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“I liked old vehicles, and I wanted a museum.” Galen Cole, now 82, says he conceived the idea for the museum that bears his name at the age of eight. Through combat in World War II, decades of steering a successful trucking company, and a lifetime of community service, he never wavered from that youthful dream. Today, the Cole Land Transportation Museum on Perry Road in Bangor is the largest of its kind in New England.
Cole comes by his love of old vehicles through family history. His father, Allie Cole, began a career in transportation in 1917, delivering mail in remote parts of the state by horse and wagon. The elder Cole opened the first Cole’s Express terminal in Bangor in 1930, in a barn next to the family homestead.
Galen Cole served in Europe in World War II, but entered the family business upon his return. When his father died in 1955, Cole’s two older brothers appointed him president of the company. During the next four decades, Cole would oversee the company’s expansion throughout New England. He would also begin collecting the historic vehicles that would grow into his boyhood dream.
The Cole Land Transportation Museum is literally a walk through time. There are farm vehicles and old snowplows, horse-drawn carriages, train cars, old trucks, and thousands of photographs depicting the way life used to be.
“We have over 200 vehicles,” Cole says. “Over 90% of them were donated by the caring people of Maine who wanted to be a part of this museum. I had enough money to build the museum, but not enough to furnish it. We had 77 vehicles contributed before we even broke ground for the building.”
The museum opened at its present location in 1990, and since then has welcomed, through the 2007 season, 321,000 visitors, including 120,400 free visits by Maine schoolchildren. The museum, open May to November, is also home to several outdoor war memorials and a section inside with military artifacts from several wars.
Another Galen Cole passion, honoring our nation’s veterans, also comes together in a program he and his son Gary created years ago called “What I Learned about Freedom after Interviewing a Veteran.” Each school year, the museum sponsors an essay contest for youth. Students interview veterans at the museum conference room and write an essay about what they learned, which both helps fulfill students’ annual Maine Learning Results requirements and “gives these young people the chance to meet some true heroes.”
Cole’s involvement in veterans’ affairs dates to his service in the Second World War. In the spring of 1945, at the age of 19, he was wounded by a German artillery attack that killed five soldiers in the vehicle in which he was traveling. As he lay in the ditch waiting for medical assistance, the young Cole vowed that if he survived, he would strive to leave the world a better place than he found it.
That promise is reflected in the motto on the plaque at the entrance to the museum: “A hundred years from now the only legacy we will leave this world is the difference we made in others, especially in the life of a child.”
It’s also reflected in his years of community service, beginning with his election to the Bangor City Council at the age of 29. He’s been mayor, director and president of the Bangor YMCA, director and president of the chamber of commerce, chairman of the University of Maine Development Council, and junior and senior warden of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Today, Galen and Sue, his wife of more than 60 years, devote their time to the museum, veterans’ issues, and the Galen Cole Family Foundation, which supports education programs throughout the state. The museum opens on May 1 and closes for the season with a ceremony on Veterans Day, highlighted by awards to the young essay contest winners. To Cole, bringing together veterans and school children is perhaps his proudest accomplishment.
“Those old fellows are going to die with smiles on their faces, and the kids will learn something they will never forget, and pass on to their own children.”
Cole comes by his love of old vehicles through family history. His father, Allie Cole, began a career in transportation in 1917, delivering mail in remote parts of the state by horse and wagon. The elder Cole opened the first Cole’s Express terminal in Bangor in 1930, in a barn next to the family homestead.
Galen Cole served in Europe in World War II, but entered the family business upon his return. When his father died in 1955, Cole’s two older brothers appointed him president of the company. During the next four decades, Cole would oversee the company’s expansion throughout New England. He would also begin collecting the historic vehicles that would grow into his boyhood dream.
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The Cole Land Transportation Museum is literally a walk through time. There are farm vehicles and old snowplows, horse-drawn carriages, train cars, old trucks, and thousands of photographs depicting the way life used to be.
“We have over 200 vehicles,” Cole says. “Over 90% of them were donated by the caring people of Maine who wanted to be a part of this museum. I had enough money to build the museum, but not enough to furnish it. We had 77 vehicles contributed before we even broke ground for the building.”
The museum opened at its present location in 1990, and since then has welcomed, through the 2007 season, 321,000 visitors, including 120,400 free visits by Maine schoolchildren. The museum, open May to November, is also home to several outdoor war memorials and a section inside with military artifacts from several wars.
Another Galen Cole passion, honoring our nation’s veterans, also comes together in a program he and his son Gary created years ago called “What I Learned about Freedom after Interviewing a Veteran.” Each school year, the museum sponsors an essay contest for youth. Students interview veterans at the museum conference room and write an essay about what they learned, which both helps fulfill students’ annual Maine Learning Results requirements and “gives these young people the chance to meet some true heroes.”
Cole’s involvement in veterans’ affairs dates to his service in the Second World War. In the spring of 1945, at the age of 19, he was wounded by a German artillery attack that killed five soldiers in the vehicle in which he was traveling. As he lay in the ditch waiting for medical assistance, the young Cole vowed that if he survived, he would strive to leave the world a better place than he found it.
That promise is reflected in the motto on the plaque at the entrance to the museum: “A hundred years from now the only legacy we will leave this world is the difference we made in others, especially in the life of a child.”
It’s also reflected in his years of community service, beginning with his election to the Bangor City Council at the age of 29. He’s been mayor, director and president of the Bangor YMCA, director and president of the chamber of commerce, chairman of the University of Maine Development Council, and junior and senior warden of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Today, Galen and Sue, his wife of more than 60 years, devote their time to the museum, veterans’ issues, and the Galen Cole Family Foundation, which supports education programs throughout the state. The museum opens on May 1 and closes for the season with a ceremony on Veterans Day, highlighted by awards to the young essay contest winners. To Cole, bringing together veterans and school children is perhaps his proudest accomplishment.
“Those old fellows are going to die with smiles on their faces, and the kids will learn something they will never forget, and pass on to their own children.”
