Big Boy

Our Big Boy came from Joplin, Missouri from a friend named Chuck. He purchased it at a swap meat called Dixie Gas in Sevierville, Tenesee put on by Chip Floe . It is the largest gas show in the Southeast. Chuck knows we are always looking for cool stuff so bought it and held it for us. Big Boy has always been a favorite from when they started in Los Angelas. Great memories eating the french toast and blueberry syrup.

Hand carved Native American indian

Our hand carved out of one tree Native American Indians came from an antique store out near Tremonton ,Utah. While Sparky was visiting an antique event near Ogden that has dealers from all over that come to show and tell as well as sell their treasures. This is where he met a dealer that had one of these beautiful carvings. After discussing price he actually had three that we could not pass up. Sparky bought two and his son bought the other. They sat at his home in Sundance out front for years until we recently relocated them to be on display in the Museum.

How do we set our signs

Since we are in the business of “growing” signs we have it down to a science. First we pick the place that we want to “plant” the footing:) We then dig it and pour the cement and put in the rebar so our sign is nice and secure ! We don’t like shallow rooted signs, they need to withstand the stormy weather. Next we pick our pole, either one that has been collected or one that we have custom built (yes we do that too) Then the ring on top. Which ring for which sign. Pick the sign and ring and set the pole on the footing. Just like that our beautiful new sign on a pole has been grown into what we like to call our field of signs.

holy grail gas pump

Another of our “Holy Grail” items is the Canadian Clear Vision double head 700. Canada used Imperial Gallons which are bigger that American Gallons. One side of the pump is for regular gas and the other side for Ethyl, which today is Premium. these are extremely expensive and difficult to find gas pumps.

A friend in Joplin told Sparky the he had traded for the upper cast portion of a CV700 pump an dit was for sale. Sparky obviously bought it plus some of the parts that another friend had accumulated to go with it. It was lacking a lot of parts but had the beginnings. He found the cool nozzles in Indiana and the glass cylinders at the swap meet in Hershey, PA. He had the new skins made locally. Some of the smaller parts, [price glass, and a few details he found in Edmonton ,Canada. The owner refused to ship the parts so a road trip it was. Eventullay he had all the parts to restore it and put it on display next door at AAA Lakeside Storage until we build Sparks Museum and Event Center when he moved it inside. Red Indian is a Canadian gas brand and they were bought out by Texaco that that is why we have it in front of our Texaco collection.

the “fluted” gas pump

Every collector knows the Holy Grail of gas pumps is the Roman Column Pump. Sparky looked for a Roman column for years and never was able to find one he could afford. They sell for $20-$60k at auctions. One day a manager at the Lakeside Storage called to tell Sparky that a guy stopped by and the office and left a note asking if we would be interested in a “fluted” gas pump that he had.

Sparky knew exactly what “fluted” meant and immediately called the guy. He was from Nevada but was living in Springville and when he was a kid worked at the Stateline Service Station where they had the “fluted” gas pump for pumping Kerosene. The mans father had worked at the station and he assumed his dad had actually pumped his gas from the pump so he bought the pump from the sation ages before to restore it as a family memory. Later he found out that his dad actually had never pumped gas from it so he was ready to sell.

Sparky bought it at a fair price and hauled it home to paint and assemble parts. It lacked the glass cylinder which he replaced and restored it for our collection. The hose that is on it was a new old stock original hose he got from Max Egertson who used to own the Texaco Bulk Plant in Provo and he had a few hoses he gave Sparky that he had many years ago. The pump was sold to the Stateline Serviece Station and maintained by a SLC gas pump company.

Frontier, another “cool” Brand.

Frontier is another very cool brand. It began when the two partners in Colorados Bay Oil company couldn’t get along and divided assets. One went to a refinery in Cody Wyoming and started Frontier Oil in 1940. Their first contract was making 100 octane fuel for aircraft in the war. Sparks Museum and Event Center has one of the first signs for gas advertising they sold. It the 5 foot “Golden Cowboy” Frontier sign and is a sign Sparky restored by hand and is one of seven known to exist. Finding that sign is a super “Picker” story! He found it while sitting in Hawaii surprisingly. He son Tim was in Nebraska hunting geese so of course Sparky took the opportunity to hunt for a sign. He looked up the antique dealers in the area and began calling. No luck however, all bad news. In desperation he asked if they even knew anyone who had an old gas pump or sign. ONe of the girls said yes she did and gave Sparky the number. Amazingly the man had a Calso sign and agreed to sell it. Tim was able to meet up with the new contact, yippee. Tim took a short video of the Calso sing plus many others including the two big Frontier signs. I negotiated and was able to get the deal. Finding a way to get Tim the cash was another story but after jumping through hoops and being creative we got them. Sparky picked them up during a different trip as remember Tim was on a hunting trip, and he wasn’t “

oo7 anyone

Our cute little Bede 5 jet that hangs from the ceiling is one of about 300 that exist. It is the smallest jet in the world and is seen on James Bonds 1983 film “Octopussy “ flying thru a barn at 325 miles per hour.

