“WOOD” you like to know about Harlem car museum

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a 1915 Model T.  

But here with Gary and Jean Russeth, there’s a lot of stuff you don’t see everyday. We’ll blame in on Gary’s heritage.

“I’m a crazy Norwegian,” he said with a laugh. 

Gary and his wife Jean left Minnesota for Harlem, Georgia more than a decade ago. One reason: Gary is a huge Laurel and Hardy fan.

And here they created their Laurel and Hardy inspired Fine Mess Old Car Museum. 

And these cars get a big reaction from visitors. 

“They say whoa, is this real? Because it’s full size, all the cars are full size,” said Jean. 

They’re the right size but they’re not quite right. Like the1919 here… 

“Well it’s really a lot of wood. It’s full size made out of wood,” said Gary.

That’s right. All these classic old vehicles didn’t come off an assembly line a hundred or so years ago, but from Gary’s head and his hands, all made out of wood, right down to the most detailed part.  

“You don’t go online, you create these things out of what?”

“Out of my dreams, I wish,” Gary said. 

Gary says it takes about two years per car but he didn’t stick with just the autos.

There a replica of the historic locomotive, the general with the tender car.  

Driving the train? Stan and Ollie. 

There are 150 logs in the tender car, they’re not real, they’re made out of wood. So is everything else except the bell

“If you made a bell out of wood, it wouldn’t sound right,” said Jean 

But at the Fine Mess Old Car Museum, all is right indeed. I WOOD not lie Out there somewhere in Harlem George Eskola WJBF NewsChannel 6.

To make an appointment to visit the museum call Gary and Jean in Harlem at 706-361-5695.