Chrome and Cadillacs: How a massive museum grew in a small Utah town

Wallsburg • Pam Williams remembers a story her father, Richard Erickson, told her, about how a steam tractor went to work in the field and put 100 laborers out of work.

Erickson, who died in 2018, was intrigued by “the power behind the engine, and the different uses you could do with the motor,” his daughter said. “That’s kind of how he got started collecting.”

The cars and other vehicles Erickson collected over 50 years now fills The Antique & Classic Power Museum, run by the nonprofit Richard W. Erickson Foundation.

The 24-building museum, sitting on more than 300 acres, is hidden in the town of Wallsburg, population 290 (according to 2020 U.S. Census data), in Wasatch County, south of Heber City.

“My dad, when he was in business, he put a sign out on the road, had a bunch of them made up: ‘I will buy old tote, goats and motorcycles,” Williams said. “My mom said he got so many calls. … Pretty soon we just got hundreds of them all over the place.”

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Russell Baker, curator and chairman of the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, gives a tour of one of the many buildings filled with classic cars on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

The family bought the museum property in the early 1970s, Williams said. “The plan at that point in time was to purchase it for a place to retire to and store a few tractors,” she said.

Now, the museum’s many buildings are home to a collection of chrome: Old cars and motorcycles, but also tractors, land speed racers, military branded transportation, a mini pioneer village, domestic buildings and even a sky park where people can fly drones and remote-controlled devices.

Williams said that after her mom, Rita, died in 2007, she convinced her dad to make a domestic-themed building for the museum, as a memory for her mother. “She always wanted something for the ladies to enjoy, too,” Williams said.

The domestic building has grown over the years, full of nostalgia goods. Williams favorite item are all the salt/pepper shakers, which her mom collected. There are some in the building passed down through generations of Williams’ family on both sides.

She also said her brother helped their dad build 90% of the buildings on the property.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A step back in time through the door of an old-fashioned country store at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

Finding a home in Utah

“Dick and Rita were collectors their whole lives,” said Russell Baker, the museum’s curator and chairman of the foundation’s board, who’s been involved with the museum for 23 years. “They really started collecting in earnest in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s.” The foundation was formed in 1999, Baker said, to keep and protect the collection.

Richard, Baker said, grew up in a farming family in Minnesota and was drafted into the military during the Korean War. When he reported for duty in San Diego, he drove through Utah and fell in love with it.

When his service was up, Baker said, Erickson " went back home, packed his flathead Ford car, strapped his Harley-Davidson motorcycle on the back of it, and he drove to Utah.”

Baker met the Ericksons because he and his wife are also collectors, he said, and they ran into each other at the same auctions.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The hood ornament on a 1939 Lincoln series K V-12, 4-door sedan is pictured at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

“I had a dealership at the time as well, a motorcycle dealership, and [Richard] was always sneaking things into my trailers to get back to Utah,” Baker recalled. One day, Richard asked Baker to take over the motorcycle collection.

Baker said before he knew it, he became the museum’s curator. Now, the collection is sprawling.

“We have everything. We have turn-of-the-century automobiles and motorcycles in all the buildings,” he said.

Some of those include a 1938 Lincoln Zephyr that was used in the 1991 film “Bugsy,” a 1913 Pierce Arrow 48-B Runabout Motorcar, a 1931 Packard Model 833, a 1936 Cadillac Phaeton Fleetwood that belonged to an English baron, and Steve McQueen’'s 1946 Indian Motorcycle — his personal rider.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A 1946 Indian, one of former Steve McQueen’s personal riders, is pictured at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

Cars that tell a story

Like a good curator, Baker can answer questions about his collection, but also about the time period and historical context from which each item originated.

If you ask how Ford went from the Model T to the Model A, or when car colors began rolling into fashion, or if there’s enough leg room in the back of some of the older models, he’ll have a response.

“I had my first motorcycle when I was 13 and I started buying, selling and building motorcycles, and then moved to cars, and I was buying muscle cars when I was a teenager, for $700 to 900.” Baker said. “I’d soup them up, race them around, have fun with them, and flip them and make $200. I thought I was rich, buy another one, and I did that for so many years.”

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dice shifter on a 1929 Ford Roaster pickup hot rod at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

Baker owns four Ford Model A’s. “The automobiles of the late ‘20s, early ‘30s, had such a gorgeous art deco design to them — the lines, the colors. They weren’t just transportation. They had an element of beauty to them. They all wanted to stand out,” Baker said. “Nowadays you drive down the highway, you can’t even tell what kind of car it is, and so many of them don’t even say the kind of car. They have a logo.”

