{"id":2755,"date":"2007-08-29T03:48:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-29T07:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2007\/08\/as-owl-flies\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:59","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:59","slug":"as-owl-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2007\/08\/as-owl-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"As the Owl Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1913<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m suspicious of any museum with “transportation” in its name. Usually, either the mission is too broad or8-2 the museum is so large that the exhibits boggle the mind. A nice compromise is the Owls Head Transportation Museum<\/a> in the Maine village of the same name.<\/p>\n

Although the museum concerns transportation on water<\/a>, rail<\/a> and even space<\/a>, it’s mostly about automobiles and airplanes, with a few bicycles<\/a> and motorbikes<\/a> (and a sleigh<\/a>) thrown in for balance. A common curse of auto museums is the tendency to put too many cars in too little space. The larger exhibit area required for airplanes all but eliminates this problem.<\/p>\n

The charm of Owls Head is its eclecticism. In addition to the obligatory Duesenberg<\/a>, Pierce-Arrow<\/a> and Flying Lady<\/a>-adorned Rolls-Royce<\/a>, one finds a jaunty Léon Bollée tricar<\/a>, massive Panhard<\/a> touring car and rare Stevens-Duryea<\/a> tourer<\/a>, the latter once the property of artist Melbourne Brindle of Packard advertising renown. There’s a nearly-complete collection of the works of James Scripps Booth<\/a>, a Rocket cyclecar<\/a>, Model C runabout<\/a> and enigmatic Bi-Autogo<\/a>. The designer of the Bi-Autogo, William B. Stout<\/a>, is represented with his Stout Scarab<\/a>, and there’s the Eliot Cricket<\/a>, an innovative automobile with aircraft-type controls. H.P Hood, the New England dairy<\/a>, is present in the form of a Divco milk truck<\/a>, and one can ask the man who owns one about his Rollson-bodied<\/a> 1939 Packard. Next year will be the centenary of the Ford Model T, so Owls Head is preparing a T exhibit<\/a>, including ane “ice T” for harvesting ice<\/a> from Maine’s many ponds.<\/p>\n

You can’t interpret manned flight in the United States without the Wright Brothers<\/a> (theirs is a replica), but Owls Head is similarly diverse in its flight path. The magical Ornithopter<\/a> is a mechanical bird<\/a>, the Gazda Helicospeeder<\/a>, an experimental craft from an Austrian-born inventor, and the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny”<\/a> (shown here with Jill<\/a>) an icon of early American aviation. Of local interest is the Milliken M-1<\/a>, a home-built craft that crashed<\/a> on its maiden flight.<\/p>\n

Before leaving, visitors should visit the Engine Room, where exhibits range from a giant Corliss<\/a> steam powerplant<\/a> to a tiny Locomobile steam engine<\/a> and include internal combustion engines of inline automotive<\/a>, radial<\/a> aircraft and Wankel<\/a> configuration.<\/p>\n

Located two miles south of Rockland, Maine<\/a>, the Owls Head Transportation Museum is open 361 days a year<\/a>. Allow most of a day for a leisurely visit – finish up with a walk to the picturesque Owls Head lighthouse<\/a> on the rock-bound coast. Or come for one of the museum’s many special events<\/a>. You’ll have a great time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m suspicious of any museum with “transportation” in its name. Usually, either the mission is too broad or8-2 the museum is so large that the exhibits boggle the mind. A nice compromise is the Owls Head Transportation Museum in the Maine village of the same name. Although the museum concerns transportation on water, rail and….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3319,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions\/3319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}