The Pate Museum of Transportation was a transportation museum located in

Cresson, Texas Cresson is a city located at the corners of Hood, Johnson, and Parker counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 377 and State Highway 171, southwest of Fort Worth. Incorporated in 2001, Cresson h ...

History

Background

A.M. "Aggie" Pate Jr. acquired the first car in 1948 in high school. After becoming president of Panther Oil and Grease in 1965, he began planning for an automobile museum. The original idea included a vintage gas station and was called Gasoline Alley, but the scope expanded to include all forms of transportation.

Establishment

The main building was opened on 2 August 1969 and three months later the museum had 26 cars. The museum received the

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

''USS Admiral Vosseller'' (MSB-5) on loan from the U.S. Navy in 1973. The following year it opened an exhibition about lighter-than-air aircraft. The year after that, it displayed the first Soviet space exhibit in the United States. Pate died in 1988 and, by the late 1990s, the former site of the museum was redeveloped into housing. The U.S. Air Force began removing aircraft from the collection in 2003 after their condition deteriorated and the museum could not afford the cost of repairs.

Closure

Due to a lack of funding and reduced attendance, the museum was forced to close on 24 December 2009. The following June an auction of 43 vehicles was held. The minesweeping boat was scrapped in mid-2011 after it was determined to have deteriorated beyond salvage.

Former collection

Aircraft

* Douglas C-117C * Fairchild C-119F Flying Boxcar *

Grumman F9F-8 Cougar The Grumman F9F/F-9 Cougar is a carrier-based jet-powered fighter aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Grumman. It was developed during the early 1950s on behalf of the United States Navy (US Navy) and United S ...

* Grumman HU-16B Albatross * Hiller OH-23B Raven * Hiller OH-23B Raven * Kaman HH-43B Huskie *

Lockheed T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

McDonnell F-101B Voodoo The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is a supersonic jet fighter designed and produced by the American McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. Development of the F-101 began in the late 1940s as a long-range bomber escort (then known as a penetration fighter) ...

McDonnell F-4D Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...

North American F-86H Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

* North American T-28C Trojan * Piasecki CH-21B Workhorse *

Republic F-105D Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Vietnam War. It ...

Republic RF-84F Thunderflash The Republic F-84F Thunderstreak is an American swept-wing turbojet-powered fighter-bomber. The RF-84F Thunderflash is variant of the F-84F that was designed for photo reconnaissance. The design was originally intended to be a relatively simple ...

* Vought YF-8C Crusader

Other

AGM-28 Hound Dog The North American Aviation AGM-28 Hound Dog was a supersonic, turbojet, turbojet-propelled, Thermonuclear weapon, nuclear armed, air-launched cruise missile developed in 1959 for the United States Air Force. It was primarily designed to be capab ...

CIM-10 Bomarc The Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc ("Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center") (IM-99 Weapon System prior to September 1962) was a supersonic ramjet powered long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) used during the Cold War for the air defense of No ...

* GAM-72 Quail * Railcar ''Ellsmere II'' * ''USS Admiral Vosseller'' (MSB-5)

Events

The museum held an annual open house and a swap meet.

References

Footnotes

Notes

External links

{{external media , video1
News Report about Museum

Official website (Archived)
Defunct museums in Texas Museums disestablished in 2009 Transportation museums in Texas