Conestoga Wagon
PEN AND INK
One of my favourite places to visit is the former Agricultural Museum at Milton, ON. No longer under the Ministry of Agriculture, this not-for-profit is operated as Country Heritage Park. The passionate, dedicated board of directors and the volunteers, along with various organizations like the different tractor clubs and the Heavy horse Association of Ontario have done an excellent job. The admission was only $7 per adult with a senior discount that Dave and I used to our advantage. The CHP hosts several annual events that feature the various makes of tractors and steamers as well as heavy horse days with demonstrations of plowing, mowing, binding, threshing and horse or tractor wagon rides. Check out their web site for an events calendar at www.countryheritagepark.com
I was at the park with a display of my paintings, limited edition prints and my pen 7 ink prints. Director Reg Cressman, set me up in an old log barn with front and back doors wide open. There was shade and a lovely cross breeze wafting in ever so often. The smell of the straw took me back to the days of my childhood when my siblings and I played hide and seek in the barn with our cousins. I heard the sound of the iron wheels and the clomping of the horses’ hooves as this heavy Conestoga wagon rolled by. I was pleased to see this reproduction of the pioneer’s mode of travel. My ancestors came from Lancaster County in Pennsylvania across the Alleghany Mountains and the Niagara River to settle in Waterloo County in such a wagon. Read more about Samuel Bricker in “Trail of the Conestoga” by Mabel Dunham.