A Spirit of Adventure

In 1990, Larry Ross trekked off to “just look at” a crate-turned-cabin for sale in the woods of New Hampshire. It wasn’t just any crate, however. It was the one that brought Charles Lindbergh’s famed Spirit of St. Louis back from Europe in 1927, following the first-ever, nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. With the plane preserved at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the crate had been converted into a small cabin. Ross hadn’t planned to buy it, yet shortly after the bidding began, he paid $3,000 to own the packing crate that had once held history.

Why would anyone want an aging packing crate?

“Why not?” is Ross’ standard answer. But there’s more to it than that.

Lindbergh’s 33.5-hour, 3,610-mile flight from Long Island, N.Y., to Paris on May 20-21, 1927, was possible because he had a vision, a plan, a team, and he stayed focused on his goal. Following the example of his longtime hero, Ross, an elementary school teacher, decided to apply the same logic to create the Lindbergh Crate Museum on the hillside behind his house in Canaan, Maine (pop. 2,017). Now, when he shares his museum—housed in the 77-year-old wooden crate—with area school children, he also shares Lindbergh’s legacy: Anything is possible with a plan and a persistent vision.

Each June, the museum is the featured attraction during an annual Crate Day, when hundreds of school children are invited to experience Ross’ vision and perhaps be infected by the “can-do” spirit Ross champions, and Lindbergh lived.

It wouldn’t have happened, though, without infecting others with his vision, enlisting them in his plan, creating a team, all the while focusing on what could be.

After Ross bought the crate, a local mobile home dealer was drafted to haul the structure to Maine. New Hampshire stonecutters engraved a granite marker commemorating the dates and locations of the crate’s former and new home. An area hardware store was inspired to be part of history by supplying materials for the crate’s transformation into a bona fide museum.

The museum is still growing. People send their memories of Lindbergh and his famous flight to be part of the display. Others travel across the country to visit the tiny museum and be part of the Lindbergh legend one more time.

And ultimately, there’s Crate Day, 13 years of them now. It’s not a reason for Ross to display his achievement, but to invite other aspiring individuals to share his vision of teaching the children of Canaan and the surrounding area that dreams can come true.

“I have a golden opportunity to get people to do these things,” Ross says, describing his museum as a magnet that serves a larger mission.

Crate Day visitors include aviators involved in historic missions around the world; authors who have inspired change in their environment; business leaders who routinely make history in their world; and community members eager to continue the can-do spirit promoted by others before them.

No one comes to lecture, but simply to share. They tell their stories of survival, success and inspiration as well as talk about their own heroes and aspirations as children.

Both adults and children get excited when Crate Day’s annual air show begins. It’s more of Ross’ “golden opportunity” to make things happen when C-130 transport planes make repeated flyovers of the activities, or Blackhawk helicopters land on the lawn, or jet fighter A-10 Warthogs burst across the horizon just above tree level.

“He makes time to find ways that connect children to the world in a bigger way and brings it home,” says Canaan teacher Betty Wing. “I have a feeling he has done a lot for the goals of some of our rural children. He gives them that can-do spirit.”

Ross is the first to say anyone can do this. “I tell kids they need a vision,” he says. “They need a plan to achieve it and a team to make it possible. And above all else, they need to stay focused.”

Brenda Seekins lives and writes from Hartland, Maine.

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