March 10, 2023 • 27 mins
The museum for every car guy and car girl: the Gilmore Car Museum. Located outside of Battle Creek, Michigan, this rich and vibrant museum has something for everyone. And managing the over 400 cars at the museum is no easy feat. But with a passionate team, and avid car collectors, the museum manages the delicate ballet of vehicles throughout the seasons. With over 3,500 five-star reviews, it's easy to see why this place is a "must see".
Links:
Gilmore Car Museum Website: https://gilmorecarmuseum.org/
Gilmore Car Museum Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GilmoreCarMuseum
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ken Fischang (00:00):
That's, that's one of the challenges that
(00:01):
we've had getting the word out.
You said you started out thisinterview with the best kept
secret Gilmore Car Museum.
Every day we have people that comein here that have never been here
before and they are just blown away.
Cliff Duvernois (00:13):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Ordinary
People, Extraordinary Things.
I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
Today I am at Michigan's Best kept secret.
The Gilmore Car Museum locatedjust outside of Battle Creek.
And today I'm interviewing KenFischang, the director of Commercial
Operations for the Gilmore Car Museum.
Ken, how are you?
Ken Fischang (00:32):
I'm great Cliff.
Thanks so much for being here today.
Cliff Duvernois (00:35):
So just our audience can get a little bit of an idea.
Tell me what car we aresitting in right now.
Ken Fischang (00:41):
We are sitting in a 1966 Corvette race car with an L 88
engine generating 450 horsepower.
And this car is a capable of atop speed of 151 miles an hour.
Cliff Duvernois (00:56):
50, which we're not going at right now.
Ken Fischang (00:58):
That's right.
Cliff Duvernois (01:00):
So, the moral of the story is, is that if you are a
car guy or you know a car guy, or acar girl for that matter, you need to
get over to the Gilmore Car Museum.
So Ken, why don't you sharewith us a little bit about
the history of the car museum.
When, when was it started?
Or how did it get started?
Ken Fischang (01:17):
Oh, that's a great story.
Cliff it, the Gilmore Car Museum was,uh, actually started by accident.
Don Gilmore was had his family madetheir money and department in the Gilmore
Department store here in Kalamazoo.
. And uh, then he married into the Upjohnfamily and his wife Genevieve and
her family was really impressed withDon and they wanted to, uh, get Don
(01:38):
involved with Upjohn Pharmaceuticals.
He wasn't really interested.
So they said, let's put him on theboard of directors so he can see
what a great operation this is.
And he was sold.
He went on to become president, ceo.
And then when he retired in the earlysixties his wife, after him being at
home for about a month and a half, said,Don, we gotta find you something to do.
And uh, so she went out andbought him a 1920 Pierce Arrow,
(02:02):
seven passenger touring car.
And he, and they lived justdown the road here on Gull Lake.
And they set up in his yard atent, had his buddies come over
to start restoring this car.
Well, that car led to another car.
And that car led to a third car.
By the time the third car arrived,Genevieve Gilmore says, Don, get these
cars and these tents outta my yard.
(02:24):
And so he came down the roadabout four minutes down the
road and bought this farm.
He quickly filled the barnsthat were here existing.
He built a, a whole additional building.
Our carriage house, filled that.
And then he went and found on a spearmanfound farm, this beautiful campon
barn from the eight, late 18 hundreds.
He paid to have it disassembled,brought here, reassembled.
(02:47):
By July of 66, he'd filled that as well.
Well, once again, Genevieve spoke up andshe said, Don, you got almost 60 cars.
Why don't you open this up and shareit with the public, with people?
So we opened our doors July 31st, 1966.
And, uh, we have just been growing,growing, growing ever since.
(03:07):
We are now the largest carmuseum in North America.
We have 90 acres, 29 buildings,seven partner museums, plus the
Gilmore Collection was, it's likecoming to eight museums in one,
two restaurants, a ballroom, atheater, and a ton of outdoor space.
Over three miles of paved roadswhere people can go ride in some
(03:29):
of these beautiful classic cars.
Cliff Duvernois (03:31):
of the, so for your museum being out in the sticks, you
guys have a little bit of everything.
Ken Fischang (03:36):
Yeah.
It's such a beautifulpart of, of the country.
The Rolling Hills here and the crystalclear lakes and, and, uh, yeah.
And it's convenient to both BattleCreek, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids too.
So we got a lot of visitors thatcome from within the Midwest area.
But we also have people that are here fromall over the world and all over the US.
Cliff Duvernois (03:58):
So when Genevieve said, you've got 60 cars, why
don't you just open a museum?
That's a lot of work.
I can imagine.
You have to get permits for that.
You gotta get insurance for that.
You gotta
Ken Fischang (04:08):
well, this was for that, this was 1966 I and you're in the middle.
You're, you are out in the country.
So I don't think that was a big issue.
And Don Gilmore was the type of guythat he liked to make things happen.
In the beginning, they only opened likeone or two days a week on the weekends.
They weren't open like we are nowseven days a week, year round.
Cliff Duvernois (04:27):
And with the initial 60 cars that they started with.
Now how many at the,are at the museum today?
Ken Fischang (04:33):
We have over 400 vehicles out on display and then
we keep about another a hundred to150 cars in our climate controlled
storage vaults too that we use torotate out through all the exhibits.
Cliff Duvernois (04:44):
And I know that there's a good number of cars that are here
that are actually owned by individuals.
Okay, let's talk a little bit abouthow it went from just a museum.
These are the cars that onegentleman owns to now all of a
sudden there's like 400 cars in here.
How did that come about?
Ken Fischang (05:04):
Well, it, it, we both of we have a really ambitious board of
trustees and two of our board of trusteesmembers are Donald Gilmore's grandsons.
And they're both avid car collectors.
And so that legacy hasbeen carried on from that.
But what we do, we havea combination of cars.
Some of the MU museum cars are ownedbecause we bought them, some of
(05:25):
them are owned by the museum becausethey were donated to the museum.
And then the rest are onloan from car collectors.
And car collectors loveloaning their cars to museums.
They get the prestige of saying, my car'sat the Gilmore, at the Peterson in LA.
Or they also get climatecontrolled free storage.
But most importantly, theyhave more room in their own
(05:47):
storage facility for more cars.
If their cars are out in a museum.
