Preserving RV History

This has been a big year for Al Hesselbart. The RV/MH Hall of Fame, where he works as historian and the all-around go-to-guy, opened its new building in Elkhart, Indiana, and he published his book on the history of the recreation vehicle industry.

The book is entitled The Dumb Things Sold Just Like That, a phrase taken from RV pioneer Milo Miller’s poem about how he built a business in 1932 by starting with a homemade trailer, partly built from junkyard parts.

Hesselbart said the book, which is reviewed in this issue’s roundup of books of interest to RVers, has been very well received.

“I’m amazed and proud of the response,” he said.

The book begins with a short history on the evolution of RVing, but the emphasis is on the pioneers who shaped the RV business from the 1920s to 1950s. Nineteen chapters provide short biographies of key figures, from manufacturers to dealers and suppliers. Some of these individuals had died before Hesselbart began his research, but he spoke with everyone who was living.

Hesselbart said some of them cooperated fully; others were less forthcoming, just saying, “go ahead, have at it.” But he wanted all of them to know he was writing the book. “I don’t like the term or concept of unauthorized biography,” he said.

Subject and Mentor
One of Hesselbart’s favorite subjects was Harold Platt, whose roots in the RV industry went back to the 1930s and who remained involved in the industry for 60 years. In 1937, Platt’s Elkhart company built the first trailer to include a bathroom complete with a tub. Platt left trailer manufacturing in the 1960s, became an RV retailer, and was instrumental in creating the nation’s largest RV show. He also was the first Coachmen franchise dealer and in 1996, at the age of 94, manned the Coachmen booth at an RV show he had helped establish 43 years earlier.

Much of his knowledge of the RV industry came from his many conversations with Platt, Hesselbart said. “He was the one who taught me.”

Hesselbart, who grew up in Michigan, was a police officer, national field worker for the Boy Scouts of America and an automobile salesman, before becoming general manager of the RV/MH Heritage Foundation in 1994. The foundation was created in 1972 to preserve the history of the manufactured housing and recreation vehicle industries and to establish a Hall of Fame to honor industry leaders. Until this year, it was housed in a 20,000-square-foot building in downtown Elkhart that attracted about 20 to 25 visitors a day.

In April, the organization moved to new quarters, four times larger, along the Indiana Toll Road between Elkhart and LaGrange. The grand opening was held in August, and since then about 100 people a day have been coming by to see the museum’s collection of old RVs, exhibits of representative new RVs, and archival library. A hall is being built to display the museum’s newest prize, the David Woodworth collection of about three-dozen RVs from 1915 to 1933. This section will open early next year.

Vast Resources
Hesselbart’s title at the Hall of Fame these days is historian, but he also acts as just about everything else from janitor to greeter to volunteer coordinator. His association with the organization has given him access to the world’s largest RV library, with nearly 20,000 books and magazines and thousands of photographs and brochures. And it has brought him into contact with industry pioneers, so he is well positioned to write about the industry.

In undertaking his book, Hesselbart said he found it harder to write about the people he knows personally than those he learned about only from research. One problem, he said, was separating fact from rumor and speculation.

“When I start writing,” he said, “I have to forget what I know and write what I can prove.”

Hesselbart said there is much more material available than he was able to fit into his book. He focused on industry leaders up to the 1950s, and one could easily make another book profiling industry leaders of the 1950s and ‘60s, he said, adding “I ran out of energy before I ran out of people.”

Hesselbart said his publisher has told him he needs to write another book, but he hasn’t committed to it yet. In the meantime, he is delighted to be working at the new RV/MH Hall of Fame. Hesselbart said that when he was 12 years old, his grandfather told him that his goal in life should be to find a job that he would do even if he didn’t get paid for it. And now at the Hall of Fame, he said, he has found that kind of job. “It’s a labor of love.”

Write to Mike Ward, editor at RV Life Magazine, 18717 76th Avenue West, Suite B, Lynnwood, WA 98037 or e-mail editor@rvlife.com. Find First Glance on-line at rvlife.com.