From collection to auction – Post Bulletin

In the farmland country of Southwestern Wisconsin, at the optimum level, Eagle Bluff, overlooking the Mississippi River and town of Fountain Town, Wisconsin, you may locate not only a salvage lawn, but a place devoted to collectibles and nostalgia: Elmer’s Automobile & Toy Museum.

Collectibles on web site include a lot more than 150 bikes and scooters as very well as hundreds of bikes, and more than 700 pedal powered autos, such as vehicles, planes, trains, vehicles, boats and tractors. More than 100 comprehensive-measurement antique and collectible basic vehicles that will shortly be up for sale at a one of a kind Mecum Auction owing to the family’s very own personalized life and the late Elmer Duellman’s needs, as Elmer handed away July 29, 2019.

The Duellman household designs to keep an auction of the substantial assortment the week of Sept. 12, 2022.

If you enjoy antique toys, very well, they have close to a thousand toys such as forged-iron, pressed metal, tin wind-ups, Japanese tin and battery operated objects to opt for from. They also have a assortment of antique farm equipment, and carpenter and mechanic tools.

Collector Elmer Duellman once owned and operated a gas station and car dealership in Fountain City, a race keep track of which is now Mississippi Thunder Speedway, and the salvage garden and wrecker service, which is up coming to household dwelling and the museum. The dwelling and 5 structures all served as a section of the museum and the homestead for Elmer his spouse, Bernadette, and relatives as a result of the yrs.

Elmer said in an job interview a several many years back at the area coffee store Nana J’s in Fountain City, “I started my collection, you know Sandy, in the mid-1960s when I began the auto salvage business. I would invest in many vehicles and I before long found that they took up room, and not just by crushing the motor vehicles or acquiring the property men dismantle for areas. I had to start to set my own collection out in the property and before long into the barn and other buildings.”

As Elmer always claimed, “Everything has a story.” That’s legitimate, and so do the merchandise in Bernadette’s classic dolls collection also on display screen in the museum.

Since 1994, website visitors from all around the place — and even the planet — have traveled the rolling hills between May possibly and September, just about every other weekend, to practical experience Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum. Really don’t be amazed to see associates of a common automobile club or antique car club who not only stop by, but some have even had their car or truck display in conjunction with Elmer’s assortment. Even teams of motorcyclists although on a journey could determined to take to a excursion up Eagle Bluff whilst having fun with one of the largest toy collections in the Midwest. You just hardly ever know what group or who may prevent in.

There are directors and house owners of other museums throughout the region, several of whom make the vacation to Elmer’s every single several a long time just to see the new stuff Elmer has added. Families on trip or just people on an afternoon trip come to get a glimpse of this nostalgia as Bernadette puts the quantity of yearly guests at between 2,000 and 2,500 once-a-year website visitors.

As Bernadette tells, “This getting our 29th and ultimate yr, do carry a picnic lunch and sit in the lots of shaded spots with impressive views of the Mississippi River Valley.”

Of program Mike Wolfe from “American Pickers,” with his like of pedal automobiles, from time to time has built a cellphone phone and even a vacation to Elmer’s Museum to take a look at his friend and mentor for above 25 decades, Elmer Duellman. Why would Mike simply call his friend Elmer? A person glimpse at the items on exhibit, and you will see why.

You can check out the museum web site at

www.elmersautoandtoymuseum.com

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For more info on the auction go to

www.mecumauction.com

And enter Elmer’s Vehicle & Toy Museum Auction for tons, bidding, and the Mecum magazine write-up and much more.

Sandy Erdman is a Winona-dependent freelance writer and certified appraiser concentrating on vintage, antique and collectible things. Deliver feedback and story recommendations to Sandy at

everyday [email protected]

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