Probably like you, I’ve seen old horse-drawn carriages online, in movies, in photos, in books, but I never thought I’d see the real things … no, not replicas … the real things!
A friend of mine (you know who you are) knew about this place in a small town (Raymond, WA) south of where I live. She said “let’s go see it!” And I said “yes!” And so we did.
I was amazed! This museum is wonderful. It’s clean, plenty of room. The signage is excellent. The staff are superb. Couldn’t have been better. In fact, there were no other people present when we were there, so we got to wander and roam and take photos with no one interfering. 🙂
That said, must admit that I took more than 300 photos. I’ve whittled them down to about 60 photos, and I had a hard time doing that. So stick with me here. If you want to pass by any or many of the photos, please do so.
Usually, in the photos below, there will be a photo/sign about a carriage, and then AFTER the sign I’ll show you the carriage. Read the signs if you’d like, or just enjoy the photos. As always, click to enlarge the photos, and I do hope you are using a computer or laptop that has a good-sized screen to view these views … the exhibits are wonderful and there’s so much detail to see!
It was spectacular … ok, let’s go! The photo below is what you see when you first walk in the door. Wow!
In the photo above, the “plug” that anchors the head of one of the horses is made of wood … in real life, plugs were larger and were made of HEAVY solid cast iron that a horse could lift if it really wanted to, but then that hard metal plug would bang into its legs, so horses learned early on NOT to “pull the plug”.
Photo below is the side door of the carriage above. How shiny!!
The sign in the photo below goes with the photo/s that come along after the sign.
Look at this one … a sleigh! 🙂
The two photos below were taken of the inside of a carriage. The first photo is of the door of the carriage with the glass window lowered part way. The dark gray strap is what holds the glass window in the position desired, part way open as in this photo, or completely up/closed. When the strap is not buttoned using any of the knob holes in it, then the window opens completely, it lowers all the way down.
In the photo above, notice what looks like a horn that you would blow into, a very long horn, hanging just under the rear-most upper seat on the carriage above.
So in this case, for the horn above, the horn itself can’t be seen (except for the mouth piece on the far right) because it is held inside a leather case, but hauled out when needed.
Ok, now for a real stagecoach! Do keep in mind that these exhibits are NOT replicas, they are the real things. The staff here told us that the carriages and equipment are 100% original, many having been restored yes, but they were restored to their original state. I guess that’s what “restore” means, but I just want to be clear. 🙂 And, some of the carriages here, like this stagecoach have not been touched, not restored.
The photo below was taken when I was standing at the front of the hearse carriage, looking back at where the coachmen would sit. I wondered what that ball/lever thing was that was sticking out of the red velvet cover … the brake? I was also amazed by the exceptionally strongly-built conflagration of juxtapositions of machinations below that coachmen’s seat … it’s the front axle and allows the front wheels to turn when the horses are told to turn right or left (gee or haw).
In the photo above, don’t miss the C-Springs at the front of the carriage. HUGE C-springs. And I loved how the tops of them look like elongated horses’ heads.
Two photos below … if your horses are running, maybe scared by something, and won’t stop! what do you do? You apply the brake! Here’s one common braking system for these carriages … the big black thing on the right side of the photo below. Make that big black thing rub against the wheel, HARD, and that carriage will stop.
But how do you make that big black thing rub against the wheel?
Well, as you are sitting in the driver’s/coachman’s portion of the carriage, you have access to a foot pedal that, when pressed hard, then rotates an iron bar that then makes that big black thing push HARD against the wheel. So, if your horses are running away with the carriage and won’t stop, lean back HARD on the reins, pulling left-right-left-right very quickly to confuse the horses and give them something else to think about, pull on those reins hard, then push on that brake pedal with all your might, and your carriage will stop. Whew! 🙂
Last photo below. Mark Twain wrote this about how Europeans or British folk harness a horse to a carriage or wagon. His reference at the end about how “we” do it refers to people in the great West of North America. Fun stuff. 🙂
The photos here show fewer than half of the exhibits inside this museum … and they show none of the exhibits that were outside this museum. If this sort of thing interests you, and you are anywhere near Raymond, WA (small town!), then do take the time to stop by this museum and take a look. Their website is HERE. I’ll be going back for a second look, you can bet on that … I’ll see you there! 🙂
These carriages are just beautiful. Like works of art. Very cool you got to see them, thanks for sharing!
Spectacular! Thank you. Gosh, I wish I lived up in Washington.
This is stupendous! What a great museum. If I lived near there I would volunteer in a heartbeat. I learned tons of stuff from your blog post, and I bet there’s way more tons of stuff to learn. We had horses when I was younger but I didn’t pay much attention to the history because that was just “old people stuff”. Ha! I gotta figure out those front end carriage steering axles, I’m seeing at least three different configurations. Excellent blog post!
I’ve read through this twice, will read through at least twice more tomorrow and look at all the photos. Makes me want to say what my grandada would have said as he slapped his leg “by krikey I liked that!” He was around when these wagons and carriages were first being designed, maybe even before, back in the 1800’s. My dad too. This meant a lot to me. Here’s to more exploring by YOU!!! Thank you.