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ASHLAND — Motorists on Eagle Mill Road might think they've entered a time warp when they spot the Gilmore gas station across Bear Creek. Car collector and former race car driver Harold Hardesty, 76, has created Hardesty's Super Service on his property using a former 1940 Union 76 station that was once on North Main Street. Gilmore was a popular gas brand in Western states during the 1930s with more than 3,500 dealers. Gilmore sponsored Indianapolis race cars and racing airplanes to market its products. The brand disappeared in the mid-1940s when Mobil Oil bought the company. Hardesty acquired the station about 30 years ago by chance. He loaned house-moving equipment to friend Chuck Kinney, who planned to move the station from the corner of Coolidge and North Main. After he loaded the station, Kinney suffered a stroke and told Hardesty he could have the structure if he moved it. "I never had any idea when I moved it over here that I was going to do anything with it," said Hardesty. The station sat for five years before Hardesty had a contractor pour a cement foundation to pay a debt. For a while it housed the shipping operation for Coastal Dynamics, a dental chair manufacturer. Restoration work began a couple of years ago when Hardesty retired from his excavating business. It was finished last fall. Hardesty choose Gilmore because he remembers seeing their signs on race tracks and race cars and after seeing collections of Gilmore memorabilia at an annual car swap meet in Portland. "I was looking for something that was more uncommon than 76, Mobile or Standard," he said. Hardesty worked with Jan's Signs of Talent from a picture of a Gilmore station in Shady Cove to provide direction for outdoor decoration, which includes a race official holding a checkered flag. Building colors, dominated by cream and dark red, were copied from replicas of Gilmore station equipment and signs. Hardesty has some original Gilmore pieces, such as an old oil dispenser, but many items are reproductions. "You couldn't afford to buy an original and put it out here," said Hardesty. An old Coke cooler, cigarette vending machine, cash register and radio reflect the era of the station. The 1939 gas pumps have been gutted and repainted in Gilmore colors. Today's drivers would like the gas prices — they're at 10.9 and 19.9 cents per gallon and can't go higher than 99.9 cents. A 1935 Ford sedan sits in the garage bay ready to be hoisted. A 1946 Chevrolet pickup is parked outside. Hardesty uses the bay for occasional work on the 20 cars in his collection. Rogue Valley Street Rods club holds a meeting once a year on Hardesty's property, where the station serves as a background for pictures of restored vehicles. "I didn't know how popular it would be," said Hardesty. Motorists can get a closer look at the station by driving down the road that leads to Ashland's Wastewater Treatment Plant just west of the bridge over Bear Creek off Eagle Mill Road. Tony Boom is a freelance writer living in Ashland.