SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on horse-drawn wagon builders, restoration specialists, museums, and some camping rentals.

Idaho

Idaho Sheep Camp builds traditional Basque sheep wagons.

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Live Out Your 1883 Fantasies at This Incredible Idaho Covered Wagon Park

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I missed seeing this obituary when it was posted late last year: Darlene Madge McManus, 88. The wife of outdoor humor writer Pat McManus, Darlene was the inspiration for the fictional character “Bun.”

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Idaho Dr. Ryan Cole Faces Discipline for Bucking the Covid-19 Narrative.

Montana

A great video: Montana Wagon Builder Dave Engel. Here is a link to Engel’s fascinating wagon-building YouTube channel: Start to Finish Chuck Wagon Box — Engels Coach Shop. From their web site:

“Rick Bischoff, my brother-in-law through marrying sisters, was beginning to dabble in the carriage trade and offered to put up with me if I’d help him out in the shop. Since I had always enjoyed working with wood and still had a gelding we had raised from a colt, it sounded like a perfect combination to me.

Our first contract was to restore an 8 passenger Yellowstone Coach and simultaneously replicate another along side. Word got out and shortly TW Services, concessionaires in Yellowstone Park, got wind of what we were doing and contracted us to build two tally-ho coaches for tourist purposes at Roosevelt Lodge. One could say, “And the rest is history.”

Coming from a stubborn German Mennonite background, and being young and headstrong as I was (am), Rick and I split up in 1982. Rick, and his wife Pat, bought a carriage lamp business in Wisconsin and brought it out here to Joliet where they still operate it as The Luminary Shoppe and I stayed in the carriage shop.”

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Anvil Wagon Works is located in Livingston, Montana.

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Few People Know You Can Sleep In An Actual Sheephearder’s Wagon In Montana.

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Yup, it is legal there, in Montana: Private burials: Who’s keeping track?

Central & Eastern Oregon

Oxbow Wagons and Coaches is located in Canyon City, in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon.

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Boulder Creek Ranch is touted as the only place in Oregon where you can rent a sheep wagon for the night.

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Horses becoming more popular for counseling, therapy.

Central & Eastern Washington

Central Washington Agricultural Museum.

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Garfield County Agricultural Museum.

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‘I just said thank you Lord’: Benefits resume for Spokane veteran wrongfully declared dead.

Wyoming

You may have heard about or seen photos of these very practical wagons: Wyoming Sheep Wagon Company.

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When researching wagon companies, I ran into this fascinating reprint of a 1950 article: Covered Wagon Ferry Restored in Wyoming.

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In Cheyenne: Frontier Days Old West Museum.

Send Your News Tips

Please send your American Redoubt region news tips, event announcements, and American Redoubt-based companies worthy of a mention to JWR. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.