We're really very, very lucky to have somereally excellent cars from a multitude of
different car collectors here on display.
Cliff Duvernois (05:59):
So the US in general is really just a car culture.
It seems like we spend more timein our cars than, than anything.
And it's more than just drivingdown the road from point A to B.
, it's all the collective experiencesthat we had, like drive-in movies
or, being able to just, you know,drive through light shows and stuff.
Why don't you talk to us a littlebit about some of the other car
(06:22):
activities that you have here,just besides looking at the cars.
Ken Fischang (06:26):
Last year and this year we have 24 car shows coming up.
And so we have car shows for everygenre and make of car here as well
as trucks, as well as we have a, avintage boat and travel trailer rally.
We have a motorcycle,vintage motorcycle weekend.
So we are celebrating alltypes of vehicles here.
(06:46):
Many of the vehicles that Donfirst acquired were pre 1916 cars
because he was there when the carfirst came into being invented.
And so he was reallyenthralled with those cars.
And then as you look at some ofthe cars from the thirties and
twenties and forties, 50 sixties.
They are literally art forms
Cliff Duvernois (07:07):
yes.
Ken Fischang (07:07):
Functional art forms on wheels.
And so, yeah, there there's awhole slew of activities that we
do here along with our car shows.
For example, our Model A days we havestartup where they take it a Model A
that hasn't been run or started and it'sprobably been in a barn or something
for 50 years, and they get a team ofpeople around it and they get it started.
(07:30):
And that's kind of a fun thing we have atour celebration of brass pre 16 car show.
We, most cars, today if you buy anelectric car and you wanna go on a
long trip, it's a tough thing to dobecause you don't have the electric.
That's true.
We don't have the infrastructure yet.
Well, back then you didn't havethe infrastructure of gas stations.
So, the what you did have everywherein the country was you had water.
(07:51):
So steam cars were very popular.
Electric cars were popular in the city.
So, this is, you know,this this was pre 1916.
So when you come to a show likethis, people love to see a car
running on steam, running on water.
And you know, with the big clouds of steamcoming out very environmentally correct.
You know, uh, and, um, youknow, plus we give rides.
(08:15):
We have a 1903 Columbia Electric car.
Many people are just dumbfounded torealize electric cars were, were here
at the turn of the se, the 20th century.
So yeah, there's all we doour ultimate truck show.
We've focused also on, um, firstresponders and the tow community.
And so we have a whole seriesof demonstrations and things
(08:38):
that people can go and witness.
That's a crash school bus with a crashcar, and the, the fire department comes in
and does a rescue and flips the bus over.
And so there's all kinds of activitiesthat go along with the cars other than
just driving them from point A to point B.
Our Corvette and Camaroshow is new this year.
We combined the Corvette'sand the Camaros.
(08:59):
We have a Corvette and Camarorun where people can take
rides around our track in them.
They're not going very fast, butthey'll get up to 45 pretty quickly.
That's nice.
So they can actually get atit and, and try the cars.
And then we have our Ride theClassics program, which runs
from May through September.
(09:19):
In that program we have, we'll haveclassic cars out on our historic campus.
We have three miles of paved roads andyou can get, get in, hop in a Cadillac
convertible like the 63 Cadillac yourode in the last time you were here.
Yes.
And go for rides around the campusand learn more about the cars and get
to enjoy them and experience them.
Cliff Duvernois (09:37):
One of the things that I would like to explore a little bit more
about just making this museum happen, cuzit, I just think it's really fascinating
that somebody just had restored cars.
And then just decided to open up a museum.
If you would share with us, like maybewhat was, what was some of the, some
of the either struggles or hurdles ormaybe even some of the challenges of just
(10:00):
getting this, this whole operation going.
Ken Fischang (10:02):
Well, I, I do want you to know that we have
many unrestored cars here.
And, there's a car, lot of timesa collector will get a car.
They will actually spend a wholelot of money restoring that car
to try to make it better than new.
Other than the other hand, we have carcollectors that really want that car
in all original condition with the DNAof all the owners that have been in it.
(10:24):
And, and so, um, yeah, we havea combination of both of those.
I think one of the, thechallenges for us is always space.
And that's why we have 29 buildings on thecampus, cuz we have grown so incredibly.
And then we have ourseven partner museums.
Also, we just we're been tryingto find more storage space.
(10:44):
For all the partner museums and us too.
That's, that's one of thechallenges that we've had.
And then also getting the word out.
You said you started out thisinterview with the best kept
secret Gilmore Car Museum.
And it is because there's, we,every day we have people that come
in here that have never been herebefore and they are just blown away.
They thought they're comingto like one room or two rooms,
(11:05):
or three galleries maybe.
And, then they get, see thescope of the whole facility.
Another challenge for us too was werealized early on that people wanted
to come here and they wanted to eat.
. And so we had to create restaurantsand we have a 1941 Blue Moon Diner
that we moved from Connecticut here.
(11:25):
It's an authentic diner from the 1940s.
Beautiful.
And we have our Heritage cafeindoors too in all right off
the main heritage gallery here.
So because food service,it's, that's been a challenge.
And then we added the ballroombecause people wanted to have
a place to have meetings andweddings and corporate events.
(11:46):
And so with that, we've had a tremendousamount of growth just in servicing
all of those different events here.
And, but we're, it's, it's like it'slike living in a, it's like almost
like a hotel with no rooms in termsof a re a resort community here.
Cliff Duvernois (12:01):
Nice.
For our audience, we're gonna takea quick break to thank our sponsors.
And we'll be right back to talk withKen some more about these awesome cars.
See you then
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Okay.
Hello everyone.
Welcome back to OrdinaryPeople, Extraordinary Things.
Today I'm sitting with Ken Fischang,Director of Commercial Operations
for the Gilmore Car Museum, um,promised I won't call it the best
(13:06):
kept secret in Michigan anymore.
Uh, so Ken, before the break wewere talking about some of the
challenges that you and your teamand just getting the museum up and
running, helping to get the word out.
Talk to us a little bit moreabout maybe about what some of
those other challenges would be.
Ken Fischang (13:22):
Another challenge that people had is they come
here thinking they're going tosee everything in two hours.
And there's a reason whywe sell a two day pass.
So what does that mean?
Well, they have to spendthe night somewhere.
And we are in beautiful hickory corners.
