Discover
the Frontier Auto Museum
Wyoming PBS Chronicle
A HUGE thanks to Wyoming PBS for coming down and featuring us on their Wyoming Chronicle series. You can view it right here!
Cars stars & roll bars
Thank you Mike Kinney for having us on your video series! Available to watch here.
The Wandler family has been in Gillette since 1962, Leon and Betty Wandler moved here from Glendive Montana and in 1964 founded L&H Welding and Machine Co. Leon had always had a love for old cars with a preference for Hudson’s. Jeff Wandler was born in Gillette in 1966 and lived up the street from the Auto Museum on Ross Street until he was 6 years old and then the whole Wandler family moved to a farm out North past the airport. As time went by the Wandler brothers were into muscle cars and drag racing, but when Jeff got older he took an interest in his dad’s older cars. When he was 30 he was helping his dad work on the Hudson’s and going to auctions with Leon. They decided to buy an old gas pump and restore it to go with Leon’s 1949 Hudson convertible. Jeff liked it so well that he pursued more pumps and also got a few local signs from relatives. The petroleum collectibles took on a life of its own and before long Jeff was passionately collecting these items along with help from his dad to restore pumps. They made a good team and ended up moving an old gas station from Osage Wyoming and fixing it up. After they filled this up they continued to decorate Leon’s work shop by Rozet. Leon passed away in 2004 and Jeff continued to take care of the cars and add to the family collection. Jeff’s ultimate goal was to make a public display with the families lifetime collection. In 2015 when he heard that the Quilt Nook at 211 West 2nd Street was for sale he was intrigued. He learned that the building was originally built for the Ford dealership in 1949 and was well suited in a lot of ways for the purpose. He was able to acquire the building and the vision of the museum was quickly becoming a reality. Jeff and his daughter Briana Brewer and son-in-law BJ Brewer started the museum along with the antique and re-purposed store in January 2016, starting another family business where the Wandler roots run deep.