Automotive Artifacts Big Fleet Of Fords Scheduled For Auction

Ask the average car buff where to find one of the finest collections of antique Fords in the country, and chances are he won’t recommend Montana.

But ask an expert where to find a 1903 Model A Runabout or a 1920 Model A Phaeton, and he’ll likely point toward tiny Deer Lodge, Mont., home of the Towe Ford Collection, arguably the best collection of its kind anywhere.

Trouble is, the collection is in trouble. About 125 vintage Fords housed in Deer Lodge are scheduled for auction next May, so onetime banker and commodities trader Edward Towe can pay off some of the $4.7 million he owes the Internal Revenue Service.

“It’s going to be truly a shame that the collection will be broken up and dispersed,” said James Haas, the collection’s curator, who is trying to raise money to preserve a selection of 17. “Basically, what we’re trying to do is to save those vehicles that have a tremendous amount of history in Montana.”

Edward Towe, now 82, reconditioned his first Model T in 1952, and became thoroughly, passionately hooked.

By the time the lawyers, judges, and creditors put a stop to his buying last year, Towe had amassed a collection of about 250 from as far away as Argentina and New Zealand.

Andrew Towe, Edward’s son and the executive director of the museum, said Ford was the first automaker to make cars cheap enough for the rural farmer. “My dad had a saying,” he said. “It’s Ford or can’t afford.”

Edward Towe divided his collection between two museums - the flagship in Deer Lodge, where he later made his home, and another in Sacramento, Calif. Both institutions now face the loss of the core of their collections.

The trouble began 23 years ago when Towe (rhymes with cow) sold a dozen banks he owned in eastern Montana. The IRS suggested the taxes owed on the sales were far greater than the taxes paid.

Then in the late 1970s Towe lost millions in the commodities market. Again the IRS disputed his returns. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John L. Peterson approved a settlement this summer that requires the liquidation of the collection.

The breakup of the collection is a loss for auto enthusiasts, but it is also a loss for Deer Lodge, a third of whose 3,500 residents sit behind bars at the Montana State Prison.

Civic boosters say the Towe Fords annually attract up to 50,000 visitors who leave behind more than $100,000 for the local economy. That ranks it with the two main attractions in the area - the prison, and Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site, the ranch established by fabled fur trader John Grant.

Museum officials do have a survival plan, but they just don’t have much time. Under the terms of the settlement, the museum has until Jan. 1 to buy any of the vehicles that later will be put on the block for public auction.

Haas, the curator, said trying to raise up to $2 million to buy all 125 vehicles is out of the question. Instead, he and Andrew Towe have published a list of the 17 cars they most want to keep. “I would imagine that a lot of this will come down to the wire,” he said.

They already have commitments from other antique owners willing to loan their cars to the museum. But the sampling of 17 , Haas said, would provide the anchor they need for the new exhibition.