But they're the, we have to goto hotels that are in Kalamazoo,
Battle Creek or Grand Rapids.
So we came up with somealternatives for lodging here.
(13:45):
The first thing that we did is we'vecreated our own booking engine.
Cliff, you can go to our websiteand click on area attractions and
it will pull up a booking engine.
They are all carcollector friendly hotels.
You can sort by the distance fromthe Gilmore Car Museum to that hotel.
And you can book right online and you,you get excellent rates just like you
(14:07):
went on, on a booking engine that wouldn'tgive you all of that search capability.
The second thing we did is, we'reallowed to have up to a hundred
primitive campers here, campsite.
Nice.
And so we've, we just upgraded you.
I don't know if you noticed, we havea brand new electronic Marques sign,
Right
out in front on Route 43.
And we've added all new electrical forour campers that come in and want to
(14:32):
have, 30 amp, 50 amp, 20 amp power.
We keep our shell gas station open.
We're adding another a setof bathrooms off the Classic
Car Club of America Museum.
So we're really looking at ways thatwe can have people come and stay
the night here on site if they bringtheir RV or their camper, their tent.
Or they can stay in a, in alimited or full service hotel
(14:55):
and be able to book everythingright online at Gilmar Car Museum.
Do.
Cliff Duvernois (15:00):
So before when I made that little quip about how you
guys have a little bit of everything,I meant it as a joke, but now
I'm starting to take that back.
Ken Fischang (15:07):
Well, we that's some of the challenges that we've risen
to, to, uh, continue to have thisbeautiful place e expand and grow.
Cliff Duvernois (15:16):
be able to pull more people in
Ken Fischang (15:18):
Yeah.
And make it easier for them to get here.
And, and to stay over night.
Cliff Duvernois (15:23):
Because that is, you pointed this out earlier and
the last time I was here and youtook me on a tour, of your facility,
which is beautiful, by the way.
I was blown away at just thesize and the scope of it.
So going back to when the placefirst opened, did you already
have all of this land already?
(15:44):
Or have you got, or was it to a pointwhere you just, you were like, man, we
need more elbow room, so we'll go outand acquire, you know, another 20 acres
Ken Fischang (15:51):
or,
No, it was a 90 acre farm.
Um, but we've, so we've hadlots of room to be able to grow.
This past year the Classic CarClub of America did a multi-million
dollar expansion and completerenovation of their facility.
And they're going to be addingsome things this year as well.
We're working too towards buildinga, a new Muscle car museum.
That'll be a mid-centurymodern design that will really
(16:14):
help showcase the muscle car.
As well as, um, a new building for themuseum of the pre 1916 Cars, the Museum
of the Horseless Carriage which iscurrently renting out our steam barn.
But they're gonna move onto our dealershiprow where we have buildings that are built
architecturally just like they would'vebeen when they were open selling cars.
(16:34):
Our Ford 28 Ford dealership.
Our, uh, early 19 hundreds Franklindealership, our 1948 Cadillac
dealership and our 1920s Lincolndealership will have a new addition.
Which will be the Museumof the Horseless carriage.
Which is built just like a storefrontwhere you would go to buy a car pre 1916.
Cliff Duvernois (16:54):
And speaking of which, when we went on the tour
around here, I seem to recall thatwith the different buildings that
you got around here, each one of ' emis set up like its own dealership.
Like you have a chryslerdealership, you have a General
Motors dealership, you've got a,
Ken Fischang (17:09):
well, we don't, we have, we have the ones I just mentioned.
Right.
But we have lots of Chryslercars throughout the museum.
But we don't have achrysler dealership yet.
We're hoping we'll have a Buickone at some point in time too.
They're, they're in interested in, increating a new bill, a new museum here.
Cliff Duvernois: Beautiful, beautiful cars. (17:24):
undefined
What I would like to do is I wannaget an opportunity for the members
of our audience that like maybeare like a car guy or a car girl.
What I would like to do is have youshare with us that one of a kind car,
like maybe one car that was just.
Maybe it's a concept car or whateverit is, but that, like that one car
(17:47):
that was built, there's no otherslike it in the world that you actually
have sitting here in the museum.
Ken Fischang (17:52):
Yes.
And we're sitting in the Corvetteexhibit, which is celebrating the
evolution of America's sports car.
And in this exhibit we have thevery first Corvette, number 26,
which is sitting right in frontover the hood of this 66 race car.
And right next to it is the new cA.
So the contrast of the firstone and the newest one.
(18:13):
They're right, right in front of us here.
But as part of this exhibit, thankyou to the GM Heritage Center, we
have the 1962 Corvair Manza GT.
That was the precursor for all the designof the Corvette in the 1960s, 1970s.
Oh, one of one.
Also in this exhibit bill Mitchell, whois a very famous designer, we have his
(18:35):
great white 1976 Corvette that he customdesigned as a one of one concept car.
And it's pretty cool.
It's, it's, uh, in here as well.
So just in this exhibit alone, we,we've got two, one of one cars that
were really just stunning examples of,the Corvette, which is the longest,
(18:55):
continuously made model car in the world.
Cliff Duvernois (18:58):
Oh, I did not know that.
Ken Fischang (18:59):
Yes.
Yeah.
1953 to today.
Do you know what the secondlongest, continuously made
model car in the world is?
I Cliff.
I am
Cliff Duvernois (19:07):
car guy,
but
Ken Fischang (19:09):
it's a German car and the name of the car is a number.
Porsche nine 11.
You know what know what thethird longest contingency made
car in the world is cliff.
Cliff Duvernois (19:20):
I am so outta my depth
Ken Fischang (19:22):
Uh, it was, came out in 1964 and a half and it's a Ford mustang.
The mustang.
I, should
Now here's the big, you can impressall your friends with this the,
what is the longest, continuouslymade model vehicle in the world?
It's not a car.
It came out 1935 and it'sbeen made every year since.
(19:44):
And it's a chevrolet.
Any idea?
Chevy suburban.
Cliff Duvernois (19:49):
Really?
Every
Ken Fischang (19:50):
since 1935.
Cliff Duvernois (19:52):
You know what?
I love that show.
Counting Cars.
And you, you think I would knowthat cuz every blue moon, this like
really old suburban rolls up on theirshow and they all geek out about it.
I should have known
. Yeah.
Because
Ken Fischang (20:03):
Suburban Well you do now you know now.
