Tag: Lincoln

Indiana’s Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg Museum

The Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg Museum is somewhat misleadingly named.   Yes, they have a stunning and visually arresting collection of Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs (one of the best I’ve ever seen), but the collection of more than 120 vintage automobiles includes more than just these three marques.  There’s even a vintage BSA motorcycle (I’ll get to that in a bit).

The Museum is housed in what used to be the Auburn factory.  It’s in Auburn, Indiana, where they used to make Auburn automobiles.  Auburn is north of Indianapolis (the quick way in is on Interstate 69); we stopped there on our way to Goshen to visit the Janus factory.  Janus was fun and I grabbed a ton of awesome photos there, too.  Grab the September/October issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine and you’ll see it.  But that’s not what this blog is about.  Let’s get back to Auburn and the Museum.

The Museum is magnificent and the automobiles are stunning.  The Duesenbergs are beyond stunning but don’t take my word for it.  You might consider seeing this magnificent collection yourself.  I took enough photos to fill a book and I had a hard time picking just a few to show here.  I probably went a little overboard, but the cars are so nice it was hard not to.

Here’s a 1931 Duesenberg Model J.  The body was built by the Murphy company of Pasadena, who made more Duesenberg bodies than any other company.  The car has a straight 8 engine.

This is a V-16 Cadillac, another truly magnificent automobile.

Next up is a supercharged 1935 Auburn.  It is an 851 Speedster, with a Lycoming straight 8 engine.  It cost $2,245 when it was new (less than a used Sportster, if you’re using that as a benchmark).  The lines on this car are beautiful, and the colors work, too.

This next car is a 1929 Ruxton, a car I had never heard of before visting the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum.  It’s a front-wheel-drive car, a competitor to the Cord in its day.  According to what I found online, the Ruxton was lower, lighter, and handled better than the Cord.  The looks and the colors work for me.

Check out the Ruxton’s headlights.   These are Woodlite headlights, which  are very art deco.   They look like helmets.

Here are two 1937 Cord 812 automobiles:  A convertible and a coupe.  The colors and the style are impressive.  When I was a kid, I built a Monogram plastic model of a Cord that I think was based on the convertible I saw in Indiana.

Here’s a 1948 Lincoln Continental Coupe with a V-12 engine.  1948 was the last year any US automobile manufacturer made a V-12.  This one had 305 cubic inches and it produced 130 horsepower.  The car you see here cost $4,145 in 1948.

This 1933 250cc single-cylinder BSA is the lone motorcycle in the Cord Auburn Duesenberg Museum.  This one was E.L. Cord’s personal motorcycle, which he kept on his yacht and at his Nevada ranch.

Another magnificent Duesenberg.  This one is a 1931 Beverly sedan, with a 420 cubic inch, straight 8, 265-horsepower engine  It went for $16,500 when it was new.

This is an XK 120 Jaguar.  I think this is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.  It’s my dream car, in exactly these colors.

Here’s a first-year-of-production, 1953 Corvette.  Chevy introduced the Corvette in the middle of the 1953 model year, so there were only a few made.  The 1954 Corvette was essentially the same car.

Chevy was going to discontinue the Corvette due to its low sales, but the dealers convinced them otherwise.  The dealers didn’t sell a lot of Corvettes, but they sold a lot of other Chevys to people who visited the showrooms to see the Corvette.

Another view of the first year Corvette.  Note the mesh headlight protectors.

Ford’s answer to the Corvette…the two-seat Thunderbird.  The little T-Bird never matched the Corvette’s performance.  After three years of production (1955 to 1957), Ford redesigned the Thunderbird as a larger four-seater.

The Thunderbird soldiered on as a four-seater for years, then it was discontinued, then it briefly emerged again as a two-seater in 2002 (that’s the car you see below).  The new Thunderbird only lasted through 2005, and like the classic ’55/’56/’57 two-seat T-Birds, Ford dropped this one, too.  My buddy Paul drives one that looks exactly like this.

Auburn is a cool little town.  Its population is about 14,000 and the town is about 145 miles north of Indianapolis (it’s a straight shot up on Interstate 69).  The town is rooted in automotive history, and other history as well.  In 1933, John Dillinger and his gang raided the local police station and they stole several firearms and ammunition.  But it’s the automobiles and their history that make this town a worthy destination.  Auburn, Indiana, loves its automobiles and automotive history.  We saw several vintage cars being used as daily drivers.  The murals were cool, too.

You can easily spend three or four hours in the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, and spending the entire day there wouldn’t be out of the question.  One of Auburn’s best kept dining secrets is Sandra D’s, a reasonably-priced Italian restaurant with an exquisite menu.  Try the eggplant parmesan; you won’t be disappointed.

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Gettysburg National Military Park

It was an epic battle, fought over just three days, with monstrous casualties incurred by both sides due to a deadly combination of improved weaponry and Napoleonic tactics.  Muskets transitioned from smoothbores to rifled barrels (greatly enhancing accuracy); military formations (not yet adopted to the quantum leap forward in accuracy) fought in shoulder-to-shoulder advancing columns.  Both sides held their fire until the Union and Confederate armies were at can’t-miss distances.  It was brutal.  Gettysburg suffered 51,000 casualties.  Eleven general officers were killed.  It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, but it was turning point.  General Robert E. Lee, the previously invincible and charismatic hero of the South, had been soundly defeated.  General George Meade, appointed to command the Union troops just days before the battle, achieved a tactical victory regarded by his superiors as a strategic failure (Lincoln later said Meade held the Confederate Army in the palm of his hand but refused to close his fist).

