NORWAY — A piece of Norway history may have been uncovered at the bottom of a World War II ammunition box in Tennessee.

Mark Dote of Memphis believes he may have a T-handled radiator cap on his 1917 Ford Model T that was commissioned by Henry Ford to commemorate the famous Norway fiddler Mellie Dunham.

“The resemblance is very uncanny,” said Dote, who contacted the Sun Journal after reading an archived article on Dunham in the newspaper and seeing a photograph of the 72-year-old fiddler and snowshoe maker.

Alanson Mellen “Mellie” Dunham, a diminutive farmer who lived on the eastern shores of Lake Pennesseewassee in Norway, came to prominence in the early 1900s by making snowshoes that took Admiral Robert Peary to the North Pole and making music that Ford said brought simplicity and serenity back to the American culture.

Dote said the story of the Mellie Dunham radiator cap began in the late 1970s when he was 12 years old and his father, Michael K. Dote, a 30-year career Navy man and lieutenant commander, drove from Virginia Beach, Va., to Rome, N.Y. to pick to a 1917 Model T owned by his grandfather, Leroy Arnosky, since the 1920s. Arnosky had restored the car in 1966. Adding to the poignancy for the family was the fact that 1917 was the same year Leroy’s wife, Mary Elizabeth (Rubar) Arnosky, was born, Dote said.

“My grandfather was a tractor-trailer driver (fuel tanker truck) in the South Pacific on Guadalcanal, Corregidor and Saipan,” Dote said. “It’s ironic he was killed in an accident that involved a jackknifed National Guard tanker truck in a blizzard at Alder Creek, New York in January of 1978.”

As a result of the tragedy, Arnosky’s Model T was passed to his family.

“I knew nothing about the workings of Henry Ford’s masterpiece and it would be another 10 years until I took any interest in learning about this car,” Dote said. “I started tinkering with this car and got involved with a local chapter of the National Model T Ford Club called the Tennessee T’s. I was surprised that a 30-year-old was in a club and most of the members were my grandparent’s age. It was a great help to have these veterans of the Model T club to help me learn the workings and knowledge of the Model T.”

Dote said as he started to restore some minor items on the car, he had to fix the radiator around the cracked, rusty black filler neck which had a domed, original-style cap.

“So I started digging around some old parts that my grandfather had stored in a World War II .30-caliber ammunition box. I found the coolest piece in the bottom of this can,” he said. It was the cap, which he took to get cleaned and plated. Then he brought the car with his shiny, new T-handled radiator cap to a car show.

The radiator cap was a hit.

“I had many people take notice of this great piece and many pictures taken that day,” he said.

A friend from the Model T club called Dote and told him to look at a Model T publication.

“I was amazed to see my hood and radiator cap in this magazine. There was a story about the piece being produced in an unknown number commissioned by Henry Ford,” Dote said.

The story has not yet been substantiated and attempts to find the article about the radiator cap have been unsuccessful, but Dote is convinced that the figure is that of Mellie Dunham.

Waterford resident David Sanderson, an authority on Mellie Dunham, said he has heard the radiator cap story before but has not found any documentation. The Norway Historical Society also has no knowledge of the radiator caps, but members say they hope the story is true.

“I would love to know the history,” Dote said.

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