Model T Ford Club summer tour coming to Tuscarawas Valley

NEW PHILADELPHIA – More than 230 vintage Ford automobiles will be coming to Tuscarawas County this weekend as the Model T Ford Club International holds its 64th annual summer tour locally.

It's the first time the group has been to the Tuscarawas Valley since 2001.

Residents will get a chance to see the autos up close and talk to their owners during a car show from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday in the courthouse square in downtown New Philadelphia. 

The Tuscarawas County Historical Society and the Tuscarawas County Heritage Home Association will be holding a tour of five churches and the county courthouse in conjunction with the car show.

The cars and their owners will be arriving on Friday and Saturday. Registration will take place at the Tuscarawas County Fairgrounds in Dover.

Next week, the cars will be headed to historical sites throughout the area, including the Reeves Victorian Home and Carriage House Museum in Dover, the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum, Schoenbrunn Village, Trumpet in the Land, Zoar Village, two museums in Newcomerstown and Roscoe Village in Coshocton. 

The event is being hosted by Tom and Patti Strickling, of New Philadelphia.

"We were asked almost three years ago if we would do the 2020 tour, and we said we would," Tom said. "We were pretty much ready to go, and it got canceled by April (2020)."

This February, the group decided to go ahead with plans for a visit to Tuscarawas County. 

The logo for this year's tour is the Welcome to Our City sign in downtown New Philadelphia. The sign blew down during a storm earlier this year. 

Tom has enlisted family members to help out with the event. A cousin is coming from South Carolina, a brother and son are coming from Pittsburgh to help with trailer parking and two sisters from the Wheeling area also are going to help.

Bruce and Suzanne Stauffer from Ragersville also will be involved. The Tri-County Model A Club will put out direction signs and drive the Trouble Trailer if somebody breaks down. 

Residents will have plenty of opportunities to see the antique cars.

"Just about every morning when we leave the fairgrounds we go out Tuscarawas Avenue, on Wabash Avenue out around behind the stadium and head for the south side," said Tom Strickling. "That will be a morning ritual getting up around the park every morning, going down Broadway to the south side."

Members of the club will be traveling back roads to get to their various destinations on routes mapped out by the Stricklings. The routes make use of such county highways as Broad Run Dairy Road and Crooked Run Road.

The tour will have a significant economic impact as well.

About 540 people will be coming to the county, staying at motels and hotels in Dover and New Philadelphia, eating meals and buying gasoline. Strickling estimated the impact at about $450,000.

There will be a large youth contingent as well — 43 kids 18 and younger. Activities are planned for them every day.

One activity will be to design a sculpture out of Model T Ford parts that can't be salvaged. The kids will design the sculpture on Sunday, and then Justin Krantz, a welder with J&S Machine in Port Washington, will put it together. The finished sculpture will be auctioned off during the closing banquet next week at Tuscora Park.

The Stricklings have been old car enthusiasts for many years. This is the 15th Model T Ford Club International tour they have been on.

"I always wanted an old car," Tom said. "There used to be a paper that came out called the Old Car Journal, and I'd sit and look at that. I would say to Patti, look at this one, look at this one. Finally, she said, would you just pick something and get it. You're driving me nuts.

"I decided I wanted a heavy duty Model A truck. About three weeks later, after I said that's what I want, I went to a Wallick auction in Strasburg, and they had a car there. At one time I quit bidding on it. I leaned up against a tree with my back to the auction looking at my feet, and Don Wallick gets down on his knees with the microphone up in my face. So I bid one more time and I got it."

They now own four Ford automobiles – a 1911 Torpedo runabout, a 1918 touring car, a 1921 truck and a 1923 Fordoor (four doors). 

Tom Strickling asked that area motorists be patient while the Model Ts are traveling through the area next week.

"Remember, they are 30 mph cars," he said. "Uphill, they're pretty slow. It only has two gears. Low speed is actually a pedal that you have to push and hold real tight on the floor while you're climbing up a hill."