Yeah.
Yes So
now Yeah, you are, you are.
So, uh, so we are sittingin the Corvette exhibit.
The Corvette's will be here until March.
And then coming into the mainHeritage Gallery here is gonna
be a really exciting exhibit.
And it's called, it's gonnabe supercars then and now.
So we're talking about cars likethe Dusenberg that came out in the
(20:28):
1920s, that was 265 horsepower whenother cars were 20, 30 horsepower.
We're talking about the old Bugatti,that came out in those eras too.
And then of course the supercarsthat you know and love today,
Ferrari, Lambos, um, Ford GT's.
So we're gonna have a whole new exhibitthat opens in April here dedicated
(20:51):
to, uh, supercars then and now.
It should be a really exciting exhibit.
Cliff Duvernois (20:57):
Yeah, that's gonna be a fun one to see.
So we've talked a little bit about lettingthe car guy, car girl kind of geek out.
So if the family were to come here,what are some of the other things that
you might have that not only appealsto the car guy, car girl, but might
appeal to their family or to uh,let's say their kids for instance.
(21:18):
Cause I could just see after,a couple hours, you know, the
kids like kind of winding out.
So what other activities you got here?
Ken Fischang (21:24):
Well, in the museum we have the Automotive Activity Center,
which features a DeLorean car that kipeople can kids and big kids can sit in.
Model T Racer.
Plus there is a racetrack wherekids can build a Lego racetrack.
Race, car and race it down.
It's all computerized.
They can, uh, do hands on, learn about theassembly line, learn about coach building.
(21:45):
And that's an activitythat's available every day.
We also have, for kids andfamilies, we have scavenger hunt.
And car coloring books and things thatthe kids can take out and go run around
and find all the different clues for that.
And then we have special eventslike May 20th, Saturday, May 20th.
It's the Congress of Motor CARSs.
It's a pre 1942 show where we offerall kinds of rides for families.
(22:09):
It's also family days, so we dodiscounts in the restaurants.
We have special activities for kids.
And you know, we've even done some ofour shows, like our Ultimate Truck Show.
Last year we had an entire,alligator petting zoo.
The alligator sanctuary brought snakesand alligators and, and, uh, all kinds
of reptiles in .And, and, uh, we do forthe, the, um, all the, I was mentioning
(22:34):
earlier, we get an old school bus with theglass removed for, to stage this accident.
Well, we bring in spray paint andwe let the kids paint the bus and
with graffiti and tag and has tobe clean though, you know, and, uh,
Um, so there's all kinds of things.
We have, uh, helicopter landings with forfirst responders for that show as well.
So, we're really looking at doingand broadening the scope of what
(22:57):
we're offering for the, some ofthese shows to make sure that
there is activities for kids.
And then we have our Red Barns Raceway.
The Red Barns Raceway the,here's some more trivia for you.
The first slot car track in the USwas in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1955.
We have one of the best slotcar tracks in the world.
It takes up an entire barn, oneof the original barns to the farm.
(23:20):
And you can go in, big kids andlittle kids alike can go in and
race in with the slot car track.
It's, it's a really fun thing andit's open on our Wednesday nights
when we have our cruise ins.
It's open many weekends.
And then we also have pedal bill.
We have an entire barn with pedalcars, children's antique pedal cars.
And then we have an area set up with awhite picket fence where the kids can hop
(23:43):
in, pedal cars and ride them around too.
. You know, there's always something happening here with something for
families to do and involve and enjoy too.
Cliff Duvernois (23:54):
So to satisfy my curiosity, talk to us a little bit
about what a, what a slot car is
You're talking about a slot car track?
Ken Fischang (24:02):
Yeah.
Slot cars.
You didn't play with slot cars when youwere looking, when you were younger.
Pinewood derby cars is what?
Pinewood Derby?
Yeah.
We also have a Pinewood
We have a pinewood Derby track too.
Ooh, yes.
While we're doing an event wherepeople can make their own pinewood
Derby cars and race them down there.
Um, that would be so much fun.
Yes, we have that.
But slot cars, the, thecars run around a track.
And they go really very, very fast.
(24:24):
But you control it and there's a littleslot that keeps them in the track, but the
whole track is landscaped, um, too, so itlooks like a, a beautiful countryside and
city and, and yes, kids, it's great fun.
It's all computerized as well.
I said it's one of the best slotcar tracks you've, you've ever
seen or tried to race on too.
Cliff Duvernois (24:44):
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
Ken for our audience, if somebody islistening to this and they're like,
sounds like my dad needs to go here.
Sounds like my father-in-lawneeds to go here, you know, sounds
like a wife needs to go here.
What is the best way forthem to be able to find you?
Ken Fischang (24:59):
Gilmar car museum.org is our website and it's real easy
to navigate it when you pull it up.
And one great activity forgrandpa's, sons, daughter, mothers,
we have Model T driving school.
You can go online and sign upand learn how to drive a Model T.
That is a very popular program andwe taught about 800 folks, 800 plus
(25:23):
folks last year how to drive a Model T.
which is not like driving a Buick.
No, no, not at all.
Not at all.
We also in addition to the Model Tdriving school, another event that we
have coming up in March, the first twoweeks of March is Hoods Up at the Gilmore.
So all of the hoods onthese cars will be up.
So that you can look in, see the engine.
(25:44):
Gearheads love it.
We do four horsepower tourswhich we bring in experts on
mainly the muscle car engines.
And we feature differentmarks for each of these tours.
And that's all availableonline as well too.
And those, uh, are free with justyour paid admission into the museum.
Model T's is not free.
(26:05):
But the Model T you need to payfor it and preserve ahead of time.
But for the Hoods Up and, and also the,uh, horsepower tours, those are all free.
And then we also offer daily rightnow through the end of March.
10:30 AM Monday through Friday.
We offer daily complimentary docent tours.
(26:25):
And then on Tuesdays at two 30 we offera complimentary behind the scenes tour
that'll take you behind the scenes ofsome of our galleries and barns too.
That's been really popular too.
Cliff Duvernois (26:37):
Ken, thank you so much for taking time out of your
schedule to chat with us today.
Really appreciate it.
Ken Fischang (26:41):
My pleasure, Cliff.
Thanks for being here.
You're always welcome.
Cliff Duvernois (26:44):
Thank you.
