The road to Salem was a nice one and I was looking forward to seeing this museum. It is actually several museums at the same location. It has specialty buildings on trucks, cars, tractors, logging and milling, and all kinds of equipment including old radio and electrical devices. If you would like to see the historical artifacts of the industrial era in one place, this is the place to visit.
You enter in the reception building and get a flavor of what exhibits are available and then you go out the back of the building and see that there are several buildings for you to explore.
There is even a working trolley.
My first stop was going to be the truck museum, but I passed the lumber mill building along the way.
The last week of July and the first week of August is a huge active display of all the exhibits plus many more special vehicles and engines for the Great Oregon Steam-Up.
Thousands of people come from all over to enjoy the exhibits and see the decades of technology in action.
The first truck building (there are two) gives you a flavor for trucks as everyday utility vehicles.
There is a wall displaying over a thousand monkey wrenches. These were made for the early square nuts that were commonly used for bolt fasteners. Often when you bought apiece of equipment the wrench would come with it.
Then it was on to the large building where very large trucks were kept for display.
Back outside there were more trucks to see as I made my way toward the Caterpillar tractor display area.
The building was closed that morning, but there was plenty to see on the outside.
A little further down was the automotive display building.
There are some really great cars here on display.
There was more to see outside where there was an example of a service station.
And plenty more to see as I walked back toward the entrance.
While the best time to visit would be during the last week of July and the first week of August, this museum is a delight any day you can stop by.
JIM'S GARAGE 
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