RB Historical Society’s mud wagon almost complete

Rancho Bernardo Historical Society’s mud wagon is nearly complete, as countless locals recently saw during the Spirit of the Fourth parade.

The wagon is being made to look like the mule-drawn vehicles that traversed area trails from 1887 to 1910. Mud wagons typically carried six to eight passengers, had open sides and were built lighter and smaller than stagecoaches in order to get around trails’ many curves over rugged terrain, according to RB Historical Society member Tom Cook.

Having a wagon on display in the Rancho Bernardo History Museum has been the historical society’s goal for several years. After not being able to authenticate a wagon the group purchased in 2013, which needed extensive repairs, board members decided to have one built.

The final touches on the new mud wagon are being completed and a ceremony to unveil it in the museum at Bernardo Winery will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, said Richard Thorpe, a Poway resident and the RB Historical Society member leading the volunteer construction effort.

“I’m real anxious to get it into the museum,” Thorpe said on Tuesday while he and Phil Ewing worked on some of the final wagon components in the Escondido Historical Center where they and other volunteers have been constructing the wagon for the past couple years.

Ewing is a blacksmith and wheelwright expert associated with the center. He has been providing expert guidance to the volunteers and knows how to drive the wagon.

“It’s like driving a truck, except you’re using two pieces of leather,” Ewing said. “I started in junior high by driving horses in the early ‘50s. I grew up with a lot of guys who used horses and wagons.”

The volunteers’ first tasks included restoring a 6-foot wide-by-9-foot long steel wagon frame from the 1880s and making new springs. After countless hours of intricate work on the wagon’s base, they made and attached spoked wheels before beginning to construct the passenger coach out of wood.

While the wagon was in sufficient shape to be pulled along this year’s Spirit of the Fourth parade route by two draft horses, Thorpe said there are a few final elements still to be added in coming weeks.

“We need to put on the leather siding and the front and rear boots,” he said, explaining the rear boot carries the luggage and front boot is where the driver’s feet rest. “We also have to put the luggage rack on the canopy.”

Thorpe said he does not know if all final details will be completed by the unveiling since they are time intensive. These include painting red and black stripes on the wheels, spokes and hubs — a decorative feature people might be familiar with on Wells Fargo coaches — plus lettering.

To get the wagon in and out of the museum, volunteers will need to learn how to disassemble parts of the wagon, Thorpe said. This includes removing the wheels and dropping the canopy about a foot to pass through the museum’s doorway.

“We’re going to get a lot of practice disassembling,” Thorpe said, adding the historical society plans to take the wagon into the community at least twice a year. One appearance will be each Fourth of July and the other has yet to be determined. In addition, there are plans to loan it to the Escondido Historical Center for its annual Grape Day and Christmas festivities.

Thorpe said it will cost the organizations $1,000 to $1,200 to hire a horse team for each appearance. However, all other fundraising for the project is over.

The final cost was $27,500, with $23,500 coming from a County of San Diego Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant supported by County Supervisor Dave Roberts. Thorpe said the grant was for $25,000, but the historical society returned $1,500 it did not need for construction.