Woodhull, Illinois: Max Nordeen's Wheels Museum (Gone)

Max Nordeen's worst nightmare is coming true.

On the way back from Iowa I stopped by Woodhull to visit Max one last time. He'd sent me to see his "mausoleum" on a previous trip, so I knew right where to find him. "Max F. Nordeen - Jan 16, 1928- Dec. 9, 2004 - Creator of the Wheels Museum"

I drove up to his house and museum to see what was going on. No one was there, but everything looked intact. There were a couple of old cars by the house and a carved polar bear near one of the sheds. The grass had been cut at least once since winter.

One of roadsideamerica.com's heroes, Max Nordeen, 76, passed away on Thursday, December 9th, in a nursing home. Max and his Wheels Museum were an irresistible detour whenever we found ourselves within 150 miles of his home in Woodhull, Illinois.

I finally visited Max Nordeen's Wheels Museum! My wife, dog, and I arrived early in the morning on a Sunday. The building was locked and Max was nowhere to be found but within two minutes I heard him bellowing "I'll be right out!" from the house. Within a few minutes Max was walking up to where I was parked with his hand extended. "You two must be Roadside America fans. I can always tell Roadside America fans when they arrive", said Max (truth be known, Max may have had a tip-off that we were RA fans since Kelly was wearing her Roadside America Muffler Man shirt).

Before entering the museum Max talked about the large flywheel outside of the museum. "That's a flywheel from a single cylinder engine that used to compress natural gas for pipeline transportation" he said. He also stated "the flywheel is exactly 13 feet tall, which means that I am exactly half as tall as it is. I'm 6 foot 5, or at least I was when I was younger." Max went on to explain how he was going to have "Max Nordeen's Wheels Museum" painted on the wheel but didn't since he had "already sunk $1500 more than he wanted to in the wheel with painting, sandblasting, and mounting".

Once inside the museum Max proceeded to show us around. All during the show Max went on about his struggle for recognition. "There are people in this town who tell people all I have is junk and they have never set foot in this building", said Max. Max went on to say "How can anyone who has never visited here tell anyone about what I do or don't have?"

He made sure to show us all the new stuff he's added to the collection recently as well as some of the things that he's going to have to take out because the daily heating and cooling in the winter damages some of the artifacts. It was at the point that Max took a breather in his barber's chair. "You know", he said, "I must be getting elderly. They say the heat effects the elderly and I had to close a couple times this summer because it was too hot. I've never had to do that before so I guess I'm getting elderly. I'm 73 you know, though I doubt you would guess that if I hadn't told you."

Max seems a little worried about what will happen to his collection when he can no longer conduct tours. The cars and pedal cars alone must be worth quite a penny, and Max isn't willing to part with any of it.

My stay lasted well over four hours and I couldn't even begin to count the number of things I learned from my visit (Max's middle name is Ferdinand - just one of the things I learned). Max ended the visit with the petrified leech. After he was done talking his shoulders slumped a bit and he walked back over to sit in his barber chair. Visiting Max was the best $3.00 I ever spent.

Latest from Max Nordeen's Wheels Museum. I called him! Man, this guy has no shortage of things to say. I can't wait to see his place now. Here are (some of) the highlights of the conversation:

"Well, if you're coming all the way out here just to see my place make SURE that you call first. I mean, I'm 72 now. I could up and die at any moment. I'm at the age where things like that can just happen. I'd hate for you to come all the way out here to see my place and have me be dead before you got here."

"I have to close in the winter. You see, the building is 84 feet by 104 feet and it would cost too much to heat. Do you have any idea how much heating costs this far north? I bet you don't. See you're down there where it stays mild in the winter; not me." (this thread kept going for several minutes)

"I just got back from Iowa. I picked up a lot of new stuff. You should see my kitchen. Well, you can't see my kitchen -- and that's my point. It's so full of stuff you can't see anything at all. But I'll get it in the museum before too long. Then maybe I can have my kitchen back".