Cole Land Transportation Museum

The museum in Bangor, Maine, is the legacy of Galen Cole (1925–2020), a World War II veteran and philanthropist whose father, Allie Cole, founded the Coles Express delivery company. Galen survived a German shell strike on his half-track in April 1945 that killed five fellow soldiers, came home to Maine, and at 29 became president of Cole Express. Realizing his father had accumulated old trucks and vehicles that were sitting unused, he set them out for display at the Cole Express facility; when children and teachers started coming to learn about transportation history in the state, Cole bought land in the 1980s to build a proper museum — Wikidata dates the institution's establishment to 1989. Seventy-seven vehicles had been donated before construction even began, and the collection has since grown to nearly 200. Cole managed the museum alongside veterans' causes that became inseparable from it, including the Walking Sticks for Veterans program, which has handed out more than 8,000 Maine-made maple walking sticks to veterans at parades and at the museum.