FRIDAYEXTRA !
The Daily Astorian
Friday, May 1, 2015
Weekend Edition
Carriage Museum creates space for vehicles that earned a living
By MIKE WILLIAMS
EO Media Group
R
AYMOND, Wash. —
A horse-drawn road
grader, a mail cart, a
running gear and other work-
ing-class vehicles have a new
home next door to elegant lux-
ury carriages as the Northwest
Carriage Museum’s addition
opens to visitors.
Lovingly nicknamed The
Barn, the addition gives the
museum another 2,560 square
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ing collection; the loft, view-
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an additional 1,300 square feet
for lighter vehicles such as
sleighs.
Just in time, too. The grader
and the mail buggy will soon
be arriving.
The running gear, the trac-
tor-trailer of its day, is already
on display. It was used to build
Washington State Highway 7
between Morton and Tacoma.
It had an extendable reach and
was used to deliver lumber or
haul logs.
The wooden vehicle was
stored in a barn in Roy, Wash.,
for many years. Curator Jerry
Bowman said it was covered
with moss when he got it. He
spent hours cleaning it.
“I didn’t want to change
the patina and the coloring, so
all I really did was use linseed
oil-turpentine to preserve the
wood,” he said.
The road grader is part of a
donation of six vehicles from
a Medford family. The collec-
tion includes a freight wagon,
a buckboard and other vehi-
cles.
The mail buggy delivered
mail from 1871 until the early
1900s in Cornelius.
Welcome to The Barn
The Barn was designed to
stand in blue-collar contrast
Photos by DAMIAN MULINIX — EO Media Group
ABOVE: A stuffed bear adds a note of drama to a display of tack at the Northwest Car-
riage Museum in Raymond, Wash. TOP: There are always new vehicles and displays to
study at the Carriage Museum in Raymond, Wash.
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carriages in the original build-
ing. Even the new concrete
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it an aged and well-used look.
Decorating the walls are
the collars, harnesses, belly-
bands, tugs and shafts that
connected the vehicle to the
engines, literally the horse-
power.
“This is just stuff we had in
boxes that we never were able
to display,” he said.
The museum started in
2002 with 20 pieces. It’s up
to 38 with eight more on the
way.
The addition has gotten
good feedback so far.
The Barn is highly visi-
ble from U.S. 101, and that’s
brought in more visitors. On
April 25, 125 people attended
the Barn Raising grand open-
ing at the museum.
“We’re just drawing so
many more people now,”
Bowman said. “We’ve become
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a place that people are coming
from other places to see.”
The museum draws about
5,000 people a year; Bowman
aims to double that in the next
three to four years.
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80 percent of visitors come
from 50 miles or more out of
the area.
“We’re bringing econom-
ic value to the community
as a result of those people
coming in and seeing it,” he
said. “That’s neat for our local
businesses and our families,
because let’s face it, we can
use all the help we can get
around here.”
Funding for The Barn came
primarily from a grant from the
state. Additional funding was
provided by the Cheney Foun-
dation, the Forrest Foundation,
the L.V. Raymond Foundation
and Weyerhaeuser.
Broader appeal
The addition and new ve-
hicles help broaden the muse-
um’s appeal.
“Everyone has a different
level of appreciation of what
(they’re) looking at,” Bow-
man said. “Some look at (the
original) collection and say,
‘It’s unbelievable how it’s re-
stored.’ There’s other people
that come in and look at the
(1888 stagecoach) and say,
‘That’s the neatest piece you
have in the museum.’”
Just don’t ask Bowman to
choose.
“I love ’em all. … It just
depends on your personal
preference.”
ABOVE: Tufted upholstery from another era hints at the
luxuries that helped compensate for the inconveniences
of horse-and-wagon times. BELOW: A 19th century coach
doorway frames a look at elegantly designed horse-drawn
vehicles and tack.