The wagons are Studebakers. They participate in our town May Day parade (the oldest continuously run parade in the state of California) then parked down at the fairgrounds for the ensuing fair during the weekend. The horses are big and nice, you just don't need to get close to enjoy them.
The wagon, however, is another story. I climbed under it and inspected it throughly. Suspension, brake drums, wheels, woodwork beefed up with lots of iron. Well engineered, just like their Studebaker cars were many years later, or the wheelbarrows made by John Studebaker in the California goldrush days.
In 1853 in Hangtown a friend offered newcomer Johnnie Studebaker a job making wheelbarrows, which were in great demand. Studebaker’s first wheelbarrow was huge and cumbersome. The miners laughed at it. “I’m a wagon maker, not a wheelbarrow builder,“ he said, defending his awkward creation. But he went on making barrows. The second one was better and the third one was good. Finally, his wheelbarrows “stood up” and became famous. With waiting lists for his many orders, he became known as “Wheelbarrow John.” But by 1858 he had had enough of wheelbarrows. He wanted to make wagons, so he took his $8,000 in savings and returned to South Bend, Indiana, where he established a firm that built wagons for westward-bound pioneers and eventually became the Studebaker car company.  |