Missoula, MT (No. 3)
A Carousel for Missoula is a volunteer-built, hand-carved carousel in Missoula, Montana, located on the Clark Fork River in Missoula's downtown Caras Park within walking distance of the historic Wilma Theatre, Jeannette Rankin Peace Center and Osprey baseball stadium. The carousel is accompanied by a volunteer-built park, Dragon Hollow.
In 1918 the Alan Herschell-Spillman Company of North Tonawanda, New York, created a 38-animal carousel adorned with dogs, frogs, zebras, and roosters as well as horses.
In 1959, Bob Anderson of California erected the Herschell-Spillman carousel at Incline Village amusement park near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, better known as Ponderosa Ranch where the 1960s television western Bonanza was filmed. By 1959 the carousel had undergone significant wear, and many of the original animals were switched for less elaborate ones.
The carousel continued to operate in Nevada until 1983, when it was dismantled and the animals were sold at auction. The frame was sold to a secondhand dealer, then to a museum curator in Polson, Montana. The Montana man purchased the frame because it came as part of a package deal with a small children's train.
Kaparich teamed with design coordinator Cherry Gillespie and head carver John Thompson to design, create and oversee the completion of the ponies, chariots, band organ and artistic elements of A Carousel for Missoula. A staff composed entirely of volunteers completed the carving, sanding and painting of the 38 ponies and two chariots, as well as the other decorative pieces.
Carving classes taught over 50 volunteers how to create gargoyles, mirror frames, and the horses' legs, bodies, manes, and heads. A restoration and mechanical crew revitalized the parts and pieces of the carousel frame Kaparich had purchased.
The ponies, weighing 120 to 200 pounds (54 to 91 kg) when completed, were carved from basswood, the soft yet durable wood of linden trees. The ponies were not carved in one solid piece, but seven separate pieces: head, neck, body and four legs. Volunteers and the ponies' "adoptive" families tucked memorabilia inside the ponies' hollow bodies before they were assembled and painted.
Traditional carousel ponies come in three styles. Coney Island ponies are baroque and bejeweled, Philadelphia ponies more realistic and Country renditions more primitive. Bette Largent, who painted and restored ponies for Spokane's Looff carousel before training the volunteer painters in Missoula, said A Carousel for Missoula created a unique, distinctive style tagged as the "Garden City steeds".
In the book A Carousel for Missoula Largent said, "The Missoula ponies are accurate, but always with a good measure of whimsy and humor. They are sturdy, yet remarkable in detail." Kaparich said he believes "the diversity of Missoula's horses came from the decision to adopt them out to donors, who then had rights to the design."
Approximately 800 hours of work went into the completion of each pony.
Finally, the canopy of the carousel was adorned with 966 light bulbs, 14 carved gargoyles in frames, and 14 carved frames holding etched mirrors.
A hand-carved wooden dragon, named Lucky Red Ringer, was made as a unique way for riders to play the historical brass ring game. Plastic rings are loaded into a tube that fits inside the length of the dragon's body and exits the dragon's mouth. Lucky Red Ringer perches in a wooden hand-carved tree, close enough to the outside row of carousel horses for riders to grab the plastic rings from the dragon's mouth while the carousel is in motion. One brass ring is added to the ring tube, and the rider who grabs the brass ring wins a free ride.
Lucky Red Ringer, upon close examination, has a wedding ring carved onto his finger. Head carver Thompson added the wedding ring to the dragon's finger after his wife claimed Thompson spent more time with Lucky Red Ringer than her.
Source: Wikipedia
