Alaska’s Finest Auto Museum
By Tanner Purdy
Photo by Tanner Purdy
The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is truly a hidden gem of Fairbanks. Getting there alone feels somewhat like navigating a maze. It sits tucked behind the Wedgewood Resort where little signs guide you further and further into the web of parking lots.
The building seems to open up when you step inside, the true size of the place only being appreciated once you see how packed with cars it is. More than the cars alone, the collection offers a living history from the late 1890s to the 1930s including clothes, shoes, and other lifestyle items. Even the music piped through the museum is period appropriate.
The Museum’s collection focuses on American-made cars. Starting from the front of the building and working your way back brings you through different eras of cars. Near the door is a model that is essentially two bikes secured to either side of a motor, and like all but three cars in the collection, it still runs. The oldest four-cylinder gas-powered vehicle they have is the first American-made one in existence, the 1898 Hay Motor Car. It was a prototype vehicle that never made it to production, making it literally the only one of its kind.. The Hay Motor Car is one of two vehicles in the collection that were the only versions of themselves ever mad and it is one of eight cars in the collection that hold the title of being the only ones of their kind left in existence.
Starting your journey around the room, you get an opportunity to see the cars being worked on. A large glass panel in the wall gives you a look into the mechanic’s room. The museum regularly starts and maintains the vehicles in its collection. During the summer, they take those that move out for rides, usually on Tuesdays.
Past the mechanic’s viewing room, you are presented with a section to the left that holds some rare and fascinating cars from Alaska’s car history including the Sheldon car. The 1905 Sheldon Runabout was Alaska’s first automobile, built by the twenty two-year-old Bobby Sheldon in pursuit of a woman. The car later made Alaska’s first road trip with a vehicle, covering over 450 miles in four days running from Fairbanks to Chitina and finishing in Valdez.
The Alaska section of the museum lives up to the living history standard brilliantly. They have educational videos, and a staged version of an old Sourdough gas station, complete with a Visible gas pump from the 1920s and a 1911 Everitt you can sit in and pretend to steer for a photo.
This section is also home to some of Alaska’s historic and strange alternate terrain vehicles like the 1926 Fordson Snow-Motor. The Snow-Motor is a Fordson F tractor affixed to two hollow cylinders with screw patterns on the outside. It was used for moving over snow in the winter and could be converted back into a tractor for the summer months.
The rest of the large room takes you through beautiful models surrounded by period-appropriate gowns. The museum has over 700 gowns in their collection with around 120 out on display at any given time. They are rotated so there is always something new to look at. The latest addition to their collection is a tux worn by Bing Crosby, it’s posed next to an ornately beaded black chiffon gown and a 1927 Lincoln.
The museum is run by a small team partly made up of volunteers. While you are walking around, there is a docent available to provide deeper insight into the history of the vehicle or the time period. On my trip there, I talked with Steven Reilly, who has been volunteering as a docent with the museum for seven years. He seemed to be an endless well of knowledge, greatly improving the depth of the experience. He shared that his personal favorite vehicles are the Argonne and the Duesenberg.
Photo by Tanner Purdy
Both are amazing cars and while the Duesenberg is stately and sleek, the Argonne seems to have its own personal magnetism. The bright colors are beautifully balanced along the roadster’s body, with splashes of green as a nod to the French forest the car was named after. It is another one of the museum’s unique vehicles, being the last of only twenty-four ever produced.
As far as my personal favorite, it was difficult to choose. Despite its from 1913, the Argo Electric Limousine still pulled me in. Its tall shapely cab combined with its narrow hood sets it in the uncanny valley for cars, but in a way I found charming. It seems whimsical in nature, looking a bit like a gothic-inspired princess carriage.
Photo by Tanner Purdy
The museum is unfortunately only open two days a week, Sundays and Wednesdays from 12 pm to 4 pm. If you’re planning a trip there I would suggest giving yourself at least two hours if you’re not able to commit to the recommended four for the full tour. . The collection is truly impressive in size and uniqueness! You can keep going back and learn something new every time.