3 Valley Gap Antique Automobile Museum
Gordon Bell, owner of Three Valley Gap, began his collection of antique autos when he was a teenager. In high school he owned three 1927 Chryslers and today his collection has grown to 14 antique cars from the early 1900’s.
All the antique cars on display in the museum were built between 1902 and 1929. They have been lovingly restored to running condition and all come from western Canada.
Antique Fords
Half of Three Valley Gap’s cars are Fords, which makes sense because by the twenties Ford made half the cars in the world. Most of the Fords in the collection are Model T’s. The Model T was the most common car on the road at the time and Ford made a lot of them – 15 million.
Included among the Fords is a white 1912 Model T. Everyone has heard the saying that "people could have Model T Fords in any color, so long as it's black," but that wasn’t true for the first few years. From 1908 to 1913 they also came in four colours – red, white, green and blue. In 1914 Ford limited the colour choice to Japan black because it was the only paint that would dry fast enough for his production timetable.
Ford made five different types of Model T’s – pickup, roadster, sedan, two door and touring car. In the twenties there were 2500 optional items available for the Model T’s, some from Ford and some from other manufacturers.
Henry Ford’s first vehicle was the quadracycle, a buggy-like vehicle that had four bicycle tires, which he built in 1896. He would go broke twice before he had success building Model T’s in 1908.
Ford built his cars from scratch, buying the ore ingots to produce the steel and iron and owning his own sawmills for lumber. This was the only way he could control the entire assembly of his cars.
Other Antique Cars at Three Valley Gap
There were approximately 2500 other automobile manufacturers in North America in the early 1900’s. Most went out of business, some merged with others and others were taken over by someone else.
- 1902 Curved Dash Olds – This car produced by Oldsmobile is the oldest car in the collection and one of historical significance. It was the first massed produced car in North America. Designed like a buggy, its engine is under the seat. Also at this time the steering device for vehicles was a tiller instead of a steering wheel.
- 1912 Overland Touring Car – Built by the Overland Company of Indiana, Overland cars were right-hand drive until 1915. The Overland Company almost went out of business in 1907 until John North Willys took over running the company. Willys-Overland became very successful making jeeps during the Second World War and still makes jeeps today under the American Motors name.
- 1927 Chrysler -
- 1929 Studebaker – Studebaker was originally the largest wagon manufacturer in the world in the late 1800’s. They were the only wagon maker to successfully switch to producing automobiles. They introduced an electric car in 1902 then switched to gasoline powered vehicles in 1904.
- Cadillac -
- International Harvester Highwheeler – International Harvester was one of many early car manufacturers in Chicago between 1903 and 1912. Because Chicago was a big train centre many people could travel there to purchase cars. International Harvester later converted to manufacturing heavy trucks when they couldn’t compete with Ford Model T’s.