Author Archives: mrdrivein

What will happen to Cottage View’s sign?

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As mentioned earlier, there was a flurry of media activity when the Cottage View Drive-In (Cottage Grove MN) closed last fall, making way for a Walmart. A recent Minneapolis StarTribune story discusses the efforts underway to preserve its iconic sign, somewhere, somehow.

One thing seems to be sure – the sign won’t stay there. The site’s owner has offered the sign to the city, which is looking into options for preserving it. Cottage Grove mayor Myron Bailey said that he would like to see the sign included in the new development, but hasn’t had any formal talks yet.

“We would encourage the city to keep the sign as close to the original location as possible,” said Erin Hanafin Berg, field representative for the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. Part of its historical significance is the context of its surroundings.

Personally, I hope they keep it like the Boulder CO Holiday drive-in sign, which stayed in place even as a housing development sprouted on its land. Worse would be like the Cinderella in Englewood CO; the condo development that replaced it changed the sign to promote the development. But anyway, go read the StarTribune story, which has more details and quotes about the Cottage View sign and who’s interested in it.

Harvest Moon enters final fundraising push

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Harvest Moon Drive-In logoThere’s a short video update on the Harvest Moon Drive-In (Gibson City IL), previously chronicled here. WMBD, central Illinois’ new leader, said a couple of weeks ago that the Harvest Moon’s fundraiser has “been successful so far” but needs another $14,000 by the middle of February. When what happens, exactly? I don’t know, especially since the donation page talks about the end of January.

So go watch the video (sorry I can’t embed it) and check out the donation incentives that are available. Good luck, Harvest Moon!

Another Washington drive-in has switched to digital

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Blue Fox Drive-In T-shirt saleAlthough it’s sad that we’ll lose the Auto-Vue, there’s some good news from the other side of the state of Washington. The Blue Fox Drive-In (Oak Harbor WA) has already switched to digital projection and has reopened for its 2013 season.

The Whidbey News-Times ran a nice article about the transition. Darrell Bratt, owner of the Blue Fox, said his fundraising efforts had netted about 80% of the cost of the new projector. He borrowed the rest to get it installed over the holiday break, but he’s continuing to sell glow-in-the-dark T-shirts to pay off the debt. It’s great to find good news like this!