Many Americans of Generation X and older will recall the red, white, and blue American Freedom Train that was a centerpiece of America’s glorious bicentennial celebration in 1976. But few know that the Freedom Train — pulled by a steam locomotive and filled with American historical artifacts — was the brainchild of none other than John Wayne. As we fast approach the 250th anniversary of American independence, it’s time to get Wayne’s American Freedom Train back on the tracks as part of the quarter-millennium celebration.
Ross Rowland, who spearheaded the American Freedom Train effort as a young man, recently told me how Wayne came to have the idea. Rowland had run away from home in the 1950s and fortuitously ended up working as a
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