Anyone who wants to understand how the National Corvette Museum came about should take a lesson from the Mississippi River. This greatest of all U.S. rivers traverses the country north and south, travelling 2,339 miles from northwestern Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico. By combining with its two major tributaries, the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, it becomes the third largest river system in the world, able to carry massive watercraft.
While not exactly seaworthy, the National Corvette Museum is also like a great vessel, massive not only in actual size and weight, but in the scope of its aspirations. No meandering creek could ever have set it afloat. Not even the tide of enthusiasm released by a dedicated group of Corvette hobbyists could raise it. But when that river of enthusiasts met up with a stream of supporters within Chevrolet and a groundswell of aid from the proposed host community, the Museum was launched.
The building of the NCM, like a trip down the Mississippi itself, was a long, sometimes convoluted journey. This particular history does not pretend to know every mile of it. It is more like a small window on the past offering a view of the scenery as it slips by.