Remington Carriage Museum
Encyclopedia
The Remington Carriage Museum is located alongside the rolling foothills of Cardston
Cardston, Alberta
-Demographics:The population of the Town of Cardston according to its 2007 municipal census is 3,578.In 2006, it had a population of 3,452 living in 1,234 dwellings, a 0.7% decrease from 2001...

, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Opened in 1993, and the largest of its kind in the world, the Remington Carriage Museum displays more than 240 carriage
Carriage
A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...

s. The museum is a public facility providing visitors with an appreciation of an authentic experience with 19th and early 20th century horse-drawn transportation. Using state-of-the-art techniques, the Remington Carriage Museum brings this bygone era to life. International travellers have acknowledged the display as the finest in the world.

Rated "The Best Indoor Attraction in Canada" four times by Attractions Canada, the 64000 sq ft (5,945.8 m²). museum boasts a working stable, carriage rides, video displays, wedding rooms, an 80 seat theatre, Victorian gift shop and restaurant. Situated on twenty acres and centrally located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

, the museum is 40 minutes from Glacier National Park, Montana (United States), and 40 minutes from Waterton Lakes National Park
Waterton Lakes National Park
Waterton Lakes National Park is a national park located in the southwest corner of Alberta, Canada, and borders Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. Waterton was Canada's fourth national park, formed in 1895 and named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist...

.

Carriage history

The museum's virtual tour and interactive galleries tell numerous stories of turn-of-the-century Victorian, Parisian, Western and New York society along with the carriage industry. Using theatrical sets, sounds, lighting and hands-on activities, the displays convey a sense of the past. Some feature archival newsreels of real-life scenes such as footsmen, road building, fire fighting and the hustle and bustle of city life.

The main exhibit gallery at the museum is arranged in a series of vignettes. Each tells a story of late 19th and early 20th century North American society and the horse-drawn vehicles that were used. In each area, the coaches carts and sleighs displayed are accompanied by panels providing information with hundreds of archival photographs.

In the Carriage Preservation Workshop, the public is invited to watch expert technicians carry out the art of blacksmithing, wheelwriting, woodworking, metalworking and finishing.

An elegant outdoor equestrian eventing program is also featured at the museum, demonstrating the skill and protocol of competitive driving horses in harness. Driving trails developed around the museum circle Lee.

Donald Remington

The man behind the Remington Museum.

Don Remington (1914–1987) was a land owner, cattle rancher, developer, bridge builder and philanthropist.

For 35 years, Don Remington and his wife Afton, travelled across North America, Britain and the world to obtain then ship carriages back to restore.

Don Remington himself was a coach-builder, carriage restorer and coach, carriage and sleigh historian and it is with first hand knowledge that he restored the carriages in his collection. Many of the Carriages in the Remington Museum were used in his lifetime.

Don served on the Board of Directors for the American Carriage Association, of which he was a lifetime member.

Royalty, presidents and the Remington collection

Remington carriages have transported kings, queens, princes with their princesses, dukes and duchesses, earls, countesses, marquesses, lords and ladies, presidents and world heads of state. Celebrities worldwide have found themselves behind the reins of a Remington carriage. Remington Carriages were a part of the world-famous Calgary Stampede
Calgary Stampede
The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway,...

 and the 1988 Winter Olympic Games
1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in and around Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 13 to 28 February 1988. The host was selected in 1981 after having beat Falun, Sweden and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy...

. Calgary Heritage Park Days and Spruce Meadows
Spruce Meadows
Spruce Meadows is an equestrian facility in Calgary, Alberta built by the Southern Family and opened in 1976. The show jumping complex is in the foothills of the Alberta Rocky Mountains just south of the city and comprises...

 International Equestrian Horse Shows often feature the Remington collection. Remington carriages have attended hundreds of parades worldwide.

Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

 of Canada along with her husband Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....

 and her son Prince Charles
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...

 rode in a Remington landau carriage whilst visiting Canada in 1973 and again whilst visiting in 1980.

The Studebaker Company made a landau carriage for Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

 while he was president of the United States in 1869 - 1877. This carriage is featured in the Remington Museum.

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt I was an extremely wealthy sportsman and a member of the famous Vanderbilt family of philanthropists. He died on the .-Life:...

 owned an original Royal Hansom Cab
Hansom cab
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn cart designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low...

 1910, located at the Remington Carriage Museum. Don Remington purchased the Vanderbilt cab in New York, then stabilized the carriage and maintained its original Vanderbilt logo, finishes and trimmings. The Royal Hansom Cab frequented the cobbled streets of London, Paris and New York City between 1870 and 1930, prior to the automobile taxis.

The Remington Barouche carried numerous dignitaries, including Prince Phillip and Prince Andrew
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...

, Alberta premiers Ralph Klein and Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, AOE, QC, is a Canadian lawyer, and a former politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as the tenth Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985....

, Governor General of Canada Madame Sauve', Mormon President Kimball & President Benson of the LDS Church.

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 owned an identical barouche
Barouche
A barouche was a fashionable type of horse-drawn carriage in the 19th century. Developed from the calash of the 18th century, it was a four-wheeled, shallow vehicle with two double seats inside, arranged vis-à-vis, so that the sitters on the front seat faced those on the back seat...

 while he was president of the United States.

When the Prime Minister of Canada, Diefenbaker went 'Out West' during his sojourn, as Prime Minister his day ride was a Remington barouche carriage.

The Five Glass Landau Coach, made by James Cunningham & Son Company, Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, circa 1890.