And for our audience, you can alwaysgo to total michigan.com, click
on Ken's interview, and you'll beable to find all the links that
he mentioned in the show today.
Thank you once again, you cancatch us here at 7:30 AM on 1320
WILS am out of Lansing, Michigan.
See you next week.
That's, that's one of the challenges that
(00:01):
we've had getting the word out.
You said you started out thisinterview with the best kept
secret Gilmore Car Museum.
Every day we have people that comein here that have never been here
before and they are just blown away.
Cliff Duvernois (00:13):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Ordinary
People, Extraordinary Things.
I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
Today I am at Michigan's Best kept secret.
The Gilmore Car Museum locatedjust outside of Battle Creek.
And today I'm interviewing KenFischang, the director of Commercial
Operations for the Gilmore Car Museum.
Ken, how are you?
Ken Fischang (00:32):
I'm great Cliff.
Thanks so much for being here today.
Cliff Duvernois (00:35):
So just our audience can get a little bit of an idea.
Tell me what car we aresitting in right now.
Ken Fischang (00:41):
We are sitting in a 1966 Corvette race car with an L 88
engine generating 450 horsepower.
And this car is a capable of atop speed of 151 miles an hour.
Cliff Duvernois (00:56):
50, which we're not going at right now.
Ken Fischang (00:58):
That's right.
Cliff Duvernois (01:00):
So, the moral of the story is, is that if you are a
car guy or you know a car guy, or acar girl for that matter, you need to
get over to the Gilmore Car Museum.
So Ken, why don't you sharewith us a little bit about
the history of the car museum.
When, when was it started?
Or how did it get started?
Ken Fischang (01:17):
Oh, that's a great story.
Cliff it, the Gilmore Car Museum was,uh, actually started by accident.
Don Gilmore was had his family madetheir money and department in the Gilmore
Department store here in Kalamazoo.
. And uh, then he married into the Upjohnfamily and his wife Genevieve and
her family was really impressed withDon and they wanted to, uh, get Don
(01:38):
involved with Upjohn Pharmaceuticals.
He wasn't really interested.
So they said, let's put him on theboard of directors so he can see
what a great operation this is.
And he was sold.
He went on to become president, ceo.
And then when he retired in the earlysixties his wife, after him being at
home for about a month and a half, said,Don, we gotta find you something to do.
And uh, so she went out andbought him a 1920 Pierce Arrow,
(02:02):
seven passenger touring car.
And he, and they lived justdown the road here on Gull Lake.
And they set up in his yard atent, had his buddies come over
to start restoring this car.
Well, that car led to another car.
And that car led to a third car.
By the time the third car arrived,Genevieve Gilmore says, Don, get these
cars and these tents outta my yard.
(02:24):
And so he came down the roadabout four minutes down the
road and bought this farm.
He quickly filled the barnsthat were here existing.
He built a, a whole additional building.
Our carriage house, filled that.
And then he went and found on a spearmanfound farm, this beautiful campon
barn from the eight, late 18 hundreds.
He paid to have it disassembled,brought here, reassembled.
(02:47):
By July of 66, he'd filled that as well.
Well, once again, Genevieve spoke up andshe said, Don, you got almost 60 cars.
Why don't you open this up and shareit with the public, with people?
So we opened our doors July 31st, 1966.
And, uh, we have just been growing,growing, growing ever since.
(03:07):
We are now the largest carmuseum in North America.
We have 90 acres, 29 buildings,seven partner museums, plus the
Gilmore Collection was, it's likecoming to eight museums in one,
two restaurants, a ballroom, atheater, and a ton of outdoor space.
Over three miles of paved roadswhere people can go ride in some
(03:29):
of these beautiful classic cars.
Cliff Duvernois (03:31):
of the, so for your museum being out in the sticks, you
guys have a little bit of everything.
Ken Fischang (03:36):
Yeah.
It's such a beautifulpart of, of the country.
The Rolling Hills here and the crystalclear lakes and, and, uh, yeah.
And it's convenient to both BattleCreek, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids too.
So we got a lot of visitors thatcome from within the Midwest area.
But we also have people that are here fromall over the world and all over the US.
Cliff Duvernois (03:58):
So when Genevieve said, you've got 60 cars, why
don't you just open a museum?
That's a lot of work.
I can imagine.
You have to get permits for that.
You gotta get insurance for that.
You gotta
Ken Fischang (04:08):
well, this was for that, this was 1966 I and you're in the middle.
You're, you are out in the country.
So I don't think that was a big issue.
And Don Gilmore was the type of guythat he liked to make things happen.
In the beginning, they only opened likeone or two days a week on the weekends.
They weren't open like we are nowseven days a week, year round.
Cliff Duvernois (04:27):
And with the initial 60 cars that they started with.
Now how many at the,are at the museum today?
Ken Fischang (04:33):
We have over 400 vehicles out on display and then
we keep about another a hundred to150 cars in our climate controlled
storage vaults too that we use torotate out through all the exhibits.
Cliff Duvernois (04:44):
And I know that there's a good number of cars that are here
that are actually owned by individuals.
Okay, let's talk a little bit abouthow it went from just a museum.
These are the cars that onegentleman owns to now all of a
sudden there's like 400 cars in here.
How did that come about?
Ken Fischang (05:04):
Well, it, it, we both of we have a really ambitious board of
trustees and two of our board of trusteesmembers are Donald Gilmore's grandsons.
And they're both avid car collectors.
And so that legacy hasbeen carried on from that.
But what we do, we havea combination of cars.
Some of the MU museum cars are ownedbecause we bought them, some of
(05:25):
them are owned by the museum becausethey were donated to the museum.
And then the rest are onloan from car collectors.
And car collectors loveloaning their cars to museums.
They get the prestige of saying, my car'sat the Gilmore, at the Peterson in LA.
Or they also get climatecontrolled free storage.
But most importantly, theyhave more room in their own
(05:47):
storage facility for more cars.
If their cars are out in a museum.
We're really very, very lucky to have somereally excellent cars from a multitude of
different car collectors here on display.
Cliff Duvernois (05:59):
So the US in general is really just a car culture.
It seems like we spend more timein our cars than, than anything.
And it's more than just drivingdown the road from point A to B.
, it's all the collective experiencesthat we had, like drive-in movies
or, being able to just, you know,drive through light shows and stuff.
