Roadtrippin’: A visit to the antique auto museum in Fairbanks

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is a one-of-a-kind find in Fairbanks, Alaska and it’s filled with one-of-a-kind treasures.

With 95 cars in its collection, the antique auto museum has eight vehicles that are the only ones in existence. All the cars in the museum are pre-World War II, with the oldest in the collection from 1898. And at 123 years old, it still runs. That’s one of the unique aspects of this museum.

“They have to stay alive,” said Willy Vinton, manager of the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. “And so that’s the challenge and that’s probably our biggest challenge is keeping ‘em running. That’s what makes it great.”

In fact, almost all of the cars at the museum run.

“The things that set us apart from every other museum in basically the world,” Vinton said. “We can say that out of our entire collection, all but three cars, run, drive and get driven, that includes seven of the eight cars that are the only ones that exist in the world.”

Sprinkled in among the amazing automobiles is a collection of vintage clothing. Barbara Cerny, fashion collector and curator, said they began by showcasing everyday clothing, coats that people would have worn while driving these cars.

“Our collection has basically grown from just a few dusters to covering every decade of cars that we have here, the 1890s to about 1940,” Cerny said.

From beaded flapper dresses of the 1920s to elegant ball gowns of the Titanic era, the dresses placed near the vehicles that match their era.

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