Chapter 15, The Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, and National Truck Museums, 2026

 While we were waiting for the alignment shop to complete work on our motorhome, we tried to fill each day with a field trip to interesting locations.  During a phone call with our friend, Rob Gold, he mentioned that we were staying in an RV park that was only about an hour's drive away from the town of Auburn, Indiana, which was the home of the Auburn Automobile.  

We told him that we had never heard of the Auburn automobile and he said that there was a really nice museum there where the Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg automobiles were beautifully displayed along with the National Truck Museum.  We knew we had to check this out and we are really glad we did.

 We were still in Indiana so, of course, as we drove on the country roads through all of the fields that were under cultivation, we kept coming across massive equipment on the roadways.

  After a drive through the beautiful countryside, we arrived in the little town of Auburn, Indiana. Google maps took us straight to the Auburn automobile factory, which was now a museum.

Once inside the museum, we were immediately dazzled by the huge array of cars and airplanes. They were all either in original condition or beautifully restored.

 Not only were the automobiles beautiful, but the building itself was amazing. The displays were located on three floors and it took a couple of hours to walk through and admire the beautiful cars. We had never seen anything like most of these cars in person and the pictures that we had seen in the past did not do justice to the craftsmanship that was involved in  building these works of art.

 

The first Front Wheel Drive American vehicles were developed here and are incorporated in many of the Cord automobiles.

These cars were all handmade and are truly works of art.

The exteriors are not the only artwork on these vehicles. They did not scrimp on the interiors either.

These cars were very innovative and incorporated many features that did not appear in other cars for decades. The red arrow in the previous picture points to a small round loop handle on the steering column. This is the gearshift pre-select. When you wanted to change gears, you would move the pre-select lever to the desired gear, and then when you depressed the clutch, the transmission would change gears using a vacuum-electric system.  This was not an automatic transmission, but allowed you to simply change gears by depressing and releasing the clutch.

 You're not allowed to touch any of the vehicles in the museum except for one.

  This red beauty had front wheel drive and headlights that turned when you turned the steering wheel, illuminating the roadway around a curve.

This 1930 Cord L 29 Cabriolet was first owned by Frank Lloyd Wright.  He owned two Cords and believed that front wheel drive was an extremely important safety consideration and stated that it would one day drive all cars.   About 50 years later, he was proved correct.

They had other brands of automobiles displayed at the museum, besides Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs.  This is a Moon.  We had never heard of or seen a Moon before, even though over 13,000 were built starting in 1925.

 They also had a beautifully restored 1946 Stinson airplane.

We have owned lots of airplanes, but we have never had one with lace curtains.

  The Duesenberg factory made some prototype aircraft engines for World War I.

This engine was 3393 cubic inches and produced 800 RPM.

Duesenberg also produced the Bugatti model, including this engine.
 

This is sort of getting into the weeds, but you car nuts will understand how technically advanced this was almost 100 years ago.   It is interesting that Lycoming was manufacturing these engines and now they are one of the prominent aircraft engine manufacturers today.

 

This is a replica of a 1929 Auburn.  The craftsmanship is just amazing.

 

  

 

 This is the third floor of the museum.

 It took a long time to look at all of the cars and displays at the automotive portion of the museum. It was an absolutely amazing place to visit. We finally ran out of gas and had to stop for lunch so we left the museum and went to a restaurant to rest up and get ready for the second half of the day. The entrance fee to the automotive museum allowed to visit that museum, but with a slight increase in the fee, it also included entrance to the National Truck Museum. That was going to be our afternoon project and the wristband that they gave us allowed us to enter both museums. 

This museum didn't just have trucks.  It had all kinds of vehicles, including hot rods, motorcycles, snowmobiles and all kinds of trucks, but especially international trucks.  This is a video of our first impression as we entered the museum's first floor.

 One of the most impressive vehicles in the collection was this gigantic truck.

In the following picture, you can see how the side of the truck opened up, allowing people to view numerous displays on the inside.

This machine was massive and the following videos help visualize just how big it was.

Superliner video #1 

Superliner video #2 

Superliner video #3 

 They have lots of beautiful cars as well as trucks.

They had a beautifully restored car hauler.  It was very aerodynamic and even had partially enclosed sides to protect the cars..

Here is a video of the car hauler.   White 3000 Car hauler 

There were lots of unique designs.

 They had a beautifully restored Crosley truck.  It was really small.

It might have been the perfect size for Suzie, but I don't think I could even get into it.

Everything about this truck was small, including the engine. That is Suzie's hand next to the full-size engine. 

Well, even though this was a pretty long chapter, it is just scratching the surface of everything there is to see at these museums. 

We're onto the next adventure and we'll get that to you as soon as we can. 

Tom and Suzie