Squibby's "Hidden Room" at Harley-Davidson

[HarleyCreation]

Since I mentioned the "hidden room" tale in my article about Squibb Henrich and the 1924 trip to the Arizona desert, I thought maybe you guys would enjoy hearing more of the details.

Please give me your opinions. Some people blow it off, but guys like Squibb and Sherbie had no reason to lie. They were there and were the authentic guys who helped make early Harley-Davidson great.

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There is a story of a hidden room in the basement in the 1910-1911 portion of the Harley-Davidson factory. I got this story from an old guy named Albert "Squibb" Henrich who worked there starting in 1923. Squib was a test rider, and one day in the 1920s he was down in the testers' room in the basement with a guy named "Sherbie" Becker who was his boss. At lunch one day, they were talking about "old motorcycles" and Sherbie took Henrich around the corner by the west elevator and pointed to a spot on the concrete wall and said that back when the plant was constructed some old belt-drive motorcycles were walled up in there. Henrich said that Sherbie "knew everything" and "wasn't fooling." He also said that shortly after Sherbie told him the story, Sherbie was killed on a motorcycle near Milwaukee.

My first reaction was scepticism as I remembered Geraldo and Capone's vault and that TV show flop. Harley-Davidson actually did drill a couple shallow holes into the wall down there as I reported the story in Enthusiast mag but they found nothing. But that walled area of the factory basement (I've seen it) is very extensive and the walls gotta be thick. Then they dropped it.

But I didn't drop it. Instead I kept this guy "Sherbie" Becker in mind and tried to find out more about him. It turned out that Edwin "Sherbie" Becker was already working for Harley-Davidson in 1907 along with several other Beckers who were his brothers and uncles and cousins. The Beckers all lived up on Vliet Street just north of the Harley factory. Sherbie is positively identified in 1907 photos of Harley-Davidson employees and in many other places. And Sherbie really was killed on a motorcycle in 1926 near Mayville, Wisconson. Not far from Horicon Marsh and "the Ledge" (Niagara Escarpment).

Is this story about a "hidden room" at Harley-Davidson true or not?

What do you think?

http://www.atthecreation.com/

[k.perry]

I say we ask NASA for sonar and end all speculation.

[AdminGuy]

My gut says no.

But then again -I like tech. toys. Where there be magnetos -there be proof.
A hollow room would quickly show up. An old magneto on a bike would spike the reading. When your sitting around looking for something to do- you should talk a University Archeology PHD into a little "local" field trip.

Arrrrr Billy- there be "Belt Drives" in dat der wall.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Magnetometers.

Application to Archaeology
In archaeological remains, interesting localized magnetic anomalies, are superimposed on these natural anomalies. The discrimination between these anomalies is grounded in the high sensitivity of the sensors, and, when needed, a local magnetic gradient measurement between two simultaneously towed magnetometers. This gradiometer permits removal in real time of the temporal variations of the earth's magnetic field and permits us to reject a great proportion of the geological anomalies. This method, implemented with NMR magnetometers, enables the detection of very weakly magnetic objects, even those deeply buried in the sediments.

And from PBS-
Magnetometer
The handheld magnetometer, also referred to as a gradiometer, proton magnetometer, or simply "mag," is loosely related to metal detectors used to sweep beaches in search of lost coins and jewelry. As one moves it over the ground, the mag generates a small electronic signal that measures the intensity of the magnetic field below the surface. Where there is a break in the bedrock -- at the entrance of a rock-cut tomb, for example -- the magnetometer records a dip in the magnetic field. Archeologists often use mags in conjunction with Global Positioning System receivers (which use satellites to compute precise positions) to create detailed maps of the subsurface.

[HarleyCreation]

I hope that someday H-D, Inc. investigates this matter with those high tech methods. If there is a void in there, or maybe old metal, perhaps that would resolve the issue.

Here's what I think: When the 1910-1911 plant was being built, there was a general order to clean up the old factory (1905-1907 stuff that was already obsolete?) and they backfilled those parts or bikes into the new factory excavation. Nothing else makes sense unless the story is pure myth -- which it might be. Still, I don't think these guys were lying, although the story might have gotten exaggerated over time in Squibb's mind. Another thing: I never talked to anyone else who knew this story and Squibb said even the Davidson's had not heard of it. So if it is true, it must have been done behind the scenes with no fanfare with Sherbie and some of the boys just tossing the stuff into the new excavation or something like that.

True or not, the story itself is authentic as I have it on tape with all the other stuff old Squibby told me.

http://www.atthecreation.com/

[Earl]

Hmmmmm..........

And when was the last known, verified, sighting of the first loop frame, big motor Harley??????
We're talking about the 1904 prototype bike now, sold to that list of guys who put 100,000 miles on it..........

Very interesting how it just seemed to vanish into thin air......

Almost like it's in some time capsule somewhere.......

Hmmmmm..........

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by Earl
Hmmmmm..........

And when was the last known, verified, sighting of the first loop frame, big motor Harley??????
We're talking about the 1904 prototype bike now, sold to that list of guys who put 100,000 miles on it..........

Very interesting how it just seemed to vanish into thin air......

Almost like it's in some time capsule somewhere.......

Hmmmmm..........

The last KNOWN VERIFIED SIGHTING of the first loop-frame, big-motor Harley-Davidson motorcycle owned first by Henry Meyer and owned last by Steven Sparough and finally by C.H. Lang in Chicago is documented in the new book, At the Creation.

That last DOCUMENTED sighting was in 1916 when it was on display in Lang's dealership in Chicago. But I would bet MONEY that somewhere in old mags or ads or somewhere there is another mention of it at a later more recent post-1916 date. Gotta be!

Unfortunately I don't have access to complete runs of old motorcycle mags where that information most likely is buried in some little tiny paragraph. And as far as I know, nobody has looked!

But from the way long-forgotten EXCELLENT material has popped up, I bet'cha it's there -- somewhere!

Could that bike be entombed in the factory? It seems far-fetched because of the dates, but who really knows for sure what is in there, if anything! The story is vague, third-hand, with like 60 years to mess up Squibby's memory. But Sherbie was not fooling and why should he? He was there in 1907 already and he would have known "EVERYTHING."

I heard a vague lead that Lang took an "old Harley" to Florida when he retired there in the 1920s. I should follow up on that. Lang also had a home in Michigan. Could the first Harley have gone there? It's also possible that the FIRST Harley-Davidson stayed at the dealership when Lang sold out to Kemper around 1926(?).

One thing is CERTAIN. That first loop-frame big-bore Harley-Davidson as seen in the Negative 599 photograph is lost. It is NOT known to be in any collection today, including the H-D factory museum collection.

What happened to that bike? That is perhaps the single greatest remaining mysteries about Harley-Davidson!

If it were found, you'd have to ask a million for it -- a dollar for each mile on those original engine parts.

I'd sell it, but first I'd ride it for awhile first.....

http://www.atthecreation.com/

[HarleyCreation]

Here's Steven Sparough with a slice of that LOST first loop-frame big motor prototype 1904 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.