Starting a business is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but with a couple of signatures and fees, technically, you can have a business in no time. At least on paper.

Having a profitable business, a business that lasts, and a business you love is a whole other story. 

As it turns out, a nonprofit museum is in fact still a business. I started Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in 2017, pretty much like what I described at the beginning. A couple of signatures and a few fees paid, and boom, Miles Through Time was real.

Truth be told, I probably had no business creating Miles Through Time. I was just a 32-year-old who had a massive passion to share my grandpa’s 1959 Cadillac with as many people as I could.

The most logical way to do this in my mind was to park my car in a building and allow others to do the same. While we weren’t driving the cars, they’d be on display, so people could come in and see them.  

I thought it was an awesome idea. At the time, most storage facilities were just warehouses no one saw. Now, private storage clubs are more prevalent, but they are still only beneficial to the owners. I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to see cool cars.

I was able to give Miles Through Time a go because I was blabbing my mouth to complete strangers about what I would do if I had the old Ford dealership I was walking through.

As it turned out, the owner of that building liked what I was saying and gave me an opportunity to do what I was talking about. That put me in a situation where I had the option to step up or walk away. 

Saying I was unprepared to create a museum was a massive understatement, but I didn’t have it in me to walk away from the chance of a lifetime. My wife played a huge part in pushing me forward. I was excited and scared, but ultimately didn’t have much to lose.

As it turns out, finding cars to go on display in a museum is not hard. Even in a rural area like where Miles Through Time first started.

It didn’t take long for reality to kick in though, before I learned how difficult it was to get people to visit the museum.  For three years, the museum’s average daily visitation was a single digit. Ten visitors on a Saturday was amazing.

I play Tetris with the vehicles in the museum, but I play Pinball with the museum itself. I’ve learned and pivoted so many times since 2017, you’d never know that the museum today is the same museum that was in that old dealership in 2017.

Long gone are the days of nothing to lose. What started with only one car I inherited has grown into a museum that displays an average of 130 full-size cars at any given time.

Most of the vehicles are privately owned still, and we focus on sharing the stories behind the cars. However, over 40 of the vehicles have been donated to the museum, and they allow our volunteer docents to go more in-depth with visitors.

I’ve moved Miles Through Time once in 2019/2020 and have expanded twice since then, and Vintage Garage Antiques was created to help support the museum in November 2021. We’re just shy of 50,000 total square feet, which is mind-blowing.

Up to this point, I’ve bootstrapped everything. Miles Through Time had more visitors this past June and July than the first three years combined at the original location.

Like many other automotive museums, the museum I founded needs to grow. To ensure the success of the business for the long-haul, we have to build a forever home. 

As it turns out, we only need about $12 million. Monterey Car Week was this past week and RM Sotheby’s, Mecum, Bonham and Broad Arrow all had auctions at Monterey that totaled over $354,428,304 in total sales.

We could build a 100,000-square-foot building to give Miles Through Time Automotive Museum and Vintage Garage Antiques and home forever, for just the value of one or two cars that sold at Monterey.

We’ll see what happens. There are a lot of people that could become a part of Miles Through Time and ensure the museum lasts for generations. But until then, I’ll keep bootstrapping everything with the help of people who just want to see our automotive history preserved and shared.

For the first three years of Miles Through Time, I was only open seasonally, from April to October. It seemed like after Labor Day no one ever visited until Memorial Day, and it just didn’t make sense to be open.

This week’s museums are all open until September. The Richard W. Erickson Antique & Classic Power Museum is very unique. You can schedule tours or wait for one of their huge events to visit.

Miller’s Lake Chelan Auto Museum is a private collection Leo and Polly Miller open to the public every year for 4 months. I love the idea of this museum because Leo and Polly obviously don’t have to open their collection to the public, but they choose to.

The last museum I’ll mention this week is the Northwest Vintage Car and Motorcycle Museum. You can see some great brass era cars at this museum, but only until September.

It’s smart business for these museums to close over the winter if their expenses outweigh their income during slower periods. It’s better to be seasonal than not open at all.

Have a great week!

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE 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

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