Tupelo Automobile Museum; and yes, there is an elvis car.

Byline: WILLIAM JEANES

You know Tupelo, Mississippi, as Elvis Presley's birthplace, and you've maybe heard the country tune, Two Below in Tupelo. It's even possible you've ridden the Bison Bus through the Tupelo Buffalo Park, where 250 of the grumpy creatures roam the northeast Mississippi hills. But we bet you don't know about the Tupelo Automobile Museum.

The brainchild of Ohio native Frank Spain, the TAM sits behind the municipal coliseum on Main Street, east of Mr. Booth's hardware store where Elvis bought his first guitar, and west of the Presley birthplace complex. The museum, which opened in December 2002, is an $11 million undertaking. That includes land, a new 120,000-square-foot building and 150 cars, 111 of which are displayed. Spain bought his first collectible, a 1937 MG TV, in 1950 and can afford all this because he owns television stations.

Spain groups his collection by decade, beginning with the 1880s, which works out to roughly 10 cars per 10 years. They are angle-parked and widely spaced in six rows separated by three broad aisles. The order is chronological and begins with a replica of the 1885 Benz three-wheeler. Enamel automotive advertising signs, dozens of them, cover the walls.

A unique feature of the facility is a speaker box in front of each car. Pressing a button produces a brief message about the automobile. This is most helpful when looking at unfamiliar cars such as a 1907 Queen or a 1905 Delaunay-Belleville, although the tapes contain the occasional error, e.g. Everett Lobban Cord for Errett Lobban Cord and "marque'' pronounced as "marquee.''

Elderly cars include a turn- of-the-century Knox three-wheeler, a 1908 Columbus highwheeler, a 1911 Brush and a 1911 Sears, as in Sears Roebuck. Examples of more familiar nameplates such as Cadillac, Ford, Olds and Reo abound.

Other cars from the 1910s are a Minerva, ...