Why don't you talk to us a littlebit about some of the other car
(06:22):
activities that you have here,just besides looking at the cars.
Ken Fischang (06:26):
Last year and this year we have 24 car shows coming up.
And so we have car shows for everygenre and make of car here as well
as trucks, as well as we have a, avintage boat and travel trailer rally.
We have a motorcycle,vintage motorcycle weekend.
So we are celebrating alltypes of vehicles here.
(06:46):
Many of the vehicles that Donfirst acquired were pre 1916 cars
because he was there when the carfirst came into being invented.
And so he was reallyenthralled with those cars.
And then as you look at some ofthe cars from the thirties and
twenties and forties, 50 sixties.
They are literally art forms
Cliff Duvernois (07:07):
yes.
Ken Fischang (07:07):
Functional art forms on wheels.
And so, yeah, there there's awhole slew of activities that we
do here along with our car shows.
For example, our Model A days we havestartup where they take it a Model A
that hasn't been run or started and it'sprobably been in a barn or something
for 50 years, and they get a team ofpeople around it and they get it started.
(07:30):
And that's kind of a fun thing we have atour celebration of brass pre 16 car show.
We, most cars, today if you buy anelectric car and you wanna go on a
long trip, it's a tough thing to dobecause you don't have the electric.
That's true.
We don't have the infrastructure yet.
Well, back then you didn't havethe infrastructure of gas stations.
So, the what you did have everywherein the country was you had water.
(07:51):
So steam cars were very popular.
Electric cars were popular in the city.
So, this is, you know,this this was pre 1916.
So when you come to a show likethis, people love to see a car
running on steam, running on water.
And you know, with the big clouds of steamcoming out very environmentally correct.
You know, uh, and, um, youknow, plus we give rides.
(08:15):
We have a 1903 Columbia Electric car.
Many people are just dumbfounded torealize electric cars were, were here
at the turn of the se, the 20th century.
So yeah, there's all we doour ultimate truck show.
We've focused also on, um, firstresponders and the tow community.
And so we have a whole seriesof demonstrations and things
(08:38):
that people can go and witness.
That's a crash school bus with a crashcar, and the, the fire department comes in
and does a rescue and flips the bus over.
And so there's all kinds of activitiesthat go along with the cars other than
just driving them from point A to point B.
Our Corvette and Camaroshow is new this year.
We combined the Corvette'sand the Camaros.
(08:59):
We have a Corvette and Camarorun where people can take
rides around our track in them.
They're not going very fast, butthey'll get up to 45 pretty quickly.
That's nice.
So they can actually get atit and, and try the cars.
And then we have our Ride theClassics program, which runs
from May through September.
(09:19):
In that program we have, we'll haveclassic cars out on our historic campus.
We have three miles of paved roads andyou can get, get in, hop in a Cadillac
convertible like the 63 Cadillac yourode in the last time you were here.
Yes.
And go for rides around the campusand learn more about the cars and get
to enjoy them and experience them.
Cliff Duvernois (09:37):
One of the things that I would like to explore a little bit more
about just making this museum happen, cuzit, I just think it's really fascinating
that somebody just had restored cars.
And then just decided to open up a museum.
If you would share with us, like maybewhat was, what was some of the, some
of the either struggles or hurdles ormaybe even some of the challenges of just
(10:00):
getting this, this whole operation going.
Ken Fischang (10:02):
Well, I, I do want you to know that we have
many unrestored cars here.
And, there's a car, lot of timesa collector will get a car.
They will actually spend a wholelot of money restoring that car
to try to make it better than new.
Other than the other hand, we have carcollectors that really want that car
in all original condition with the DNAof all the owners that have been in it.
(10:24):
And, and so, um, yeah, we havea combination of both of those.
I think one of the, thechallenges for us is always space.
And that's why we have 29 buildings on thecampus, cuz we have grown so incredibly.
And then we have ourseven partner museums.
Also, we just we're been tryingto find more storage space.
(10:44):
For all the partner museums and us too.
That's, that's one of thechallenges that we've had.
And then also getting the word out.
You said you started out thisinterview with the best kept
secret Gilmore Car Museum.
And it is because there's, we,every day we have people that come
in here that have never been herebefore and they are just blown away.
They thought they're comingto like one room or two rooms,
(11:05):
or three galleries maybe.
And, then they get, see thescope of the whole facility.
Another challenge for us too was werealized early on that people wanted
to come here and they wanted to eat.
. And so we had to create restaurantsand we have a 1941 Blue Moon Diner
that we moved from Connecticut here.
(11:25):
It's an authentic diner from the 1940s.
Beautiful.
And we have our Heritage cafeindoors too in all right off
the main heritage gallery here.
So because food service,it's, that's been a challenge.
And then we added the ballroombecause people wanted to have
a place to have meetings andweddings and corporate events.
(11:46):
And so with that, we've had a tremendousamount of growth just in servicing
all of those different events here.
And, but we're, it's, it's like it'slike living in a, it's like almost
like a hotel with no rooms in termsof a re a resort community here.
Cliff Duvernois (12:01):
Nice.
For our audience, we're gonna takea quick break to thank our sponsors.
And we'll be right back to talk withKen some more about these awesome cars.
See you then
If you are enjoying this episode, Wellthen let me tell you, there's plenty
more interesting stories to come.
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Okay.
Hello everyone.
Welcome back to OrdinaryPeople, Extraordinary Things.
Today I'm sitting with Ken Fischang,Director of Commercial Operations
for the Gilmore Car Museum, um,promised I won't call it the best
(13:06):
kept secret in Michigan anymore.
Uh, so Ken, before the break wewere talking about some of the
challenges that you and your teamand just getting the museum up and
running, helping to get the word out.
Talk to us a little bit moreabout maybe about what some of
those other challenges would be.
Ken Fischang (13:22):
Another challenge that people had is they come
here thinking they're going tosee everything in two hours.
And there's a reason whywe sell a two day pass.
So what does that mean?
Well, they have to spendthe night somewhere.
And we are in beautiful hickory corners.
But they're the, we have to goto hotels that are in Kalamazoo,
Battle Creek or Grand Rapids.
So we came up with somealternatives for lodging here.
(13:45):
The first thing that we did is we'vecreated our own booking engine.
Cliff, you can go to our websiteand click on area attractions and
it will pull up a booking engine.
