Some milestones arrive quietly, and some arrive in the middle of a rally with live music, a bike show and a performance inside the globe of death. Storyteller @thesharoncline, who runs a series called History Highway, rode to Rockford, Illinois, to be there when a Harley-Davidson dealership received an honor years in the making.
The announcement named Kegel Harley-Davidson as the oldest Harley-Davidson dealership in the world that is still owned by the same family. The creator shared her day at the event, including conversations with people tied to the dealership and to the company itself.
A Tip About an Announcement
The creator said she felt like the luckiest person in the world when Katrina Kegel told her that Harley-Davidson executives were coming to the dealership to make a historic announcement. She packed her camera gear, drove to Rockford and brought History Highway along for the ride.
The news was part of the dealership’s first Rally in the Valley, a day built around motorcycles, live music and food vendors. There was a poker run, a bike show and a performance by the Golden Riders inside the globe of death. In the middle of all of that activity, she said, history was being made.
The Newspaper Article From 1909
The honor traces back to a piece of old paper. A woman speaking at the event explained that her husband, Brandon, came across a news article from 1909 stating that the person they bought the dealership from was selling Harley-Davidson. According to her, the dealership was purchased two months after that article ran…