RV/MH Hall of Fame and Museum

The area around Elkhart, Indiana, is often considered the heartland of RV manufacturing in the U.S.  Near Elkhart is the RV/MH Hall of Fame and Museum which documents the history of Recreational Vehicle (RVs) and Manufactured Housing (MH), with the emphasis on RVs.

Covered wagons that were used to traverse the western frontier have some similarity to today's tent trailers, but I doubt they were considered "recreational"!

The "Road Back into Time" exhibit in the RV Founders Hall wanders past a rich display of historic RVs.

This 1913 "Earl" Travel Trailer was custom built for a Cal Tech professor.  It already had some familiar traits.

This 1916 "Telescoping Apartment", built from a 1915 Model-T in San Francisco, already had slide-outs!  The rear section pulled out from the main structure and the side cabinets at the rear pulled out from that.

1958 22 foot Airstream Flying Cloud

(Airstream is currently owned by Thor Industries.)

1916 Cozy Camp Tent Trailer

1931 Ford Model AA Housecar

1958 10 foot Airstream prototype

This was designed as a very small trailer for the European caravan marketplace, but never went into production.

1932 Gilkie Kamp King Tent Trailer

It was manufactured by the E.P. Gilkison & Sons Company,

one of the first successful RV manufacturers in Indiana.

A very early Coleman camp stove

1950 Fleetwood Sporter

from the early days of Fleetwood Enterprises

1954 Holiday Rambler Travel Trailer

It was built by Klingler Products Company which changed its name to Holiday Rambler due to the popularity of the Travel Trailer.

1955 Ranger Crank-up Tent Trailer

It was one of the first trailers to use a fiberglass body.

1954 Yellowstone Travel Trailer

This was a higher end product of that era.

1956 E-Z Camper Tent Trailer

It was built by Clyde Grambsch for personal use.

As a joke, "MFD by Loyal Trailer Co. Loyal, WI." was painted on the back.  After receiving much demand for more units,Mr. Grambsch started the E-Z Camper Company.

It looks like a very limited fresh water supply in this rig.

1985 Fleetwood Bounder prototype

1939 Lindbergh Travel Trailer

Custom built for Charles Lindbergh

Axles at both ends gave lots of stability when parked.

1928 Pierce Arrow Fleet Housecar

One of only three high-end housecars built by Pierce Arrow before the 1929 stock market crash.

1929 Wiedman Housecar

1937 Hunt Housecar

Custom built by Hollywood cinematographer J. Roy Hunt
Considered to be the first housecar with a functional shower

Though limited in scope, the museum does document the manufactured housing industry.

This is a model manufactured home on display on the museum grounds.

National Corvette Museum

While passing through Bowling Green, Kentucky, we visited Chevrolet's National Corvette Museum.

This is chassis #3 of the first year of Corvette production in 1953.  The Corvette was the first Chevrolet production car with a fiberglass body.  The remainder of the first Corvettes were built from parts from other Chevrolet production vehicles.  The fiberglass body in this display has been cut away on one side to display the internal parts.

This 1946 Stout Y47 Concept Car was the first vehicle designed with a fiberglass body.  After extensive fiberglass testing, Chevrolet decided that it was feasible for use in production automobiles.

The original design for the Corvette logo did not last long.

The remains of an expensive crash test subject.

This 1967 Stingray was Roy Orbison's personal vehicle.

One wall has this interesting collage.

A little more closeup shows ...

... that it is made with LOTS of small Corvette related pictures.

On February 12, 2014, it was discovered that a large sinkhole had formed under the floor of the museum's Skydome, swallowing eight classic cars that had been on display.

Image from CBS News.

After recovery, only three of the vehicles were able to be restored.  The other vehicles had various levels of damage.

Two of the recovered and restored vehicles