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The Multimedia Bus Experience.
The Multimedia Bus Experience.

Greyhound Bus Museum

Field review by the editors.

Hibbing, Minnesota

Hibbing is the birthplace of the American bus industry. It sprang from the business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson -- who opened the first bus line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914. They figured that the region's iron miners would make good mass transit customers. The miners did, the bus line grew to become Greyhound, and Wickman and Anderson retired as millionaires.

Creating a museum to preserve their story was the dream of Gene Nicolelli, who has never been a Greyhound employee and who frankly admits, "I have no interest in buses at all." But he was intrigued by the "fortitude, foresight, and guts" of Wickman and Anderson. "It just fascinated the living daylights out of me," he tells us, his eyes shining.

Classic bus.

In the late 1960s, Gene found a plaque on the wall of the abandoned Hibbing bus depot honoring the town as the birthplace of the bus industry. He was instantly fascinated and took it to the Hibbing library -- which showed such little interest that it promptly misplaced it. When it turned up again in 1973, Gene swore to take matters in his own hands. He was Hibbing's bicentennial coordinator, which gave him direct access to the governor. For the next three years -- and then for the next dozen years after that -- Gene bugged a succession of governors for funding for a Greyhound museum. Finally, on the umpteenth appeal, as the two men sat in front of a fireplace, the governor said, "Oh. Now I see it."

Gene drives the building.

The museum, which finally opened in 1989, occupies a small wedge of the Hibbing Municipal Building. On its vast, empty, weed-pocked parking lot (no parking problems here) stand a half-dozen buses, including the 1914 Hupmoble that started it all. Inside are display cases jammed with badges, uniforms, and more than enough miniature models.

The "U-B-the-Greyhound-driver" photo op is good, as is the giant size-28 Greyhound driver hat worn by Mickey Mouse at Disney World, the 1961 Golden Steering Wheel Award for safe driving, a stuffed doll that looks like Hibbing native Bob Dylan in a Greyhound driver suit (but is actually -- according to Gene, anyway -- a local driver named Bob Schultz), and a 1987 multi-image video, "Go Greyhound," which you view from actual bus seats in a narrow room painted to resemble the interior of a bus. It praises Greyhound as "a clean, sleek company."

The new facility.

In less than ten years the museum outgrew its display space (Gene calls it "Ten pounds of sand in a five-pound bag"). A new facility -- one that allows the buses to be displayed indoors -- opened on the north edge of town in June 1999. It still managed to maintain its functional bus station ambiance.

Greyhound Bus Museum

Greyhound Bus Museum/Gene Nicolelli Memorial Bus Origin Center

Address:
1201 Greyhound Blvd E., Hibbing, MN
Directions:
North of town, on the west side of 3rd Ave. E./Greyhound Blvd, just north of the cemetery, near the viewpoint for the crater of the Hull-Rust Mahoning Mine.
Hours:
Mid-May-Sept. M-Sa 10-4 Su 12-4 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
218-263-5814
RA Rates:
Worth a Detour
Save to My Sights

Nearby Offbeat Places

Hull Rust Mahoning MineviewHull Rust Mahoning Mineview, Hibbing, MN - < 1 mi.
Paper Mache Statue of Bob DylanPaper Mache Statue of Bob Dylan, Hibbing, MN - < 1 mi.
Bob Dylan Chair MonumentBob Dylan Chair Monument, Hibbing, MN - < 1 mi.
In the region:
Big Uncle Sam, Virginia, MN - 19 mi.

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