Wheels Museum on Track With Artifact Donations, Fund-Raising

By Tracy Dingmann
Of the Journal

Leba Freed has the weirdest days sometimes. Hardly one goes by when someone doesn't offer her a plane, a train or ... an oxcart.

But perhaps that's to be expected for the woman who heads up the planned Wheels Museum, a big, big idea that's gaining more supporters every day.

If all goes as planned, the transportation-themed museum will open three years from now in the former Santa Fe Rail Shops in Barelas. To make that happen, the museum foundation needs to raise about $25 million for planning, renovation and acquisition. It's a huge endeavor for a museum that wants to tell the rich stories of Route 66, the Camino Real, the railroads and the important role Albuquerque played in air travel's infancy.

The museum foundation has raised about $1 million so far from government allocations and private donations.

But the momentum for Wheels is clearly there, said Freed, a former Downtown businesswoman who is throwing her formidable powers behind the project with the help of marketing consultant Joe Craig and former city head of library services and cultural services guru Alan Clark.

"Every day people come in with stuff," said Clark. "I don't talk to anyone who is not interested on some level in this museum."

In the past few weeks, the museum has been given a 1942 Seagraves fire truck used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a cache of rare books about trains and an oxcart built by a master carpenter that is a replica of the ones used to haul goods up and down the Camino Real.

But perhaps the most exciting treasure in the offing is the huge personal collection of auto-racing memorabilia owned by racing legend Bobby Unser Sr. The collection includes racecars, photographs, uniforms, trophies and actual film of historic races from the 1930s to the present day.

"It is a world-class collection that tells a powerful history of the growth of auto racing," said Clark. "Bobby Unser was a fundamental part of the development of all that."

The items would be loaned to the museum, said Unser's wife, Lisa.

Other things Wheels has been offered include several old planes, a 1920s-era Rolls-Royce and a remarkable 1908 Sears horseless carriage used by a priest in Belen to travel between parishes.

Benefit dinner

The Friends of the Wheels Museum are holding a gala dinner and fund-raiser from 6-10 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Hyatt Regency Downtown. Proceeds will help pay operating expenses for Wheels Museum development throughout the year. Tickets are $75, with $50 of that being tax-deductible. Dinner will feature filet mignon and mahi mahi. To reserve, call (505) 243-6269.

"It runs," said Clark.

The museum is also considering taking a train diorama from a man in Clovis who uses model trains to illustrate a talking history of the westward train movement, said Freed.

"He spent three years building it, and he wants to give it to us," said Clark.

Just about every day, people call or walk in with other memorabilia, including train signals, Harvey House milk bottles, and historic union documents.

The Wheels Museum already has an ancient steam engine and a prototype electric van from Sandia National Laboratories in its collection.

The museum has reached out to historical organizations such as the Route 66 Association and the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Historical Railroad Society, which are interested in presenting accurate histories and directing tourists to points of interest throughout the state. The Wheels Museum is interested in being a clearinghouse or research center for many of those organizations, said Clark.

The museum development office has its headquarters at 601 First NW in the former Santa Fe Railroad motor freight building.