Growing up in Los Angelas

The Hancock gasoline sign came as a reminder of when Sparky was a little boy growing up in Los Angelas. Sparky used to go to the LaBrea tar pits. Hancock Oil was from LaBrea.

Shell shell shell

The shell signs have come from all over including from Canada. Sparky bought Sehll gas in California as a kid but never knew it’s a European based Company till he started collecting signs. Shell changed the World of Petroleum while people were sleeping:) They invented and shared the means of deep water drilling which makes much more of our oil available today.

Perfect for al capone

The 1937 Cord gangster car belonged to a Dr in Chicago, of all the perfect places. We like to think of how this beauty would have looked back when she was brand new driving her owner around the town on a Sunday drive.

sparkys hamburger (Copy)

Sparky’s Hamburger sign came from a picker friend in Joplin who saw it while pickin and knew Sparky had to have it. He bought it for him and let him figure out where to put it. Thats the thing about making friends that are “pickers” they look out for each other when those friendships are made and stay in contact seeing how each other are doing. I as the daughter of Sparky have been in the car many times as he will call up a “picker” friend to just see how they are doing and how they are feeling. What is happening whats new and what is the recent hot item out in the collectors world of oil and gas.

Old guys like other old guys stories

When you visit Sparks Museum and Event center you will see our beautiful Roman Column gas pump along with our Red Indian Gas pump. Both are fun stories of how we got them. They are each very valuable and hard to find at any price.

Its all about the story

Sparky learned a long time ago it is not often about the currency. Many collectors start off saying the do not want to sell the wanted treasure until…. the right thing is offered and then game on. Many collections are priceless to the owner and are thought of as a treasure not to be bought. This is where the fun begins and negotiations take place. Most owners don’t even know there is something other than cash that will entice them so creativity is a huge part of the fun. Unfortunately auction houses entered the game and almost gone are the days of negotiating or trading . Makes it so the stories are gone and it is not as fun as it once was. Sparky is all about the hunt, the game, the stories, the new friends and yes about finally getting the sign.

hunting and gathering

The hunt was on! Sparky used every means possible to gather the pumps and signs we have including many trips across the USA and as far as Edmonton Canada, but have had signs shipped from New Brunswick Canada, Toronto and British Columbia as well as Maine, Florida and about everywhere else. Sparky has about 3000 collector friends on Facebook that help him find all the good stuff:)

Finding signs is its own story., then buying them is another story and finally getting them home is even a different story. They can be very complicated and are big and heavy and difficult to move. The gas pumps aslo have this challenge. Every one has it’s own colorful story. They most fun is meeting the people along the way, making new friends and learning the history of the signs. Sometimes a sign is spotted and not until years later is the deal actually made when the owner finally decides what it will take to trade or to sell it

What spurred the Petroliana collection?

In 2013 when Sparky and Jeannie were headed to Guatemala to serve a mission their son Tim was running the Storage Park. He suggested “dressing up the park a bit” Sparky had been mildly collecting a few gas pumps here and there and had about 11 in total. Restoring the first pump that once sat outside Sparky’s home. We put them in front of the office of the Storage Park and some of the few old signs on the walls there.

Tim restored a few more pumps while Sparky was away and when Sparky returned is when the real collecting begin to take place. Tim suggested they go hunting for more pumps and so they did. So back to “picking “ it was but new and improved with the internet and facebook in tow. They learned that gas pump collectors also collected signs and so the sign collecting was added to the search. The first sign was the Kendall Oil sign which hangs on the right upper side of one of the outdoor buildings.

This begin the new and improved hunting and picking that is what Sparks Event Center has now become!

The man behind the Mue

The seeds of the collection at Sparks Museum and Event Center were sewn in the Summer of 1957 as Sparky (the creator) went with his friend Todd Roberts, on a trip thru old ghost towns in Nevada and found a very nice original 1929 Model A Ford pickup that he bought for $25 . They tied it to the back bumper of his 49 oldsmobile and towed it all the way over the mountains back to Bel Air where he lived and began restoration on it while still in high school. He sold it before he finished and has always been sorry. Always a dreamer and creator even int the 50s he had the eye to collect and to restore. He loved old things then and loves them even more now.

In 1979 he bought an Erskine in Helper, Utah and that spouted those seeds again . That car he restored when I was a child about 10 years old. I remember him spending hours upon hours on it. He was in need of the parts to get it all back together and would drive all over, becoming what now days is called a “picker” as that was the only way to find parts. There was no internet only your car and lots of farmland with what to many would deem as junk piles. However he would see that so called junk and find the treasure part he had been in search of. Picking was the very best source.

He was a super picker and hauled huge loads of awesome stuff home from every trip he took. Back then the signs and gas pumps he saw he thought of as “junk” The exception was the old visible gas pumps. He did haul a few of those home and restored one as a Texaco and put it in front our home when I was young. We now have that pump in our collection at Sparks Museum and Event Center . This pump is located outside across the street in front of Lakeside Storage along with two signs he picked up. The Gargoil Mobile sign and the Willis Knight sign.