They are all carcollector friendly hotels.
You can sort by the distance fromthe Gilmore Car Museum to that hotel.
And you can book right online and you,you get excellent rates just like you
(14:07):
went on, on a booking engine that wouldn'tgive you all of that search capability.
The second thing we did is, we'reallowed to have up to a hundred
primitive campers here, campsite.
Nice.
And so we've, we just upgraded you.
I don't know if you noticed, we havea brand new electronic Marques sign,
Right
out in front on Route 43.
And we've added all new electrical forour campers that come in and want to
(14:32):
have, 30 amp, 50 amp, 20 amp power.
We keep our shell gas station open.
We're adding another a setof bathrooms off the Classic
Car Club of America Museum.
So we're really looking at ways thatwe can have people come and stay
the night here on site if they bringtheir RV or their camper, their tent.
Or they can stay in a, in alimited or full service hotel
(14:55):
and be able to book everythingright online at Gilmar Car Museum.
Do.
Cliff Duvernois (15:00):
So before when I made that little quip about how you
guys have a little bit of everything,I meant it as a joke, but now
I'm starting to take that back.
Ken Fischang (15:07):
Well, we that's some of the challenges that we've risen
to, to, uh, continue to have thisbeautiful place e expand and grow.
Cliff Duvernois (15:16):
be able to pull more people in
Ken Fischang (15:18):
Yeah.
And make it easier for them to get here.
And, and to stay over night.
Cliff Duvernois (15:23):
Because that is, you pointed this out earlier and
the last time I was here and youtook me on a tour, of your facility,
which is beautiful, by the way.
I was blown away at just thesize and the scope of it.
So going back to when the placefirst opened, did you already
have all of this land already?
(15:44):
Or have you got, or was it to a pointwhere you just, you were like, man, we
need more elbow room, so we'll go outand acquire, you know, another 20 acres
Ken Fischang (15:51):
or,
No, it was a 90 acre farm.
Um, but we've, so we've hadlots of room to be able to grow.
This past year the Classic CarClub of America did a multi-million
dollar expansion and completerenovation of their facility.
And they're going to be addingsome things this year as well.
We're working too towards buildinga, a new Muscle car museum.
That'll be a mid-centurymodern design that will really
(16:14):
help showcase the muscle car.
As well as, um, a new building for themuseum of the pre 1916 Cars, the Museum
of the Horseless Carriage which iscurrently renting out our steam barn.
But they're gonna move onto our dealershiprow where we have buildings that are built
architecturally just like they would'vebeen when they were open selling cars.
(16:34):
Our Ford 28 Ford dealership.
Our, uh, early 19 hundreds Franklindealership, our 1948 Cadillac
dealership and our 1920s Lincolndealership will have a new addition.
Which will be the Museumof the Horseless carriage.
Which is built just like a storefrontwhere you would go to buy a car pre 1916.
Cliff Duvernois (16:54):
And speaking of which, when we went on the tour
around here, I seem to recall thatwith the different buildings that
you got around here, each one of ' emis set up like its own dealership.
Like you have a chryslerdealership, you have a General
Motors dealership, you've got a,
Ken Fischang (17:09):
well, we don't, we have, we have the ones I just mentioned.
Right.
But we have lots of Chryslercars throughout the museum.
But we don't have achrysler dealership yet.
We're hoping we'll have a Buickone at some point in time too.
They're, they're in interested in, increating a new bill, a new museum here.
Cliff Duvernois: Beautiful, beautiful cars. (17:24):
undefined
What I would like to do is I wannaget an opportunity for the members
of our audience that like maybeare like a car guy or a car girl.
What I would like to do is have youshare with us that one of a kind car,
like maybe one car that was just.
Maybe it's a concept car or whateverit is, but that, like that one car
(17:47):
that was built, there's no otherslike it in the world that you actually
have sitting here in the museum.
Ken Fischang (17:52):
Yes.
And we're sitting in the Corvetteexhibit, which is celebrating the
evolution of America's sports car.
And in this exhibit we have thevery first Corvette, number 26,
which is sitting right in frontover the hood of this 66 race car.
And right next to it is the new cA.
So the contrast of the firstone and the newest one.
(18:13):
They're right, right in front of us here.
But as part of this exhibit, thankyou to the GM Heritage Center, we
have the 1962 Corvair Manza GT.
That was the precursor for all the designof the Corvette in the 1960s, 1970s.
Oh, one of one.
Also in this exhibit bill Mitchell, whois a very famous designer, we have his
(18:35):
great white 1976 Corvette that he customdesigned as a one of one concept car.
And it's pretty cool.
It's, it's, uh, in here as well.
So just in this exhibit alone, we,we've got two, one of one cars that
were really just stunning examples of,the Corvette, which is the longest,
(18:55):
continuously made model car in the world.
Cliff Duvernois (18:58):
Oh, I did not know that.
Ken Fischang (18:59):
Yes.
Yeah.
1953 to today.
Do you know what the secondlongest, continuously made
model car in the world is?
I Cliff.
I am
Cliff Duvernois (19:07):
car guy,
but
Ken Fischang (19:09):
it's a German car and the name of the car is a number.
Porsche nine 11.
You know what know what thethird longest contingency made
car in the world is cliff.
Cliff Duvernois (19:20):
I am so outta my depth
Ken Fischang (19:22):
Uh, it was, came out in 1964 and a half and it's a Ford mustang.
The mustang.
I, should
Now here's the big, you can impressall your friends with this the,
what is the longest, continuouslymade model vehicle in the world?
It's not a car.
It came out 1935 and it'sbeen made every year since.
(19:44):
And it's a chevrolet.
Any idea?
Chevy suburban.
Cliff Duvernois (19:49):
Really?
Every
Ken Fischang (19:50):
since 1935.
Cliff Duvernois (19:52):
You know what?
I love that show.
Counting Cars.
And you, you think I would knowthat cuz every blue moon, this like
really old suburban rolls up on theirshow and they all geek out about it.
I should have known
. Yeah.
Because
Ken Fischang (20:03):
Suburban Well you do now you know now.
Yeah.
Yes So
now Yeah, you are, you are.
So, uh, so we are sittingin the Corvette exhibit.
The Corvette's will be here until March.
And then coming into the mainHeritage Gallery here is gonna
be a really exciting exhibit.
