The Journey

A Spark Ignited

Ever since her first ride at the magical Columbia Gardens in Butte Montana, Reno Hutchison has had a lifelong love of carousels.

“There is such magic in a carousel! I’ve never seen anything else that creates the feeling that a carousel can. The instant smiles, the sparkle it creates in kids young and old alike, the exuberance — it is something so special, so unique.”

Butte was not a particularly nice place to grow up, and the gardens, originally built in 1896 by the Copper Kings, a small group of mining industrialists, were a very special and magical place to her and all of Butte’s kids and adults alike.

“The pavilions, the gardens the rides and especially the carousel — we looked forward to our outings there, they were the highlight of our summers,” recalls Reno.

Photo: The Columbia Gardens in the early 1970s.

A fire in November 1973 destroyed the beautiful pavilions along with its beloved carousel that was stored inside. This tragedy sparked a desire in Reno to find and restore an abandoned “golden age” carousel, and bring it to her home town.

Reno’s passion for carousels never waned, and she drew in her husband Clay (the two met in Sandpoint in the late 90’s).

Clay reminisces, “We would (still do) stop and ride every carousel we came upon. Reno’s passion was infectious! and it wasn’t long before we both starting dreaming about finding an old carousel abandoned in some farmer’s barn, just waiting to be discovered and restored.”

However, their efforts to find a carousel were not encouraging. In the carousel world by the late 90s, intact, original wooden carousels were a rarity, with little expectation that any unknown carousels were left to be re-discovered, and one appearing at auction would need to meet the per-piece hammer price, a daunting proposition.

A New Journey for a Forgotten Carousel

The Carousel of Smiles at the 1952 Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas shows the last time the carousel was in operation.

In the fall of 1952, the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, KS powered its last ride and spun its last cotton candy, shutting down for the season.

Its antique carousel was packed into its two tractor-trailers and parked in a field at a local sheep farm, all but forgotten. Like so many Golden Age carousels during this era, it had outlived its useful life, to be replaced by a newer machine.

A once great ride, abandoned as a burden, remained in that field for 48 years.

Sometime in the late 70s Bob Lemons, a folk-art collector (and friend of the farmer) purchased the machine with the intent of resurrecting it to its former glory. Bob had the 36 horses stripped of their park paint, restoring two of them, but was unable to accomplish much else.

The carousel remained in its sheep meadow, packed in its trailers, as it had been since it last operated in 1952.

In July 2000, Clay received a call from his sister–in-law wondering if her nephews would like an antique sled for Christmas. She was in Kansas City helping a college friend, the daughter of Bob Lemons, organize an auction of her father’s collection of folk-art and Americana.

Clay jokingly asked if they happened to have an antique carousel in that collection.

Clay recalls, “How could we not have pursued a deal? The stars were screaming at us — an intact Golden Age carousel forgotten and languishing in a farmer’s field; Reno’s childhood dream; and its last place of operation was in my namesake town of Hutchinson.”

The coincidences don’t end there — Hutchinson is the county seat of Reno County, Kansas.

Prior to the auction sale, Clay and Reno purchased the carousel, keeping it intact, keeping it from being broken up and sold off horse by horse.

A lost carousel had been found…the journey had begun.

“It is rare to discover a carousel preserved with its original components and artwork. It just doesn’t happen every day. Sadly, many of them ended up in the scrap heap, were used for firewood, or are sitting in someone’s living room. That isn’t their purpose; they are meant to be ridden and enjoyed by all generations.”

Bette Largent, Curator of Spokane’s Riverfront Park Looff Carrousel

Without a specific plan of what to do with this historic, intact machine, the Hutchisons moved it, still in its two vintage tractor-trailers, to a storage barn in Upstate New York, where it remained, still unloaded, for another 16 years.

Finally, with encouragement from members of the National Carousel Association, the Hutchisons sat down with the Mayor of Sandpoint, Idaho in August 2016, and outlined their plan: to bring the carousel to Sandpoint, create a community involved restoration project, and (per Reno’s dream) to locate the restored machine in a new pavilion at the town’s City Beach.

With a modicum of support from the Mayor’s office, the Hutchisons decided to jump in. They loaded the two vintage trailers onto lowboy trailers and in November 2016 the carousel made the journey West to Sandpoint — the 36 horses and 14 shields in one trailer, and the artwork, rounding boards and mechanism in the other.

Reno says, “I’ve lived here for 35 years and the community of Sandpoint has been good to me, it is my hometown. I want to share something special with the town that has supported me and my family all these years, and bringing the magic of a carousel here is a way I can give something back.”

The Carousel of Smiles, as it is now named, was completely unloaded from its two trailers, for the first time in 64 years, on December 3, 2016.

It is a circa 1920 Allan Herschell; 14 sweep, three row, 40-foot diameter machine with 36 horses and two chariots.

A forgotten carousel, a true time capsule and very possibly the last undocumented machine left to be discovered, has found its new home in Sandpoint.

The journey continues…hop on, help us renew the magic, and join the ride!