Monday, December 14, 2009

Boomtown - more Harness Shop & the Blacksmith

In the harness shop at Boomtown there were a few saddles. How would you like to be a lady of the frontier days and ride side saddle?
Not surprising that there was quite a bit of harness hanging in the shop. I can only imagine all the time that went into cleaning all that leather before it was put in the display!
The livery was next to the Harness Shop (which was pictured in the previous post) and conveniently located on the other side of the livery was Galston's, the local blacksmith's shop. I cannot imagine how difficult that work was in days of yore. IMO being a farrier is demanding enough work today!

There was a price list posted by a "desk" area near the smithy's door. One side of the list was for wagon and buggy work. A new buggy box, made with old iron, was $10 (extra for using new iron) A new axle would set you back $5. A set of tires started at $1, a single spoke was $0.50.
It was a whopping $0.25 to set a shoe, $0.50 for a new shoe. Interesting, on a stallion it was $1 for a new shoe and $0.75 to set a shoe. And wild broncos were charged "according to meanness"
Galston's being the "general blacksmith" also did work on plows. Sharpening shares to making them. Prices ranged from $0.25 to $5.50.




6 comments:

  1. That's awesome. Too funny about the shoeing prices. It's almost like the blacksmith expected people to train their own horses?

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  2. Charging according to meaness! Love it, I think that that should be how alot of thing now a days get paid for! What an interesting post. I can't even imagine how hard people had to work back then. But they did and they took pride in it. Too bad today many expect handouts.

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  3. ooopsie:) Sorry I didn't think I hit the "publish comment"

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  4. Lol "according to meanness" wish we could charge like that now... very cool post, love getting a sneak peek into the old days

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  5. The Palfrey, a small, smooth gaited horse, was bred and created just for ladies riding sidesaddle.

    While Anne of Bohemia created the first functioning sidesaddle back in the 1300's, it wasn't used in Queen Elizabeth's court centuries later. Riding astride was the thing during Elizabeth's times and she loved to ride with the hunt.

    During the Edwardian, Regency and Victorian eras, the sidesaddle gained popularity again.

    That's my useless trivia for the day.

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Wordless Wednesday ~ new trailer!