Cobweb Express

Old Transportation
by Mel McFarland

A couple weeks ago I shared with you a look at gas stations. I recently had a question about our early transportation. The town of Fountain a bit over a hundred years ago had three general merchandise and grocery stores, two churches, a school, blacksmith shop, and comfortable hotel. The population was at about 230. New buildings were being erected. The real estate business was very strong in the valley. The busiest place in town was the blacksmith shop.

The blacksmith was probably busy making parts for construction of all kinds of wagons. You could go up to Colorado Springs and buy a nice wagon built there, or even back east, but the ones built right here were just as good.

The lumber came from our own lumber yard, except some of the wagons used eastem woods like Ash and Oak. That could be ordered through the lumber yard. It was such that many locally built wagons used local timber. Many a family had a wagon, and some had fine carriages. Only.well to do families had a buggy. Most of these were not locally built vehicles, but came from Pueblo, Denver or Colorado Springs. A few were even ordered out of catalogs, like Sears, and delivered by train.

Many blacksmiths had arrangements with local craftsmen to build wagons which were used on the farms. The woodworking was done in one shop and the blacksmith would make the metal parts. A few places only made wheels. These too could be ordered out pf a catalog. Like with todaystires, wheels needed regular services and replacement. A wheelwright often had a stack of old ones that might have a few more miles in them because like todays cars many people changed all four at the same time. Many wagons had different sized wheels on the front and back, so rotation was something they never heard of.

The blacksmith also made parts for the wheels, like the rim or tire. The wheelwright took care of the spokes and hubs. Just building one wagon, which took a week or so, usually involved five or six men, in several different shops.

Some of these old rigs still can be seen resting in tall weeds by an old building.

You might wonder, sometime, about where it came from. and how many years it worked, or how many hills it has been over. Rarely these had a manufacturers name on them, sometimes it did have a brand on it, like an old cow.

CONTACT THE WRITER • MCMIDLAND@YAHOO.COM

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