Most of the cars in this museum were donated by local businessman, Harold LeMay, who started a one truck garbage collection company in 1943. The company expanded to become the largest private trash removal company in Washington state and the 10th largest in the country. Harold’s car collection expanded too and totaled over 3,000 when he died in 2000. The cars not displayed at the museum are still on the family property in a completely different museum, the LeMay Family Collection.
The cars in the LeMay museum are all in pristine condition with a wide range of years, makes, and models. The museum entrance is on the top floor with wide ramps leading down to the lower levels. Informative exhibits are located on the ramps. The second and third floor levels are long hallways lined with cars along both sides. The LeMay cars have interpretive signs but the privately owned cars just have small signs with the make and year. These cars are also in no order so if you’re interested in a particular year or make you’ll have to search them out. Once down on the last level work your way up the ramps on the opposite side of the floors so you don’t miss any of the exhibits.
The museum is completely accessible. If you don’t want to push back up along the ramped exhibits you can take the elevator to the top floor and go down the ramps but then some of the exhibits may not follow the correct chronological order.
RVs will fit in the lot but a fee of $5.00 per space is charged in addition to the museum entry fee so it can get expensive.
Since the museum is a member of the Harvest Hosts network we decided to spend the night in their parking lot. This is our most unusual Harvest Hosts location to date and even though we called a day ahead, as is requested, they didn’t seem prepared for us. Everything worked out despite some initial confusion. We were allowed to park anywhere in the lot for the night which was good because a little maneuvering was required to get level. It’s a noisy location, right next to I-5. We had to leave by 9:00AM when the museum opened for the day. Museum
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We will keep this place in mind. In 2012 we visited the Volo Auto Museum just north-west of Chicago, and it was fantastic. If you are ever near Chicago, you have to check it out. --Dave
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I checked and we have a buy one/get one coupon in our entertainment membership - makes it even better. :-)
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