Roadside Mysteries

Where the Maytag repairman is buried:

The Iconic Lonely Repairman

In 1989 actor Gordon Jump (remember WKRP in Cincinnati? ) appeared as the Maytag Repairman. It’s now played by Clay Earl Jackson

This is Lee Maxwell

Lee is the washing machine repairman of all time. He is the owner of what he calls The Washing Machine Museum in Eaton, Colorado.  A long time resident of Fort Collins until his retirement as a CSU EE professor, Lee began collecting and fixing up old and beat-up washing machines to the point that he had to build a few extra warehouses keep them all.

The Water Tower

Lee uses the old Eaton water tower for an office and main entrance to his collection. Anywhere on the property one might find and old washer or butter churn (which sometimes doubled as a clothes washer) rusting about, but it can not compare with what Lee has inside!

A small part of the collection

There are at least two good sized rooms containing over 1000 machines along with all kinds of artifacts that Lee and his wife collected over the years.  Everything is placed in neat rows with isles for visitors to easily inspect each machine. Some are connected up so Lee Maxwell can demonstrate how it worked.

The gentile hands of THOR !!

Here’s an agitator that got our attention! Let these  gentile metallic feminine hands do your wash!

Stuff on the side

A detergent named “BARF” and an Ivory Snow box featuring porn star Marilyn Chambers

Parts is parts

Back in the barn is where Lee does all the work refinishing the wood and sand blasting the rusted metal parts. Here is a room where some of the motors are stored.

It really is a farm!

There are swans, turkeys and peacocks roaming around!

Oh, remember that thing I reported on back in October 2008? That big letter A on the side of the hill? It turns out the Lee Maxwell is the grandson of a one R.G. Maxwell who happened to own the land on which the big letter “A” was planted.  He loaned the land to CSU for $1 at the time!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Museums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.