St. Clair celebrates an automotive icon
Story and photos by Graham Hadley
The Mustang Museum of America is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its opening in Odenville and cementing its place as a regional go-to attraction for automotive enthusiasts from around the country.
It joins the likes of the Barber Motorsports Park and museum in Leeds and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega County.
For many automotive enthusiasts, two car lines have dominated the highways in America.
One of them, the Chevrolet Corvette, has had a museum all its own in Bowling Green, Ky., for years.
Now, thanks to the efforts of one family and backed by local businesses and the City of Odenville, that other car, the Ford Mustang, has a museum right here in St. Clair County.
Housed in a huge steel climate and humidity controlled building, the Mustang Museum of America opened March 17, 2019, on Forman Farm Road in Odenville, and since then, the expansive attraction had been drawing hundreds of fans of Lee Iacocca’s famous Pony Car from across the country.
The museum is the brainchild of Robert Powell, who says, “I had been thinking about a car museum for 15 years” and finally decided to make it a reality.
Powell, who had been working for Progress Rail, was nearing retirement — which he officially took Feb. 1 — and started putting the pieces in place about five years ago.
“With the collection of Mustangs I had put together, and the help of my two sons and their cars, we started to figure out what we were going to do,” Powell said.
It was a natural move for Powell — he had been the president of a local chapter of the Mustang Club of America in Tampa, Fla. Even back then, they were thinking about the possibility of a museum.
Powell grew up in Alabama. In fact, he saw his first Mustang at a gas station in Odenville as a teen. “I thought it was the most beautiful car ever put on the road. I was in high school, so of course I could not afford one. But I started following the line. Back then, I would get together on weekends with my friends in high school, and we would drive around looking at car dealerships to see what they had on the lots.”
When work brought him back home from Florida, he and his wife and sons only thought it would be natural to open the museum here.
“We think this could be an anchor attraction for North St. Clair County,” he said. “I moved here when I was 6. I grew up here, went to school here. St. Clair has been good to us. We feel a loyalty to this area.”
With the support of local civic leaders and business owners like Lyman Lovejoy, Powell unveiled his plans for the Mustang Museum of America during a special community meeting in mid-2016. They had already procured the necessary property, were starting on plans for the building, and between Powell, his wife, Carolyn, and sons Jonathon and Gary, already had upwards of 70 Mustangs in their personal collection.
Plans called for the museum to house between 100 and 120 Mustangs — a number they are already close to reaching with 102 cars on hand. “We want to have one of every model year through 2015, plus a police car version from every state that used them,” Powell said.
Thanks to the generosity of collectors and organizations dedicated to preserving Mustangs, who have either loaned the Mustang Museum cars or donated them outright, there are only a few gaps in the long rows of cars on display where they are still missing models.
And alongside the standard models are a number of specialty cars of historic note, including the Mustang test bed used to benchmark the SVO Mustangs. It is one of the compact, slant-fronted Fox bodies that marked the return of the Mustang as a dominant force in American automotive manufacturing in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
That car looks rough, but Powell says that is part of the history of the test vehicle. “I wanted it left this way. It is part of what makes the car unique. This is the standard Mustang that they ran against the SVOs in tests to see how they performed.”
They also have the Fox-body Mustang Ford sent to California to be used to test the viability of Mustangs as police — and much more commonly, state trooper — cars. That test eventually opened the door for states across the country to adopt the Mustang as a go-to law-enforcement interceptor vehicle.
Other cars that were limited runs to promote brands, pace cars and race cars are also part of the collection.
And though there was a time when many die-hard Mustang fans would not admit that Ford’s smaller Mustang IIs were part of the Mustang family, the museum boasts a large collection of those, too. And that includes some of the sporty models that were seen on TV shows, Charlie’s Angels in particular.
Times have changed, Powell said, and most Mustang enthusiasts now consider the Mustang IIs as part of the Pony Car family, with a number of people who specifically seek out and restore them, helping with the museum’s collection.
In addition to the cars, the walls of the museum are adorned with advertising, magazine articles and other art – even an original, full-size billboard – that tell the story of the Mustang.
“Lee Iacocca had to really fight to get the Mustang built,” Powell said. Ford had just taken a big hit with the failure of the Edsel, and when Iacocca said, “We need a new car line,” he was told he must be crazy. But Iacocca, who passed away in 2019, was known for his dogged determination, and the first Mustang was built — the 1964 1/2 model. The official launch of the 1965 Mustang would be Ford’s most successful roll-out since the Model A.
The museum is a non-profit effort overseen by a seven-member board of directors. Powell serves as the managing director. His son, Gary, is the manager, and his other son, Jonathon is the assistant manager.
Powell admits it has been a learning curve for him, his family and everyone else involved in the project, but their hard work is paying off.
Visitors from around the country are making their way to Odenville, some just go a little out of their way while passing through the area, others as parts of organized car clubs and similar events. They even had a Honda Goldwing motorcycle enthusiast club make it a point to put the museum on one of their routes.
That is exactly how Powell had originally envisioned the project – not just as a museum, but as a venue with large outdoor spaces and plenty of parking to host crowds and bring events to St. Clair County.
He also readily admits the business they are seeing now is just a small part of what the museum can mean to the community. They did a soft opening and have gradually been seeing business ramp up as word gets out about the museum, something Powell says will be key to its success.
And he was quick to point out that they are part of a much bigger picture – drawing motorsports enthusiasts to the region. Races at the Talladega Superspeedway and events at Barber Motorsports Park are part of that draw, especially since both of those tracks also have museums on site, with more on the way at Barber.
Powell said the people at Barber have been especially helpful.
“When I first started thinking seriously about doing this, I talked to the people at Barber, and they were very supportive,” he said. They have even talked about creating a regional motorsports museum pass to cover several of the museums on one ticket.
His sons have been bringing some of their cars to events at Barber and reached out to the venue for guidance and the possibility of cross promoting their attractions. The response and support have been more than Powell ever could have expected, he said, lauding them for taking the big-picture approach to making the museums and tracks regional and national attractions.
Other local businesses, like BEI Electronics and Graphics and SVP are also important parts of the community effort that have made the museum possible, helping with paint or custom decals to return even the most worn-out Mustang to original condition. Powell tries to keep cars in as close to original condition without restoration as possible, but some vehicles need a full bumper-to-bumper rebuild before they are suitable for display.
The Mustang Museum of America is open Thursday through Monday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but Powell said they will open pretty much any time to accommodate visitors; they just need to call ahead and let them know they are coming. l
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