Frontier Auto Museum

In the heart of Gillette, Wyoming, where the modern landscape is defined by the massive machinery of the coal and energy industries, sits a neon-soaked sanctuary dedicated to a different kind of horsepower. The Frontier Auto Museum is not just a collection of cars; it is a 13,000-square-foot curated time capsule that preserves the "Golden Age" of the American road trip.

A Family’s Labor of Love

The museum is the result of the lifelong passion of the Bickle family. Leon Bickle and his daughter, Yvette Belisle, spent decades scouring the high plains and beyond for the discarded relics of 20th-century Americana. What started as a personal collection of vintage gas pumps and signs eventually outgrew its private storage, leading to the creation of the museum in a refurbished 1940s-era grocery warehouse.

The museum’s philosophy is "immersion." Unlike many prestigious car museums where vehicles sit in sterile, roped-off galleries, the Frontier Auto Museum places its artifacts in context. They have constructed an entire "indoor town," complete with a replica 1940s gas station, a general store, and a mid-century pharmacy.

Beyond the Chassis

While the museum houses dozens of meticulously restored classic cars, ranging from a 1908 Maxwell to high-finned 1950s Cadillacs, the true star of the show is the petroleum memorabilia -  Petroleumiana.

  • The Neon Forest: The museum boasts one of the largest collections of vintage porcelain signs and neon globes in the Mountain West. In an era before GPS, these glowing icons (like the Sinclair Dinosaur, the Texaco Star, and the Flying A) were the north stars for travelers crossing the vast gaps of the Wyoming desert.
  • The Gas Pumps: You can trace the entire history of refueling through their collection, from the early "visible" pumps (where you could see the quality of the gas in a glass cylinder) to the Art Deco masterpieces of the 1940s.

"Relics of the Road"

The museum is filled with "survivor" items that tell the human side of the Wyoming frontier. One of the most beloved pieces in the collection is an original Sheepherder’s wagon.

The "Missing" Key:

There is a popular story among the museum staff regarding a 1930s Ford Model A that was recovered from a ranch near Buffalo. The car had been sitting in a barn for nearly fifty years. When the Bickles acquired it, they found the original key still in the ignition, but it wouldn't turn. After a week of careful cleaning, they realized the "obstruction" wasn't rust, it was a flattened piece of lead. Local history suggested the rancher’s son had tried to "lock" the car by jamming a bullet casing into the ignition to keep his younger brother from taking it for a joyride while his father was in town. That lead plug remained a part of the car's story for half a century.

The Relic Shop

What sets the Frontier Auto Museum apart is its dual role as a museum and a relic shop. A significant portion of the building is dedicated to high-end antiques.

The atmosphere is further enhanced by an authentic, working 1950s soda fountain. Visitors can sit on chrome stools, order a hand-mixed malt or a phosphate soda, and look out over a sea of polished chrome and neon. It is a sensory experience designed to trigger nostalgia in those who remember the "Tin Can Tourist" era and a sense of wonder in younger generations who have only ever known the interstate highway system.

Why It Matters to Wyoming History

Gillette is often seen solely as a "modern" town built on minerals, but the Frontier Auto Museum reminds us that before the coal mines, this was the frontier of the automobile. The museum highlights how the car democratized the West, allowing families to explore the Bighorn Mountains and Yellowstone in a way that was previously impossible. It celebrates the ingenuity of the "shade-tree mechanic" who kept these machines running in isolated ranching communities where the nearest dealership was 200 miles away.

 

Bibliography
  • Belisle, Yvette. Frontier Auto Museum: Our Family’s Journey. Private Press, 2017.
  • Gillette News-Record. "Neon and Nostalgia: The Opening of the Frontier Auto Museum." June 2014.
  • National Association of Automobile Museums. Regional Highlights: The High Plains Collections. 2020.
  • Wyoming Office of Tourism. The Neon Trail: Historic Roadside Attractions of Northern Wyoming. 2022.
  • Bickle, Leon. Oral History Project: Collecting the West. Campbell County Public Library Archives, 2019.