Riding High on a National Treasure

Riding High on a National Treasure

Youngsters Trena and Tobias Tackitt scout the whole menagerie before selecting a mount and climbing aboard history at the Kit Carson County Carousel in Burlington, Colo. “I found the charger!” Trena shouts to older brother Tobias.

To children, this unique merry-go-round is a great ride. To residents of Burlington, a farming and ranching town of 3,678, the carousel—with its 46 hand-carved animals and four chariots—is a national treasure that put their town on the map.

“It took us a while to see what a treasure we had,’’ says Jo Downey, project director of the Kit Carson County Carousel.

The carousel, bought by the county in 1928 for $1,250, fell into disrepair after the annual county fair was canceled during the Great Depression. By the time it resumed in 1937, the carousel was in need of renovation. Some suggested lighting a match and bidding it farewell. Although support was eventually generated to spare the carousel, a full-scale restoration wasn’t begun until 1976.

“Sometimes I don’t think anyone but us believed in the project,’’ Downey says of the 26-year restoration, which she estimates cost $2.5 million.

Built in 1905 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. for the Elitch Gardens amusement park in Denver, the carousel reportedly is the only one in the country that still has original paint on both the scenery paintings and the animals. It’s also a rare menagerie carousel, meaning it has animals other than horses.

“I remember the excitement the day they started taking the varnish off and found it had the original paint,’’ recalls Mabel Scheiermam, 85, one of the original volunteers who sold cookbooks, held flea markets, and collected donations to raise money for the painstaking and delicate restoration work.

“That paint makes the carousel unique,” says Brian Morgan, past president of the National Carousel Association, an organization dedicated to preserving and restoring antique carousels.

“Most carousels that have been around awhile were used and abused, repainted frequently, not necessarily with any artistic ability,’’ Morgan says. But the Kit Carson County Carousel was used only during the annual fair and had never been re-painted.

“They could have just painted over it, but they treated it as art and the fill-in painting is spectacular,’’ Morgan says.

All the animals are hand-carved in great detail. A snake slithers up the giraffe’s neck and there’s a gnome with a spear riding upon the back of the zebra. Real antlers are mounted atop the deer and genuine horsehair streams from the tails of many of the carousel’s steeds.

The animals, some valued at more than $200,000 apiece, do not move up and down like those on modern merry-go-rounds. Instead the ride is fast, revolving at 12 mph, compared with the average carousel speed of 8 mph.

Forty-five oil paintings depict scenes from Victorian life. Housed within the carousel is a 1909 Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ capable of creating the sound of a 12- to 15-piece band.

“Ours is not the most elaborate carousel, but it has the most historic integrity,” Downey says of the ride that has been designated both a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Site.

In October 2003, the National Trust for Historic Preservation bestowed upon the carousel its National Preservation Honor Award. Today, a 12-sided cupola, complete with motorized windows, houses the gem, which costs 25 cents to ride and is open daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Enthusiastic riders, more than 21,000 annually, like the Tackitt children are eager to take a spin. And the smiles on their faces as the music plays are the carousel’s best endorsement.

Michael Nolan is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.

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