Building the hearse

We bought an older market wagon last fall. We bought it for the steel wheels that we thought we would build cross country combined driving carts over. When we got it home, we realized that it was quite a nice little wagon with a good undercarriage. It has a few problems that we will have to work with, but on the whole it is solid and well built. We have some lovely wooden wheels that we can put on the wagon when we take off the steel wheels. So what to do with it.

Well, a number of people have asked if we had a wagon that could be used as a hearse, because there are many people who would like a quieter, more natural way to be buried. Actually I would love to have my coffin taken to the graveyard behind two or four nice high stepping horses.

One of the old venerated horsemen in our town was buried in Barkerville and his coffin was carried to the old cemetary by a wagon pulled by his driving horses. When the final prayer was said, the horses stood so quietly and seemed to bow their heads to say goodbye to their long time friend.

So we may be building a hearse in the next while. It will be a Cariboo hearse, but with nice trappings, not as fancy as some that I have seen, but respectful, showing reverence for the person it is honored to carry. We will probably pull it with a good team of standardbreds. I need to make the side drapes for the horses and the curtains for the inside of the glass windows in the body of the hearse. To see a beautiful hearse, follow this lead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYnqBtDGGo&NR=1 . Ours will not be quite that fancy, but it will be well built and have a Cariboo stamp. We will keep you up to date with our plans and work.

The olympic flame

Had the opportunity to celebrate the olympic flame coming through our little hamlet the other day. What a procession. Lots of sponsors trucks and organization. Just one picture, though. I began to understand why it took so much money to have the flame go across Canada. It was here for about half an hour, and then everyone was gone.


Working on the metal parts now. There are some difficult parts to fitting up the pole for the bob sleigh. Will have to research the different labels, when is it a tongue and when is it a pole???? More on that later. Over the years, the metal parts have worn, been refitted, twisted and generally well used. After all, this is a sleigh that was actually used, not just sitting as a lawn ornament.

As I was writing this, I realized I didn't know the correct terminology for most of the sleigh and carriage bits that I was trying to write about, so here is the beginning of a short glossary



the hammer strap on the new pole



the yoke strap or pole iron on the new pole Apparently it really doesn't matter whether you call it a pole or a tongue, the terms are interchangeable.



Pictures of the old roller and new oak roller



This is why you don't use red cedar for a roller. Keep in mind that this sleigh was totally restored five years ago. It wasn't that the cedar rotted, but it did crack, and then because of the numbers of holes drilled in it and the cracking, it just came apart.





I put these pictures in to show the difference. This is the end of an old oak shaft. Looking at the hardware we took off this shaft it could be a hundred years old or possibly more. The oak is relatively un damaged with very little wear or rot. The shafts were broken close to where they attach to the horse, and we picked it up for the hardware, but the oak is still strong after all that time.


This is the hold down for the tugs that came off that old oak set of sleigh shafts. Unfortunately, there was only one on the singletree.