Perhaps best known for Lincoln’s Gettysburg address given months after the fighting (delivered at the dedication of a cemetery), Gettysburg is a town, a free National Military Park, and hallowed ground.  But first, read these 275 words…275 of the most elegant words ever assembled by anyone:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Elegant, eloquent, and to the point:  Lincoln spoke for a short two minutes after a two-hour speech by a former Harvard College president.  Lincoln wrote the words himself (not, as rumor would have us believe, on the back of an envelope during the train ride to Gettysburg, but carefully crafted by Lincoln in the White House and then polished upon his arrival in Gettysburg).  No speechwriters, no opinion surveys, no communications experts as would be the case today.  I wish that in a nation of 330 million people we could find another Lincoln (rather than the continuing cascade of clowns we’ve had to choose from in the last several elections).

I first visited Gettysburg 60 years ago as a little kid and I was a little kid again on this visit.  Gettysburg was way more wonderful than I remembered but still the same.    The Visitor Center is new and better equipped.  There are more monuments (approximately 1,350 such monuments; you will see just a few in this blog).  The battlefield remains the same.  It is impressive.  You need to see it.

There are many exhibits in the Gettysburg Visitor Center, including two large displays of Union and Confederate sidearms.

You can take your car or motorcycle through Gettysburg National Military Park on a self-guided tour, you can take a bus tour, or you can hire a guide.  Any of these approaches are good.

Cannon line a typical road through the Gettysburg battlefield.

The Battle of Gettysburg occurred over three days (July 1 to July 3, 1863) that changed the calculus of the Civil War.  Lee took his Army of Northern Virginia north, hoping to continue an unbroken string of Confederate victories, so sure of his likely success that he ignored the tactical advice of his generals.   He prevailed on the first day, but flawed tactics and a combination of Union brilliance and resolve turned the tide and the War.  It culminated in what has become known as Pickett’s Charge, a Confederate uphill advance across a mile of open land into unrelenting Union cannon fire.  The Union artillery had the reach (two miles of direct fire; there were no forward observers adjusting fire as we have now).  The cannons were deadly, and then troops closed to small arms distance, and then finally to hand-to-hand combat.  More than 12,000 of Pickett’s men marched into the Union killing fields; nearly half were foolishly lost.  It was the turning point for everything: The South’s success, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Civil War.

The views are magnificent. We were aided by an overcast day, with diffuse lighting that made for improved photography.

Numerous state militia fought at Gettysburg.  Each of the states and their militia erected monuments in the years following the Civil War.   The New York monuments were always the largest, at least until New York completed the last of its statues and structures.  Pennsylvania, waiting and watching patiently, then built a monument that dwarfed New York’s best efforts.  But all are impressive.

The 91st Pennsylvania Infantry monument on Little Round Top near Cemetery Ridge.  This area was the high ground held by the Union.

The two armies had been maneuvering near each other, and as is usually the case in such things, first contact was accidental.  The Confederate forces initially prevailed and their leader, General Robert E. Lee, assumed this success would continue.  Lee’s subordinate’s told him it would not, as they did not hold the high ground.  Lee pressed ahead anyway, suffering a defeat that marked a turning point (one of many) in the Civil War.

A view from Little Round Top, looking down into the killing fields of Pickett’s Charge.    12,000 men marched forward; more than half were lost in a single afternoon.

Gettysburg National Military Park is a photographer’s dream, and many battlefield areas present dramatic photo ops.  The monuments are impressive and more than a few offer several ways to frame a photo.

The 44th and 12th New York Infantry monument on Little Round Top at the south end of Cemetery Ridge, framing the field of battle. This is a massive and impressive monument.
Artillery lines in Gettysburg National Military Park. Many of the cannon are original items and saw actual use in the Battle of Gettysburg.
When the ammunition ran out, it was hand to hand fighting at Gettysburg.  This is the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry monument on Cemetery Ridge.  The 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry played a key role in defeating the Confederate advance known as Pickett’s Charge.

I was up early the next morning before we left Gettysburg, and I returned to the battlefield to capture a better photo or two of the State of Pennsylvania monument.  It’s the largest in Gettysburg National Military Park. I was so impressed by it the day before I forgot to get a photo.

The State of Pennsylvania’s monument, at 110 feet tall, is the tallest of 1350 monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield. You can climb an interior spiral staircase to see the entire battlefield from this monument.
The beautiful 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry monument framing the State of Pennsylvania monument. The tree trunk beneath the horse was necessary to support the statue’s weight. Interestingly, the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry did not take part in the fighting at Gettysburg, but instead guarded supply lines in Maryland.

The country roads leading to Gettysburg, and the riding in Pennsylvania, are way beyond just being good.  Several rides to Gettysburg are memorable, and everything on the battlefield is accessible via an extensive network of narrow lanes.  Take your time when navigating the Park’s interior battlefield lanes; this is an area best taken in at lower speeds.

A 180-degree panoramic view from Little Round Top. Click on this image to see a larger version.

Getting to Gettysburg is straightforward.  From the south take Interstate 83 north and State Route 116 east.  From the east or west you can ride Interstate 76 and then pick up any of the numbered state routes heading south.  If you are coming from points southwest, Maryland is not too far away and the riding through Catoctin Mountain Park on Maryland’s State Route 77 is some of the best you’ll ever find.

The best kept secrets at Gettysburg?  On the battlefield, it’s Neill Avenue, also known as the Lost Avenue.  It’s the least visited area of Gettysburg National Military Park, and probably the most original with regard to how the battlefield looked on those three fateful days in July 1863.  As for good places to eat, my vote is for The Blue and Gray Bar and Grill in downtown Gettysburg (just off the square in the center of town; try their chili) and Mr. G’s Ice Cream just a block away.   Both are excellent.

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