Cloud Museum - Bard, California

 

The overcast, drizzly weather from yesterday finally cleared out by noon today, so I decided to do some exploring.  Just over the Colorado River from Yuma is California and not too far through the agricultural fields, near a community named Bard, is a farm that has been overtaken by over 25 years of collecting antiques and vehicle related objects.  I talked to the owner of the Cloud Museum and he told me he has 140 vehicles in the museum, along with dozens of farm equipment, old fuel pumps, household items and other antiques. 

The next two photos below shows only a few of the vehicles housed in a huge barn a good many of them look in good shape and the owner claims that everything in the museum would run with fuel and a good battery.  He does the mechanic work himself, but for body work or upholstery, he takes the vehicle to Mexico, which is very close. 

 

The next photo is an early RV, labeled a "house car".  It's from 1930 and has a bathroom (of sorts), stove and all sorts of cabinets.  The second photo shows the inside - bunk beds!  Nice for it's day, but I like my 5th wheel better.

 

 

 

These are only a few of the tractors in this collection, and the farm equipment is not included in the count of 140 vehicles.

 

 

 

 

 

There were numerous rows of these vehicles, and I don't think anything was newer than 1940.  I did see one 1960s car in the entire collection, which was the newest vehicle in the museum.

 

In addition to all these vehicles, extra engines sitting in a row and a collection of antique outboard motors, there was a few small buildings with antique furniture, kitchen equipment (dozens of cast iron cookware) and other household items.  He had numerous pot belly stoves of different sizes and old hand wringer washers.  There was one area full of tools, jack stands and other equipment I didn't recognize.  One little cottage was set up as an old post office.

I was amazed at the amount and variety of antiques this person has accumulated in the past 25 years.  I guess some of us are collectors and others are minimalists, which is the category I seem to keep fitting into.  Still, it's fun to see what other people have in their collections.