Door County NewsPixels™ & Wish Books & Brochures MAG. THE DREAMING ISSUE | Page 46

Co-founder JB Straubel found early inspiration in Door County. Story - A junk electric golf cart found at Door County’s Alpine Resort and the path that discovery lead a young man down. Tesla Motors Secret Weapon It’s Co-Founder and how he found early inspiration in Door County. Some of the world’s greatest inspirations, ideas, and inventions have humble beginnings. One of those humble beginnings occurred when a 14-year-old kid found a golf cart in a small Wisconsin town, called Egg Harbor –it turned out that young JB Straubel’s inspiration would develop and change the auto industry decades later. Because of his technological innovation, we may soon leave gasoline-powered cars in the past… thanks to an inspiration that took place right here in beautiful Door County. JB Straubel: A Battery-Powered Mind Bill, the owner of Alpine Golf Course still remembers when the young, inquisitive kid asked to purchase the rusty old golf cart. Straubel spent quite a bit of time, snooping around the resort’s junkyard, which was conveniently located right near his family’s summer home in Door County’s Egg Harbor. Since that warm Wisconsin summer day, Straubel has gone from tinkering with electric-powered golf cart motors to receiving his masters in energy-engineering from Stanford University. After that, he designed hybrid electric propulsion airplane platforms for Volacom, and developed a hybrid electric vehicle drive train for Rosen Motors. He maintained his association with his partner and employer, Harold Rosen, who is also known for being the “father of the geostationary satellite” and for his work with space vehicles.