Written by: John Gunnell

Here is my story. For some time I have been familiar with a building in Waupaca, Wis. that was a Yellowstone Garage. This term was coined to iedentify garages that were convenient for tourists to stop at while driving the Yellowstone Trail. I had also heard that the building was a car dealership and that, possibly, Oaklands were sold there. It is a neat old building that was erected in 1909 nad added onto several times. I hear it was also used for Bootlegging during prohibition.

I knew the building as “Kerm Mansen’s” or “Hansen Auto Exchange”. During that period it was owned by two brothers, Kerm and Ev Hansen. Later it was owned by brothers Fred and Bob Hansen who sold and fixed cars there. Both Fred and Bob own collector cars. I assumed that they were related to Kerm and Ev but I was wrong. Around 2006, I bought a used Ford Ranger from Fred and Bob. Even at that time they said the used car business was getting tough.

In May of 2015, Fred and Bob closed their business. In June I was invited to an ice cream social at Bob’s house. The ice cream was homemade with a hit-and-miss power plant. Bob mentioned that he needed a job. I followed up and hired him in July. At some point, he mentioned that he and Fred had the building up for sale and that it might have been an Oakland dealership. I made them an offer on the place which they ultimately accepted. I closed on Oct. 15.

I have been very busy lately. In fact, I have only been in the building three times since I bought it. Once was to move my ’36 Pontiac and my ’75 Ford tow truck there for storage. (People have told me the ’36 looks great in the old showroom.) A week after the purchase, my son and I went to the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. We spent five days at the show and six driving. We did some family visits and went 4200 miles. On the way back, I asked my son to help break the boredom by looking for Oaklands for sale on his Smart Phone. This made us aware of an Oakland for sale in Illinois. We also encountered ads from Wayne Koffel of Pennsylvania who restores only Oaklands. Wayne is also very knowledgable about Oakland values.

I made contact with the man selling the Oakland and made arrangements to see it after a trip to the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago last weekend. This morning I went to see the car and purchased it. It is a 1917 Oakland made in the same year my building became an Oakland dearlership. It is a fairly nice old car that was probably “restored” many years ago. I do not know if it runs. My guess is it will run. My main interest is not in driving it but in having it in the old showroom.

Oh yes. Through contact with the Waupaca, Wis., Historical Society, I did verify that the building was sold to a man in 1917 for the purpose of selling Oaklands and Oldsmobiles there. I do not yet know how long Oakland were carried. I believe that they kept selling Oldsmobiles into the ’60s, although probably not from my building.

Before buying the car this morning, I made contact with the Yellowstone Trail Association. I also discovered that Wisconsin tourism puts out a free booklet about the Yellowstone trail in Wisconsin. It shows county by county maps of TYF and on the Waupaca County page there is a picture of my building.

Once the car gets up here, I plan to generate a lot of local and national publicity about The Yellowstone Trail and its Oakland links. Hopefully this will benefit POCI as well as my business. As you can probably tell, this has all been a real adventure and a case of the pieces falling into place just right. It is fun when old cars generate excitement and I am excited tonight.