Horsehair Coats and Woolies

Bob models his grandfather's horsehair coat.

 As always, you can click on the picture to make it bigger and hit the back button to return to the blog.

A nice warm collar!

The summer after I was married back in 1960, I was checking out an old log shed at the ranch.  I  was thinking of cleaning it out to make it an extra bunk house for company.  In it I found 2 beautiful horsehair coats still in the cleaners bags and a pair of angora chaps.  I asked Bob what the story was on these items and here's what I learned.

The company that made these coats from Grandfather's horse hides.

Look at the long hair on this horse's hide!

Button detail on this coat.

The dark heaviest coat belonged to Bob's Grandfather, George Manville.  Lorena Manville, his grandmother, owned the reddish small coat.  The hides were from horses that had died at the ranch on  the west side of North Park, Colorado, and were skinned.  The skins were sent to Ede's Robe and Tanning Co. in Iowa to be made into these beautiful coats.  We do not have the exact dates but they were made in the 1890s.

Pocket detail on Grampa's coat.

Back view

Side view

A well made lining with soft leather under the arms and an inside pocket.

LORENA MANVILLE'S HORSEHAIR COAT

I model this beautiful coat.  It is quite heavy but not nearly as heavy as Grampa's!

Back view of this coat.

The bottom two buttons are kind of plastic.  I'm not sure they had plastic buttons back then though....

A very well made lining that looks quilted but isn't!

Another look at the lining.

A crocheted button up near the neck.

We kept those coats without ever using them or even getting them out until we moved off the ranch in 1988.  Our daughter Jeanette took them to Laramie,WY where her son Micah showed them to his class at school.  They kept the coats and chaps and took them to Elko, NV when they moved there in 1990.  Jeanette has taken them to show her second grade class every year during Cowboy Poetry Week.  The coats have been drying out for the last 110 years and have become quite fragile.  Jeanette's husband , Ozzie, talked to an Indian friend of his who has worked with hides for most of his life and he feels they could be saved with proper care and the right storage conditions.  We are hoping to find some place that can give them the care they need.

The Angora chaps that we have were made by Bob's Uncle, Clarance Manville, for Bob's father, Harry Manville.  He made them in 1930 for Harry's birthday.

Wow! Woolie angora chaps!

A close up of the angora.  Notice the hand tooled belt.

Reverse side shows the fitted leggings.  You can tell these were really used!

* I took these pictures and wrote up this history for Linda Carlson to look at. She is curator at the Avenir Museum on the campus of Colorado State University.  We are hoping they can use them and maybe keep them from drying out and cracking.  It would be a shame to have the hair fall out or have them fall apart!

Memories of When We Had The Nation's Capitol Christmas Tree in North Park

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The first day cover from that special time for all of us North Parkers!

 A friend of mine emailed me that the 2010 National Christmas Tree just went through Cheyenne after traveling all around Wyoming.   Many of you will remember way back to 1990 when the Nation's Capitol Christmas Tree came from Walden.  It was our Centennial and it was part of the celebration.

Bob was on the planning committee for this big event.

It was a really big deal with TV and newspapers from all over interviewing everyone.  Everything was a big event.  I think some Forest Service people went out and chose several trees to be flagged 2 or 3 years before it was our turn.  This part was very hush, hush so no one would know where the trees were and activists couldn't chain themselves to the trees when the time came to cut the chosen one!

Nice wood burning on Bob's plaque.

 When they cut the tree down, everyone was invited to attend the ceremonies.  There were speeches and as I recall they had the manufacturer of the chainsaw up there taking pictures for advertising purposes and who knows what else! I actually didn't attend but that was the story.  I think it was a Husquvarna but I'm not sure!

This was on the back of Bob's plaque.

 Traditionally school children from all over the state have been invited to make decorations for the tree and that was the case that year too.  I was not involved with that.  Our school groups, 4-H and local civic groups were invited to participate in a night time parade.  I'm not sure but I think it was the class I sponsored that had a float and I remember we had lumieres on it and it looked real cool!  Other floats had battery operated Christmas lights and I think my FHA or the 4-H or both had them all over their floats.  It was really very lovely and probably the only big night time parade ever held in North Park!

The logo for that year.

 A few days later they pulled the tree (which was all wrapped for shipping) through town with the Budweiser team. Everyone including me was running out into the street every few yards to get pictures and shake hands with the drivers.  They would stop and wait and then move on a few yards.  It was such fun!  A lot of kids who had graduated and were attending college or working somewhere else came up for this event and it was like the rodeo parade only with even more folks attending!

Of course we had to watch the lighting of the tree with all the children's decorations on it; and all the specials about how they placed and decorated the trees in the White House. You see, we didn't send just one tree but all the trees for decorating the White House and I think other Washington DC buildings as well! A delegation from North Park was there for all the festivities and they had a great time.





The funniest part of the whole deal was when my cousin called me from New Jersey and told us if we needed anything to let them know so they could help out!  It turned out that all the national TV and news coverage kept mentioning how poor our town was and how it was one step from bankruptcy!  We had a good chuckle over that even though it turned out to be very close to the truth.

This was how all Christmas cards were stamped that were mailed from Walden that year.

  They sent the tree back here when they were done with it. One of my students who was going for his Eagle Scout badge made wooden benches from it to put around town with a plaque telling the story of the tree.  The National Post Office Service also had a commemorative stamp made and I have a first day cover of it.  Sadly, there won't be any more trees from here, I don't think.  The pine beetles have really killed a majority of the big ones in our county.

Now I need to go see if I can find those pictures I took of the Clydesdales!  And where did I put that first day cover????

Sorry, I couldn't find  my pictures of the Clydesdales.  This all took place before I owned a digital camera and I'm sure the pictures are stored away in some box from one of our moves!  Or maybe Carla has them at her house where she is doing a lot of scrapbooking.  If I come across them I'll have to post them on this blog later.