http://www.MotorcycleClassics.com 11
cars, buses, and, maybe most famously,
the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las
Vegas, Nevada. Interactive displays give
background on each of his important
jumps through the years, many with
live video footage of the actual jumps.
Several of his jump bikes are included,
from the 750cc 1969 Laverda American
Eagle S he jumped for two years to
the 1970 Harley-Davidson XR-750 Iron
Head that he used for much of 1971
and 1972.
In addition to Evel’s leathers and
bikes, the museum has Evel’s legend-ary 1974 Mack truck, Big Red, which
was found rotting away in a Florida
salvage yard and featured on the TV
show American Trucker. McKay bought
the truck and had it restored by Topeka
Harley-Davidson with the help of a
crew of specialists. Today its trailer
also holds Evel’s original jump ramps,
the same ones he used throughout his
entire career, from the jumps at Caesars
Palace to England’s Wembley Stadium.
Rescued from a field in Butte, Montana,
in 2014, they now reside back in the
trailer, just the way they were stored forhauling all those years ago.
And that’s just the first floor. The second
floor houses some of Evel’s most famous
helmets, personal artifacts, his custom
1974 Cadillac pickup, and one of the
two famous X-2 Skycycles, complete with
crash damage incurred during practice for
Evel’s failed 1974 attempt to jump Idaho’s
Snake River Canyon. An amazing collec-
tion, the museum is a must-see for any
Evel Knievel fan. Tickets are $20 for adults,
$10 for students, and free to children 7
and under. On the web at evelknievel
museum.com — Landon HallCircle #4; see card pg 81Evel Knievel’s 1974 Mack truck, Big Red, and his Laverda American Eagle jump bike. They were both restored from near junk.