Bend’s oldest car is getting a big tune-up

Bend’s oldest car is getting a tune-up. The 1907 Holsman was the first car to arrive in Bend. The car came to Bend in the early 1900s to help a Deschutes telephone company with its routes.

Des Chutes Historical Museum Executive Director Kelly Cannon-Miller explained Monday how the Holsman looked more like a horseless carriage than an automobile.

She stated that it’s carriage-like features, “that was actually a selling point of the Holsman automobile, that it was very flexible, like a carriage, and designed with the big wheels to be able to handle rough and tough roads.”

The antique car has been on display in the downtown Bend museum for 35 years. Last week, it was moved Wade Bryant’s Auto Repair Shop. Bryant is volunteering his time to fix up the car.

Bryant said he will only “do a little refurbishing. We’re not going to really restore the car — because of its originality, we want to keep that intact.”

The car hasn’t run in over fifty years, but Bryant is confident that it hasn’t seen it’s last day. He said, “I have no doubt we’ll make this car run again.”

The car enthusiast has a passion for fixing up antique cars and has dreamed of working on the Holsman since he first laid eyes on it during his newspaper route as a little boy.

Before being placed in the museum, the car regularly made appearances in Bend parades. The Deschutes County Historical Society hopes to restore that tradition.

“I think that it would be great to take that car, 107 years later, down the same pathway that it first came down to Central Oregon,” Bryant said.

He expects the maintenance to be completed by May, so the 108-year-old car can star in some Memorial Day festivities.