In the early 1970s, while Don Remington was visiting England, he came across a man named Colonel Graville Williams who sold him the carriage BBreak by Holland and Holland, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Remington's Royal Hansom Cab #4212 Made by Forder & Company Limited, Wolverhampton, England Circa 1870.

The famous Concord Stagecoach

Concord wells fargo remington collection...
Concord Stagecoach Wells Fargo

Another Concord in the collection is an original Buffalo Bill's Stages North Platte Nebraska Stagecoach.

Notables in the Remington Collection

The Wells Fargo & Co. Yellowstone Wagon, made by Abbot-Downing Company, Concord, New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

, circa 1886. This carriage was later used as a touring wagon in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

. When Don Remington set about restoring the wagon, they found the original Wells Fargo & Co. lettering on each side.

Role of carriages and funerals

insert image Hearse1900 manufactured by A.B. Greer of London Ontario.

Funerals were an important rituals in the Victoria era. With all the pomp and pageantry a family could afford, the deceased was laid to rest. The etiquette of morning was tied very closely to a formal social code of dress and behavior.

By the mid-19th century the hearse had evolved from a wagon draped with mourning cloth complete with carved pillars, urns, lamps and interior draperies. The glass panels in the sides of the hearses made the casket visible, thereby accentuating the ceremonial aspects of funerals. For many people, a hearse was the only elegant vehicle they ever got to ride in.

Hollywood and The Remington Collection

The popular Fox television show The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

episode 17 of the 17th season, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore
“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore” is the seventeenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons.-Plot:On movie night at the nuclear plant, Homer learns that the nuclear power plant is being shut down and outsourced to India. After Homer is sent to train the new employees, he becomes power-hungry...

", features sisters Patty and Selma kidnapping Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...

, the actor who played action hero MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...

. Selma and Patty show Dean slides of their summer vacation, including various carriages from the Remington Museum with a front image of Patty and Selma standing next to a bronze statue of the museum's visionary, Don Remington.

Hollywood has made the covered wagon and stagecoach icons of the idealized Old West, and the Remington Carriage Museum has both, including coaches used in past and present Hollywood productions. Visitors can climb aboard the stagecoach used by Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...

 in Disney's Shanghai Noon
Shanghai Noon
Shanghai Noon is a 2000 American martial arts action comedy western film starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. The film, marking the directorial debut of Tom Dey, was written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar....

and by Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....

 in Crossfire Trail.

The Fay Wray
Fay Wray
Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...

 Fountain Memorial is located one block from the Remington Carriage Museum. Fay Wray rose to fame as the dame in distress in the immortal 1933 film King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...

. When Fay Wray returned to Cardston in 1967, she rode in a Remington Concord Stagecoach. Cowboy Country Television profiled Don Remington, season 4 episode 12.

Horses and The Remington Collection

The story of 19th century transportation would be incomplete without the horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

, and the museum's herd of Clydesdales, Quarter Horses and Canadians are a major feature of daily programs. An elegant equestrian eventing program is also featured at the museum, demonstrating the skill and protocol of competitive driving horses in harness. Each horse breed is selected to support the ride program at the museum.

The Clydesdale breed is a widely recognized draft horse used in teams of two, three or four to pull large vehicles seating up to 18 passengers. This breed is known famously as the Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser is a German adjective describing something or someone from the city of České Budějovice in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic.Beer brewing in České Budějovice dates back to the 13th century...

 Clydesdale horses.

The American Quarter Horse
American Quarter Horse
The American Quarter Horse is an American breed of horse that excels at sprinting short distances. Its name came from its ability to outdistance other breeds of horses in races of a quarter mile or less; some individuals have been clocked at speeds up to 55 mph...

 is bred for speed and for distance, up to a quarter mile, and they are well suited to pulling wagons, buggies and sleighs.

The Canadian Horse
Canadian Horse
The Canadian Horse is a breed of horse developed in Canada. Although previously relatively unknown due to its rarity, the Canadian Horse has influenced many other North American breeds, including the Morgan, American Saddlebred, and Standardbred...

 was bred from horses shipped to Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1665. Their stamina and quiet temperament make this breed a perfect choice for carriage work.

Pairs of Quarter Horses and Canadians are used at the museum to pull smaller carriages up to six people.

Tack is also an important part of the carriage,
Don Remington made thousands of unique one of a kind tack...

The Remington Carriage Museum is part of a network of historic sites and museums in Alberta which include Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Heritage Site and the Frank Slide
Frank Slide
The Frank Slide is a natural landslide feature in the southern Rocky Mountains of Canada, and a significant historical event in western Canada.Frank, Alberta is a coal mining town in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta...

 Centre. The museum is open year-round, 7 days a week. Cardston is also home to the first Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 LDS temple built outside the United States.

Affiliations

The museum is affiliated with CMA
Canadian Museums Association
The Canadian Museums Association is a national organization for the promotion of museums in Canada.The Canadian Museums Association is the national organization for the advancement of the Canadian museum sector, representing Canadian museum professionals both within Canada and internationally. The...

, CHIN
Canadian Heritage Information Network
The Canadian Heritage Information Network is a Canadian government-supported organization that provides a networked interface to Canada's heritage, largely through the World Wide Web. It aims to give access to Canada's heritage for both Canadians and a worldwide audience, by supporting the...

, and Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada
The Virtual Museum of Canada is Canada's national virtual museum. With a directory of over 3,000 Canadian heritage institutions and a database of over 600 virtual exhibits, the VMC brings together Canada's museums regardless of size or geographical location.The VMC includes virtual exhibits,...

.

External links

  • Remington Carriage Museum official website
  • Remington Concord Carriage:COVER PHOTO: Canada Cowboy Country Magazine April/May 2008
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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