The Weekly 3

There is a common theme I’ve noticed lately at the museum I founded, Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. Visitors keep telling me they had no idea the museum is as big as it is.

The museum pops up on the visitors’ social media or someone tells them about it, and they look it up to see it is in Clarkesville, Georgia. Based on that limited information, they are intrigued enough to make the journey to see a few cars.

Sometimes, visitors get confused upon arrival, because the museum is inside of Vintage Garage Antiques, which acts like a giant gift shop and supports the nonprofit museum.

Once inside the museum, the visual shock is obvious. The origin story of the museum is that I founded the museum with one car I inherited in 2017. I think most people assume they will see a few cars in one space and be done, and for 3 years, that’s pretty much how it was.

If 30-year-old me from 2015 walked into Miles Through Time Automotive Museum today, and I was told I was responbile for its exsistance, my mind would be blown. 

My Pop’s car arrived on 6/27/14, which also marked the first time I ever owned more than one car at a time. I had been medically discharged from the military for a year and my law enforcement career was over because of it. 

I recently moved from the west coast to the east coast. I went back to working for Pepsi, a career I thought I had left for good years earlier, and I was renting a house from my brother. That would later turn out to have been a major mistake.

The point is, I was in no position to be the founder of a four gallery, 30,000 square foot automotive museum with over 120 full-size vehicles, 5,000+ scale models and hundreds of other historical artifacts.

And yet…

Last Tuesday, the Jeep the museum was given to raise funds for the museum, officially sold. Miles Through Time Automotive Museum was able to raise a total of $45,525 from a 2006 Jeep Wrangler. 

Of course, the museum had to give away a portion of the proceeds raised to the winner of the sweepstakes and the sweepstakes’ software took a portion and the credit card process fees added up, but in the end it was a huge success.

The Jeep obviously didn’t raise enough money for the museum to buy land and build a new forever home, but it helps. I don’t have $10 million to purchase 10 acres and build a 100,000 square foot facility to house the museum and antique shop.

The difference between me now and me from 2015 is that if I was able to go into the future and walk into a huge building on beautiful grounds with people and cars everywhere and was told it would be what Miles Through Time Automotive Museum would become. I would say, “I knew it.”

I took a very unconventional route to creating an automotive museum. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but I did prove it was possible. There are so many different paths to creating a museum, and so many different types of automotive museums. The variety is what makes each one special.

The JA Cooley Museum is very special. I had the pleasure of meeting Carmen Cooley at the Revs Institute before I had a chance to visit her museum that was started by her father. The museum has a lot of great brass era cars and a DeLorean I’ve offered to get out of the way multiple times.

Where the JA Cooley Museum started as a private collection, the Vehicle Vault is based on being an event space, which is also a museum. Who wouldn’t want to host their events around amazing cars? Plus, this is a great way to help support the museum beyond admission alone, which is never enough.

Every vehicle manufacturer should have their own museums, but most don’t. However, BMW does, and you can do a plant tour as well at the BMW Zentrum. As a bonus to double your BMW intake, you should also visit the Ultimate Driving Museum right around the corner.

None of these museums are comparable with each other, and yet they are all worthy of visiting and each doing their part to preserve and share automotive history.

If it’s not obvious, and I know for a fact for some, it is not, each of the bolded names are clickable links to the museums. From there you can learn more about the museums, including where they are and their contact information. 

The three core automotive museums I share each week are always at the bottom of the email. You don’t have to read any of this and can always scroll to the bottom to see the three museums.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.