Dale Walksler
DALE WALKSLER, founder and curator of the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, USA, passed away in February, aged 68 after a long battle with cancer.
Dale was truly a larger than life person who gave so much of himself to his passions and all those that were fortunate to know him. My friend Roy Kidney and I spent two weeks visiting with Dale and photographing the Museum which left truly indelible images...I can still see Dale starting up a half million dollar Crocker and doing a burn-out inside while blasting past the astonished visitors, and how he would start up a bike and turn it over to anyone that had dropped by to see the Museum and off they would go on a two-wheeled treasure. Dale formerly owned the Harley-Davidson dealership in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, purchasing it in 1977 after a loan from his father. Relocating to
North Carolina, Dale opened the museum in 2002, and at the time of his passing it housed more than 350 motorcycles including many rare or one-off models: “one of the world’s premier collections of vintage American transportation”.
He collected treasures, but moreover, he was a treasure himself, and of which he gave freely to others.