|
The Gearheads of Whatcom County were privileged to get a personalized grand tour of the LeMay Family Collection in Parkland, Washington. On June 11th 35 Gearheads boarded a charter bus and headed south bright and early on a pleasant northwest Saturday. We arrived in Parkland mid morning and were greeted by Charley Maxwell, a recent inductee into the Washington Hot Rod Hall of Fame. Charley along with Bill Reynolds, both long time LeMay volunteers and family friends were our expert docents. Several hours were spent at the family home site where building after building were viewed, more than two hundred vehicles placed in specific groupings. For example, the V-8 Room with dozens of Ford V-8s lined up, rare and unusual examples of Phaetons, roadsters and sedans of the thirties and forties.
The Packard Room contained several dozen Packards including the first of Harold LeMay’s vast collection of cars. The Cadillac Room was filled with very rare Cadillac exotics seldom seen anywhere. The Ford Room held some models that were rare and interesting examples of their finest post WWII era. There was the Hot Rod and Custom Room, the Fire Truck Room, many also containing the collections of Nancy LeMay’s dolls, toys and memorabilia. Many rooms followed at the Marymount Event Center where we went after a lunch break at the Great American Casino.
The Marymount Event Center contains several hundred more of the LeMay Family Collection automobiles. The next two hours were spent touring through one after another of the amazing rooms of the complex each filled with cars and trucks of every era of automobilia.
The LeMay Family Foundation has donated 400 cars to the LeMay Museum presently under construction in Tacoma, WA. and scheduled to open in 2012. These cars will be the foundation of the museum along with many of the family’s collection of nearly 3000 cars which will rotate, keeping the museum experience fresh. It is anticipated that more than 450,000 visitors will enjoy the vast collection each year!
|
