| Wilbur Wright Birthplace and Museum
We love history and like to study a person or place then follow a trail learning history first hand. By seeing things we learn much more than by surfing the internet or reading a book and since we started fulltiming in 1999 we have learned more about North America than we learned in school. For our latest trail we decided to follow Wilbur and Orville Wright who invented the airplane. Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 on a small farm near Millville, Indiana and his birth home has been restored and is open to the public. On the grounds is an excellent museum explaining the lives of Wilbur and Orville, their parents and their brother and sister. (The Wrights moved from this farm before Orville was born.) The museum is well laid out and houses a replica of the original 1903 Wright Brothers Flyer, the first powered airplane to fly. Only five replicas have been made and this museum has one of them. There are many photos and displays of the Wright Camp in Kitty Hawk, the Wright Bros Bicycle Shop and period shops of Dayton where the Wright Brothers lived and became famous. Such a fantastic museum being located in
the middle of corn fields seems out of place, but it is located where Wilbur
Wright was born. From interstate I-70 take exit 131 and drive north following
the signs. There are many turns on the narrow roads and you will think
you are in the middle of no-where before you arrive at the museum and the
trip is worth the drive.
Dayton, Ohio The Wright family moved to Dayton, Ohio where Wilbur and Orville were engaged in several enterprises including owning and operating a bicycle shop when Orville was still a teenager. Competition was high because there were bicycle shops on every street so the Wright Brothers made custom bicycles that were a step in quality above their competition. Customers were fitted to their bicycle much like a tailor fitting a suit on a man. The Wrights measured buyers and custom made the bicycles to fit their legs, arms, torso and yes, their butt. To learn more about Dayton we began at Carillon Historical Park. The entrance to the park is graced by a 151 foot high carillon tower containing 57 bells. The park features over 25 exhibit buildings and structures that celebrate the history of the Dayton, Ohio area. Set in a 65-acre green space next to the Great Miami River, just south of downtown Dayton, Carillon Historical Park is a unique combination of museum, park and natural area. We soon learned Dayton played an important part in not only the development of our country, it helped change the entire world. Many buildings in the park have been moved from their original location to the park and our first stop was the Newcom Tavern, the oldest building in Dayton, built in 1796. It has served as a house, restaurant and tavern, a hotel, court house and held church services. Deeds Barn from 1908 to 1912 was a gathering place for young engineers including Col. Edward A. Deeds and Charles F. Kettering. In the barn they developed the modern automotive ignition, starter and lighting systems. Their company became Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco) that is still a leader in automotive electronics today. Dayton's Delco - Light Division of GM patented the first electric refrigerator in 1910 and it was called Frigidaire. When World War I broke out the US government contacted Deeds for his assistance on designing and building an aircraft engine for mass production. With the assistance of others an engine was rough designed in two days and hit production in 2 1/2 months. When the war ended two years later over 20,000 Liberty V-1650 engines had been built. The 1912 Cadillac was the first automobile to use the Delco starter, ignition and lighting system and other cars were produced in Dayton. On display is a 1908 Stoddard-Dayton and a similar car won the first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Other cars manufactured in Dayton were the Courier and Speedwell. John H. Patterson founded National Cash Register
(NCR) in 1884 and Kettering developed the first electric cash register
in 1906. A later co-owner, Thomas J. Watson, and Patterson had a dispute
on the direction of the company and Watson left and formed International
Business Machines (IBM).
Out next stop was the Dayton Cyclery building where bicycles from old to new are on display. I would love to attempt to ride some of those old cycles. Dayton was well known for bicycle manufacturing and George P. Huffman who owned Davis Sewing Machine Company started manufacturing bicycles in 1892. The brand of the bicycle was Huffy and they still make bicycles today. The large Transportation Building houses many types of transportation used from early Dayton to the present. We toured rail cars and trains, old police cars and Linda said when she was a girl in Dayton she rode the Number 7 electric trolley car. (Yes, Linda was born in Dayton - more in our next article.) Dayton is one of only five cities in the US with electric trolley cars and they have been in operation since 1888. Linda spotted old #7 that had a Forest Park sign and she said "that is the one I rode as a girl." WOW, out of all the trolley that have roamed Dayton they selected the one that served Linda's old childhood home to put in the museum. The Miami and Erie Canal came through present day Carillon Historical Park. The canal opened in 1829 and went from Dayton to Cincinnati. Later it was extended north to Toledo to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River. Lock number 17 sits in the park and as I studied it I determined only small boats could navigate such a narrow canal. In 1875 railroads replaced the canal and it was turned into a very long ditch. An old covered bridge has been moved to span the canal. We entered Wright Hall and joined a narrated tour of the building and learned more about Wilbur and Orville Wright. We toured a replica of their bicycle shop and a printing company they owned a short while. The tour guide showed us tools used to build airplanes and an air test tunnel they built to test lift of wings. Each thing the Wrights did they had to design it from scratch like propellers because it was new to the world. Finally, we entered a sacred room that contained the original 1905 Wright Flyer III. In 1903 the Wright Brothers made their first flight on Kitty Hawk, but that airplane was not practical for extended flights. The next two years they perfected the plane and the Wright Flyer III could take off under its own power, fly at length, turn circles and land on its own without damage. I got an eerie feeling looking at the Wright Flyer III because it was not a replica or one of many planes - it was the actual airplane they flew. After demonstrating the plane to crowds and the US government the Wright Bros basically disappeared and did not let anyone see their airplane until they had secured patents. All of the above and much more is in Carillon
Historical Park in Dayton. For anyone interested in history this is a must
see place.
Packard Museum Downtown we found The Wright Cycle Company in one of the buildings where Wilbur and Orville operated one of their cycle shops. We decided to visit the nearby America's Packard Museum which has been listed as one of the top ten automotive museums in the United States and is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the Packard Motorcar Company. The museum is located in an original Packard dealership, The Citizens Motorcar Company, that opened in 1917. The museum contains many old and beautiful
Packards including the last automobile owned by Al Capone, a 1947 Packard
Super 8. The building's showroom is full of old Packards and an adjoining
build is full too. We enjoyed looking at and studying the old cars many
of which I remember from my days of youth. Before leaving I snuck into
a warehouse storage area and found row after row of old Packard engines
and transmissions waiting to be rebuilt and placed in a Packard to keep
the namesake alive for future generations.
In my next travel article I will get back to Wilbur and Orville Wright. |
