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Businesses team up to reproduce 1913 hubcap

Reprinted courtesy of the TPD Rural Route Cresco Times Plain Dealer December 17, 2008, by Sara Daehn, News Editor

Cresco – Upper Iowa Tool and Die recently teamed up with Holstrom’s Gifts & Jewelry to reproduce a hubcap from the early 1900’s for the work-in progress Spaulding Center for Transportation museum in Grinnell.

Upper Iowa Tool & Die owner Scott Fortune decided to reconstruct a replica of four hubcaps that would have once fit on a Spaulding 1913 Model 40 touring car as a free donation to the museum. Holstrom’s is helping out by completing engraving work on the hubcaps.

“We’re fortunate to have Holstrom’s Jewelry to help us, “Fortune said.

Charles Brooke, executive director of the Spaulding Center for Transportation Iowa Transportation Museum, said he had been looking for a 1913 Model 40 touring car for a long time before finding one in Springfield, Miss.
Brooke and other organizers are still in the process of fundraising for the museum, which will be located in Grinnell and be the first of its kind in Iowa. The museum will tell the story of how all forms of transportation evolved in Iowa throughout the history, Brooke said. His goal is to have the interactive, family-friendly future museum tell the story of transportation, instead of solely having antique collections on display.

Museum organizers are in the process of restoring Spaulding buildings, located in Grinnell to their original appearances.

For more information on the museum, visit iowatransportationmuseum.org.