And it's called, it's gonnabe supercars then and now.
So we're talking about cars likethe Dusenberg that came out in the
(20:28):
1920s, that was 265 horsepower whenother cars were 20, 30 horsepower.
We're talking about the old Bugatti,that came out in those eras too.
And then of course the supercarsthat you know and love today,
Ferrari, Lambos, um, Ford GT's.
So we're gonna have a whole new exhibitthat opens in April here dedicated
(20:51):
to, uh, supercars then and now.
It should be a really exciting exhibit.
Cliff Duvernois (20:57):
Yeah, that's gonna be a fun one to see.
So we've talked a little bit about lettingthe car guy, car girl kind of geek out.
So if the family were to come here,what are some of the other things that
you might have that not only appealsto the car guy, car girl, but might
appeal to their family or to uh,let's say their kids for instance.
(21:18):
Cause I could just see after,a couple hours, you know, the
kids like kind of winding out.
So what other activities you got here?
Ken Fischang (21:24):
Well, in the museum we have the Automotive Activity Center,
which features a DeLorean car that kipeople can kids and big kids can sit in.
Model T Racer.
Plus there is a racetrack wherekids can build a Lego racetrack.
Race, car and race it down.
It's all computerized.
They can, uh, do hands on, learn about theassembly line, learn about coach building.
(21:45):
And that's an activitythat's available every day.
We also have, for kids andfamilies, we have scavenger hunt.
And car coloring books and things thatthe kids can take out and go run around
and find all the different clues for that.
And then we have special eventslike May 20th, Saturday, May 20th.
It's the Congress of Motor CARSs.
It's a pre 1942 show where we offerall kinds of rides for families.
(22:09):
It's also family days, so we dodiscounts in the restaurants.
We have special activities for kids.
And you know, we've even done some ofour shows, like our Ultimate Truck Show.
Last year we had an entire,alligator petting zoo.
The alligator sanctuary brought snakesand alligators and, and, uh, all kinds
of reptiles in .And, and, uh, we do forthe, the, um, all the, I was mentioning
(22:34):
earlier, we get an old school bus with theglass removed for, to stage this accident.
Well, we bring in spray paint andwe let the kids paint the bus and
with graffiti and tag and has tobe clean though, you know, and, uh,
Um, so there's all kinds of things.
We have, uh, helicopter landings with forfirst responders for that show as well.
So, we're really looking at doingand broadening the scope of what
(22:57):
we're offering for the, some ofthese shows to make sure that
there is activities for kids.
And then we have our Red Barns Raceway.
The Red Barns Raceway the,here's some more trivia for you.
The first slot car track in the USwas in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1955.
We have one of the best slotcar tracks in the world.
It takes up an entire barn, oneof the original barns to the farm.
(23:20):
And you can go in, big kids andlittle kids alike can go in and
race in with the slot car track.
It's, it's a really fun thing andit's open on our Wednesday nights
when we have our cruise ins.
It's open many weekends.
And then we also have pedal bill.
We have an entire barn with pedalcars, children's antique pedal cars.
And then we have an area set up with awhite picket fence where the kids can hop
(23:43):
in, pedal cars and ride them around too.
. You know, there's always something happening here with something for
families to do and involve and enjoy too.
Cliff Duvernois (23:54):
So to satisfy my curiosity, talk to us a little bit
about what a, what a slot car is
You're talking about a slot car track?
Ken Fischang (24:02):
Yeah.
Slot cars.
You didn't play with slot cars when youwere looking, when you were younger.
Pinewood derby cars is what?
Pinewood Derby?
Yeah.
We also have a Pinewood
We have a pinewood Derby track too.
Ooh, yes.
While we're doing an event wherepeople can make their own pinewood
Derby cars and race them down there.
Um, that would be so much fun.
Yes, we have that.
But slot cars, the, thecars run around a track.
And they go really very, very fast.
(24:24):
But you control it and there's a littleslot that keeps them in the track, but the
whole track is landscaped, um, too, so itlooks like a, a beautiful countryside and
city and, and yes, kids, it's great fun.
It's all computerized as well.
I said it's one of the best slotcar tracks you've, you've ever
seen or tried to race on too.
Cliff Duvernois (24:44):
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
Ken for our audience, if somebody islistening to this and they're like,
sounds like my dad needs to go here.
Sounds like my father-in-lawneeds to go here, you know, sounds
like a wife needs to go here.
What is the best way forthem to be able to find you?
Ken Fischang (24:59):
Gilmar car museum.org is our website and it's real easy
to navigate it when you pull it up.
And one great activity forgrandpa's, sons, daughter, mothers,
we have Model T driving school.
You can go online and sign upand learn how to drive a Model T.
That is a very popular program andwe taught about 800 folks, 800 plus
(25:23):
folks last year how to drive a Model T.
which is not like driving a Buick.
No, no, not at all.
Not at all.
We also in addition to the Model Tdriving school, another event that we
have coming up in March, the first twoweeks of March is Hoods Up at the Gilmore.
So all of the hoods onthese cars will be up.
So that you can look in, see the engine.
(25:44):
Gearheads love it.
We do four horsepower tourswhich we bring in experts on
mainly the muscle car engines.
And we feature differentmarks for each of these tours.
And that's all availableonline as well too.
And those, uh, are free with justyour paid admission into the museum.
Model T's is not free.
(26:05):
But the Model T you need to payfor it and preserve ahead of time.
But for the Hoods Up and, and also the,uh, horsepower tours, those are all free.
And then we also offer daily rightnow through the end of March.
10:30 AM Monday through Friday.
We offer daily complimentary docent tours.
(26:25):
And then on Tuesdays at two 30 we offera complimentary behind the scenes tour
that'll take you behind the scenes ofsome of our galleries and barns too.
That's been really popular too.
Cliff Duvernois (26:37):
Ken, thank you so much for taking time out of your
schedule to chat with us today.
Really appreciate it.
Ken Fischang (26:41):
My pleasure, Cliff.
Thanks for being here.
You're always welcome.
Cliff Duvernois (26:44):
Thank you.
And for our audience, you can alwaysgo to total michigan.com, click
on Ken's interview, and you'll beable to find all the links that
he mentioned in the show today.
Thank you once again, you cancatch us here at 7:30 AM on 1320
WILS am out of Lansing, Michigan.
See you next week.
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