When Baker curates items for the museum, he said he looks for pieces that tell stories.

“Curating a museum is much more than just the items. That’s just an automobile. It’s a thing. It’s the story behind the automobile that’s so important. We want to preserve and keep alive the history of that item, because that is the story that we want to preserve and present to the public,” he said. “When I’m giving tours, it’s much more than just that motorcycle. It’s the story of how it became, where it came from, the progression of how it evolved.”

Baker said, “A society that doesn’t study and teach and preserve their history is doomed to repeat it.” He said he sees a sense of comfort in museum visitors when they step back and remember. “As human beings, we fortunately have the ability to remember the good times and let go of the bad times,” he said.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The evolution of gas prices at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

When the museum hosts big events — like the Wasatch Boomerfest, a music festival of tribute bands set for Aug. 23-25 — Baker said he loves to watch generations of a family interact as they gather around a car or motorcycle. Often, he said, an older gentleman in the group will open up and begin to share his own stories.

“He’s from that Great Depression era, or in his 90s, and it’s that sharing and the grandkids are hearing Grandpa’s stories that this was just a stimulus to open him up,” Baker said. “We preserve the history because people appreciate it, and they need to see it, and the youth need to see it, to understand the generation before them.”

Those historical stories are everywhere — such as in the pioneer village, where the first phone in Wallsburg is located inside the original Ford mercantile store building. A nearby cabin, once belonging to a polygamist, has been converted into a mini diner. Richard even brought over the original cabin from Minnesota, where seven generations of the family have slept.

Baker said the museum and foundation are working on a 10-year expansion plan, including a new building for the tractors.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Attention to detail is preserved on a 1931 Ford Model A deluxe roadster rumble seat coupe at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

Why do we love nostalgia?

“In some ways, pop culture has always been about nostalgia,” said Kyle William Bishop, chair of the English department at Southern Utah University. “I would say that in the last 10 years now, nostalgia has been a bigger factor than it’s likely ever been before.”

Bishop is an expert in American literature, pre-World War II. He’s also a horror film scholar, and studies pop culture in the film world. Bishop said he encounters nostalgia a lot in film and TV.

Bishop said that can be seen in the entertainment we consume — such as the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” which brought back obsessions from the 1980s — or in purchases people make, like the way vinyl records have resurfaced.

Bishop said that he doesn’t think there’s a certain age group, like boomers, who are more nostalgic than others. Rather, he said, when a group reaches a certain age, nostalgia sets in.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The classic emblem on a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach I Fastback at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

“In 10 years, we’re going to have the Gen-Xers are going to be even more nostalgic than they are,” he said. He noted that sometimes, there’s even “second-hand nostalgia” that the younger generation engages in — nostalgia for time periods they didn’t exist in, as Bishop puts it.

Bishop said he’s not a psychologist, but he suggests nostalgia can be a way to address growing older and recapturing one’s youthfulness.

“A lot of these classic cars are owned by older men who want to recapture the glory days,” Bishop said. “The sense of ‘I had this car when I was 17, and that car, to me now, represents my youth. If I could get that car again, if I could have that car, maybe I could recapture something of those days, those youthful days.’ …

“With the boomers, it’s going to be primarily car culture, because that was such a big part of the ‘50s. … There’s kind of an era that seems to be really celebrated, this ‘50s, ‘60s era, when a lot of the boomers were first encountering car culture firsthand,” Bishop said.

And, he said, the “allure of the analog” also fits in here.

“The idea that a record is actually a needle that’s vibrating from physical grooves in the vinyl, and that creates the music. It’s not a digital file. It’s something you can hold. It’s something you can say, ‘This is mine,’” Bishop said. “There is a little bit of romanticization of these older, more primitive, simple things.”

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bonneville Salt Flats speed record muscle is on display at the Richard W. Erickson Foundation Antique & Classic Power Museum in Wallsburg, Utah, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Francisco Kjolseth/)

The Antique & Classic Power Museum hosts monthly events from mid-May to mid-October, before the winter season sets in. Next weekend, Aug. 23-25, the museum will host the Wasatch Boomerfest, a three-day music festival featuring soft rock cover bands. The event will raise funds for Utah veterans, supporting the group Continue Mission. The museum will be open for attendees on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Chrome and Cadillacs: How a massive museum grew in a small Utah town

Chrome and Cadillacs: How a massive museum grew in a small Utah town

Chrome and Cadillacs: How a massive museum grew in a small Utah town

Chrome and Cadillacs: How a massive museum grew in a small Utah town

Chrome and Cadillacs: How a massive museum grew in a small Utah town