old kmart, new museum

and it's about to fill up with a hundred years of cars, planes, and fashion.

The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is moving into that empty big-box store out on Airport Way, the one a lot of us have driven past for years. After two decades up at Wedgewood, they're stretching into about ninety thousand square feet.

Here's why that matters. In the old spot, most of the collection sat in storage. In the new one, they can finally show off nearly all of it, around a hundred and thirty-five vehicles, from antique cars to motorcycles to some of the earliest snowmachines.

And it isn't just cars anymore. They're teaming up with the Pioneer Air Museum, so vintage planes will hang right alongside the autos, starting with five and growing to eight or nine. There's even a fashion side, showing what folks wore back in that early era.

The best part for me is the behind-the-scenes access. They keep almost every car running, so you can actually watch the work that keeps these machines alive. They're calling it a living museum, and after forty years in Fairbanks, that name fits.

They were shooting for the first of June, though it may slide a couple of weeks into a soft opening. Either way, one of the Interior's biggest draws is about to get a whole lot bigger.