhibit hall. It's quiet, an amazingly still place for a museum devoted to motion and mobility. Vehicles sit, doors flung open for inspection, with plywood promotional cutouts of families arrayed for scale and atmosphere.
It's probably the only place on Earth you can see such a varied arsenal of leisure driving power. There's the first "hard-sided travel trailer," the 1913 Earl, and the rare 1937 Nomad. Full-size rolling pleasure palaces of the 1950s and '60s crowd the main exhibit hall: a 1954 Shasta Travel Trailer, 1962 Airstream Bambi, 1969 Holiday Rambler, 1967 Winnebago Motor Home (the vehicle that made motors homes burst into the mainstream).
A comically tiny pink trailer -- suitable for pets -- is displayed, an industry parade artifact. There's an RV/MH Hall Hall of Fame, honoring about 200+ of the most famous names in RV history. Pay tribute to the likes of Elmore Frye, who pioneered the "10 wide" trailer. Now the industry pushes the envelope past the "16 wide."
Mobile Home Utopias
One of the more interesting artifacts is a display of scale models of trailer high-rises. The idea was that you could stack 20-stories worth of single-wides, and build whole communities of vertical trailer parks. Freedom and the road was just a freight elevator ride away. Judging from the promo postcards, this concept had its day in the 1960s. One of these may have even been built in Wisconsin or thereabouts...
A small display cabinet contains "God bless our camper" keychains and a big, black button, on which is a quote from John Hansen, president of Winnebago Industries:"You can't take SEX, BOOZE, or WEEKENDS away from the American people."
The Hall of Fame itself is in the entrance area -- rows of panel displays with photos and plaques honoring over 150 inductees -- manufacturers, retailers, park developers, dealers, a publisher, even an RV insurance guy. The inductions started in 1992, going back to salute pioneers as far back as 1972. The HoF section is definitely intended for industry insiders.
RV sales are still brisk, in spite of gas prices above $3 a gallon. The folks at the Hall of Fame aren't worried: "It [the price climb] does not seem to phase them. They only probably get 7-8 miles per gallon. They spent 200 to 300 thousand dollars on a motor home -- they can afford the gas."
June 2006: The new 100,000 square foot facility for the RV/MH Hall of Fame is on schedule
to open in the Fall of 2006. The new museum will be much larger, with a theater, two exhibit halls, a convention hall, and room for outdoor exhibits.
In the meantime, the Foundation continues to add new vehicles from the Woodworth Collection to its current displays. According to a museum spokesperson, Mae West's 1930s housecar "is a part of the large David Woodworth collection recently acquired by the museum and is the first of the 35 pre WWII RVs to be delivered from its previous home near Bakersfield, California."
November 2005: The RV/MH Heritage Foundation announced the acquisition, via a gift from “Boots” and Betty Ingram, of the "world famous" David Woodworth collection of over 35 recreational vehicles, all dating from prior to World War II. The collection of early towable and motorized recreational vehicles will be displayed in an annex to the new RV/MH Hall of Fame now under construction along I 80-90 in Elkhart. The entire collection has never been on display at the same time.
