“Auto Attractions” doesn’t begin to describe this museum. The guy who created this collection bought everything he could find that had anything to do with anybody you’ve ever heard of — from Abraham Lincoln to Laural and Hardy to John Dillinger. It’s housed in a prefabricated warehouse in an industrial park in the small town of Rockton, just a short distance from the Wisconsin border.
Here are photos of just some of the items, to give you an idea of the eclectic insanity of the place.
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- John Wayne, George Custer and random Western stuff
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- John Wayne’s shoe horn
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- John Wayne and the actors from Bonanza
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- Buffalo Bill’s jacket
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- Tom Mix’s and Ernest Tubb’s hats and the piano from Gunsmoke
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- A stagecoach, a car and a tractor
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- 1932 Studebaker Commander used by John Dillinger in a robbery
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- Hearse
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- 1906 Orient Buckboard
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- Random animals
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- James Arness’s clothes
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- 1924 Fordson tractor
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- Prop train used in movies
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- Badge and gun part associated with Dillinger
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- Gun used to kill Dillinger
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- Car used in 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie
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- Electric Chair from Pennsylvania
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- Patsy Cline’s hat and boots
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- Old truck made up to look like Al Capone’s beer delivery truck
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- Conway Twitty’s 1957 Lincoln Continental
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- Colonel Sander’s car
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- Marilyn Monroe’s dresses
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- Houdini’s straightjacket
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- James Dean’s sweater
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- Buddy Holly’s sunglasses
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- James Dead Curse
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- Piece of the car James Dean was killed in
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- Nicholas Cage’s glasses from National Treasure
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- Howard Hughes 1960 Cadillac
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- Vivien Leigh’s and Clark Gable’s clothes from Gone with the Wind
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- Mirror from Gone with the Wind
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- Chet Atkin’s guitar
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- Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” Cadillac
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- Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” Cadillac
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- Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” Cadillac
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- Houdini’s handcuffs
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- Houdini’s traveling trunk
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- FDR’s limousine
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- Ulysses Grant’s carriage
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- Window from Joseph Stalin’s limousine
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- Juan and Evita Peron’s Rolls Royce Silver Wraith
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- Joseph Stalin’s 1937 Packard Super limousine
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- The King of Siam’s Delage sedan
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- Famous painters wax gallery
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- Louis XVI’s signature
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- 1925 Ford Model T used in Laurel and Hardy movie Big Business
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- Lyndon Johnson’s and Eisenhower’s hats and wood from George Washington’s and the Red Baron’s caskets
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- Elvis’s 1972 Lincoln Mark IV
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- 1950 Lincoln used by Truman and Eisenhower
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- 1962 Cadillac used in Eisenhower
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- Mussolini’s limousine
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- Flag from Mussolini’s headquarters
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- 1950 Russian Zim limousine
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- Presidents (?) gallery
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- 1939 Mercedes Benz G4 Cross Country Six Wheeler
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- Jackie Kennedy’s clothes
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- Lincoln Kennedy connection
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- Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Lincoln Continental
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- 1923 Lincoln used by Calvin Coolidge
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- Part of the fence from the grassy knoll
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- Material from the limo used in Dallas, stained with JFK’s blood
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- Part of JFK’s birthday cake
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- Bonnie and Clyde’s hats
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- JFK’s 1962 limousine
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- The Secret Service Cadillac that was behind JFK’s limousine in Dallas
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- A chair from the theater where Oswald hid
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- Recreation in wax of Ruby shooting Oswald
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- Ruby’s lie detector test
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- Booklet found in Ruby’s pocket upon arrest
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- Rub’s hat and shoes
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- The flag that covered JFK’s coffin
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- Ambulance that took Oswald to the hospital after he was shot by Ruby
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- Oswald’s original grave stone
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- Random race cars in which I wasn’t all that interested
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- Martin Luther King’s rocking chair
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- Sewing machine from the White House during the Polk presidency
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- Batmobiles
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- Delorean from Back to the Future
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- 1929 Indy 500 race car
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- Christopher Reeve’s Superman costume
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- Batmobile from 1960s TV show
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- Indy race cars
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- Hat Tibbets wore when he dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima
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- Gene Cernan’s glove from Apollo 17 mission
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- Capsule that carried Ham the chimpanzee on 1961 Mercury flight
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- Chair used by Lincoln in his railroad car
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- Piece of cloth from Lincoln’s funeral
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- Piece from the chair in which Lincoln was assassinated
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- Chair from Lincoln’s White House study
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- Mary Todd Lincoln’s skirt
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- Carpet Lincoln stood on during his second inaugural
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- Cuffs worn by Lewis Paine in the Lincoln assassination plot
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- Handles from Lincoln’s coffin
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- Lincoln’s spoon
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- Lincoln’s razor
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- Mary Todd Lincoln’s dress and shoes
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- Whips from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
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- Buddy Epsen’s hat from Beverly Hillbillys
Many of the items were displayed with documents to prove their authenticity, and my feeling is that they were likely genuine. If you pay attention, you will notice that, for some items, it doesn’t actually say there is a direct connection with a celebrity, like Khrushchev’s limousine for example. There’s a 1950 Russian Zim limousine, no doubt genuine, and there’s a photo of Khrushchev, and you know it’s likely that he rode in a Zim limousine, but it never quite says he rode in this very limousine. Things like that lead me to believe that the items with specific claims really are what they are claim to be.
I took my time and saw it all — or most of it anyway. I wasn’t much interested in the two rooms of race cars and my senses were overloaded by the time I got to the final couple rooms. And there’s no way I could have read all the signs or looked at all the autographed photos or studied all the trinkets. Here’s a video, but even this doesn’t fully capture the awesomeness of this collection.
There were a handful of other visitors, but most of the time I had the place to myself. The young woman who took my money was the only employee I saw, and she didn’t seem too worried about security or anything else. After finishing my tour, I asked if I could go back through with the red chair and she gave me permission without hesitation.
Cadillac made from parts dating from 1949 to 1973, used in the music video for Johnny Cash’s song “One Piece at a Time.”
1925 Ford Model T Roadster Pickup used in the Laurel and Hardy movie Big Business.
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster used in National Lampoon’s Vacation.
