Clifford Weese is one of the collectors of WV license plates, right here in the state.  He lives near Harrisville, the county seat of Ritchie County.  I received an invitation to come see his collection, and I took the chance to photograph some of his outstanding exhibits.  In addition to license plates he has a good collection of WV area petrolania, and even a couple old Chevy vehicles in restoration.  His collections are so huge, he has run out of space at home, so he has bought a large building in downtown Harrisville, which used to be a car dealership, a barber, a furniture store, among other things.  He plans to make this a museum to house his collections and he in the middle of remodelling the building at considerable time and expense.  I'm sure it will be really cool to visit once it is all done!

The Sunday was nice, I naturally took the trip on my Triumph Tiger, a little more than a hour from my place:
 

Town of Harrisville, WV

The Tiger in Harrisville

In front of the Courthouse

At Clifford Weese's - beautiful fall backdrop.

Here are images from Cliff's fantastic collection.  Unfortunately the lighting was poor inside his garage for photography, so this is the best I could do:
 

The License Plate Hall

WV policeman stand-up sign.

HAM Radio, Vanity, Gov't.

WV Special/oddball  types

Beautiful assortment of early State and City tags

Being a motorcycle buff - I had to photograph these. Make no mistake about it - early WV m/c plates are VERY tough to find.   Few could afford a motorcycle back then, plus poor roads made for some pretty  death - defying riding!

Assortment of Petrolania

A VERY rare 1946 temporary plate (Cliff found this sandwiched between a 1945 and 1947 plate - makes  sense).  They probably ran out of 1946 plates so issued these until the 1947 plates were ready.

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Page created Nov 4, 2001