Hooked on tow trucks In Chattannooga, Tennessee, a museum hails the trusty knights of drivers in distress

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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Forget Prince Charming. Anyone who has ever had a flat tire, dead car battery or late night balky engine knows who the real knights in shining armor are.

As long as there have been gas gauges reading empty, radiators overheating or ditches to drive into, tow truck and wrecker drivers have been on call to rescue motorists in distress on highways, busy intersections and back roads.

Surely such a noble calling deserves tribute.

And tribute it has. Downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., is home to the country’s only museum and hall of fame devoted solely to the drivers, mechanics and lovers of all things towing and towed.

That’s right. Towing.

I admit to being skeptical at first myself, but the city is a natural site for the International Towing and Recovery Museum, founded by the Friends of Towing who, in 1995, decided to preserve their industry’s legacy in Chattanooga, ground zero of towing and recovery.

It was local-boy-done-good Ernest W. Holmes who in 1916 invented the twin-boom wrecker and ushered in a new transportation industry. His invention was patented three years later and today five major brands of towing-industry apparatus are still produced around Chattanooga.

Following in the patriarch’s footsteps, Ernest Holmes Jr. patented the high-speed towing cradle in 1938 and third-generation family member Jerry Holmes invented the Speed King dolly and Car-Guard towing sling.

All fun facts to know and tell for industry members and antique machinery buffs; it is also a legacy Lyndia Thomas, museum operations director, is only too proud to show off.

Thomas runs the museum with her father and 20-year towing industry veteran Frank Thomas, a former employee in the Holmes’ recovery business.

“These are our babies,” she says with real affection, gazing around the museum’s main floor filled with an array of machines with chrome and paint glittering under the lights. “We talk to them and tuck them in every night.”

Like any good mother, Thomas can recite the lineage, history and vital statistics of each of the 20 trucks on loan to the museum.

There’s a 1913 Locomobile equipped with a 1919 485 Holmes wrecker on the back.

“This is the oldest in our collection, the most photographed, most admired and most valuable,” Thomas said. “It’s insured for $200,000.”

Owner Bob Myers of Ohio has turned down offers to buy the machine far exceeding that insured price, she added.

Nearby rests a 1929 Chrysler with a 3-ton Weaver Auto Crane. Owners Jack and Gail Gratzianna of Illinois restored the truck in 1971 after it served 41 years as a tow truck.

The Chrysler sports a $35,000 chrome and paint job. “This truck was a touring car that was cut in half to make the tow truck,” Thomas said. “It was used from 1930 to 1971.”

Not to be outclassed, a Model 640 Packard limousine rests nearby. Oddly enough – or maybe not so oddly to towing aficionados – none of its elegance is marred by the attached 3-ton crane.

Perhaps the most loved truck on the floor is Bubblenose with its story of rags to riches.

Owned by Donna Ingels of Wisconsin, Bubblenose began his life as a 1947 GMC owned by the Pabst Brewing Co. It was later converted into a tow truck specifically to tow broken down school buses.

Bubblenose served that purpose admirably for years until it broke down and was unceremoniously abandoned on the side of the road.

Rescued and later meticulously restored by George Lanser of Wisconsin – Lanser spent two years searching for an original water pump – Bubblenose has proudly run in numerous parades and now occupies a space of honor among Thomas’ other treasures.

As with any good museum devoted to history, this one is not without an element of the macabre.

Glittering and as shiny black as the day it drove off the assembly line, a 1974 Sierra Grand GMC wrecker sits on display, its odometer reading the 141 original miles.

It was purchased in 1974 by a man who answered his first call on the Pennsylvania turnpike, Thomas said. “He got into an argument with a highway patrolman, had a heart attack and died,” she said.

The owner’s wife parked the truck in a garage and it was only recently rediscovered and placed on display.

“Who knows what other treasures are sitting under cover in people’s garages?” Thomas said.

All the trucks in the museum, Thomas and her father tell visitors with pride, are fully functional and will start up with the turn of a key or crank.

But don’t even think about trying – all trucks and related displays sport distinct “No touching” signs and Lyndia Thomas is vigilant in her quest to keep chrome, paint and window glass free of finger and nose prints.

Surrounding the trucks are related displays of toys, tools, unique equipment and photographs of the industry.

Thomas points out an old advertisement for a “slim-jimmy” – the device still in use today to jimmy open locked vehicles of hapless owners who find themselves on the outside and their keys on the inside.

According to the ad, it was known as a “fat Albert” for a brief period following the tool’s debut.

“That should be one of the questions on that ‘Millionaire’ show,” Thomas said.

Photographs and biographies of men and women from 21 countries adorn the museum’s hall of fame, each having made significant contributions to the towing and recovery industry.

Inductees include engineers, publicists, sales representatives, manufacturing leaders, distributors and, of course, drivers. Members of the Friends of Towing organization are welcome to nominate inductees.

The Friends, who take their roles as towing preservationists extremely seriously, also hold rallies, towing rodeos and related events around the country. All this and more are publicized through the group’s regular newsletter.

I was intrigued, bemused and charmed by it all, but had to ask: “Why?”

It’s a question to which the Thomases have grown accustomed.

If for no other reason, they will tell you, towing deserves a museum because the industry is a billion-dollar-a-year business.

That and the fact that people – especially the younger set – just have a thing for big, shiny trucks.

“I see 3-year-olds pulling their grandparents in to see the big trucks,” Frank Thomas said. “It doesn’t take long before you see the grandparents having as much fun as the kids.”

And it’s not just for industry insiders.

“Approximately 90 percent of our visitors are not in the towing industry,” Lyndia Thomas said. “They are just curious about what a towing museum would have in it or [have] a love of antique vehicles.”

The elder Thomas has fond memories of his days with the Holmes family and is happy to swap stories with visitors.

“Ernest Holmes Jr. was one of the best,” he said. “He really made you feel like you were one of the family.”

There was just one word of caution.

Employees, he said, were quick to learn and appreciate the difference between towing and a wrecker. “If you ever called what we did ‘towing,’ you didn’t work there much longer,” he recalled.

The difference?

A tow truck, according to Holmes’ own maxim, “is designed to tow. Mine is designed to recover and tow.”

A seemingly fine line, but it was, after all, his invention.

The International Towing and Recovery Museum is located at 401 Broad St. and open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends. Call 423-267-3132 for group tours or to schedule a party.