October 6, 2009, 5:59 pm
Despite her 24 years as a museum curator, Brooke Childrey was
stumped when she first learned about one of the newest additions to the
collection at Mount Rainier National Park.
It won't fit in a
file cabinet with important park papers. It certainly won't sit on a
shelf with artifacts uncovered during archaeological digs within the
park. Including it among the exhibits at the Henry M. Jackson Memorial
Visitor Center, or any other visitor center, just isn't possible.
"In
all my years with museums, I've never had an item like this," Childrey
said. "I've had really old documents, but this is my first bus."
What exactly does one do with a 40-foot gleaming red 1937 Kenworth Motor Touring Coach?
Childrey and other park staffers are still working on the answer.
The
coach was one of five built by Kenworth that year. It was used by the
Rainier National Park Co. to bring tourists to the park from the
Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma and the Olympic Hotel in Seattle. The coach
made its last run to the park in 1962.
Since being donated
to the park on July 20, by Gig Harbor men Art Redford and Frank Pupo,
the coach has been on display at the old gas station at Longmire, which
houses a transportation exhibit.
Read more...
