Previously in this series:
Part One: When Patagonia Was a Mecca for Wagon Restoration — Part 1: The Museum Connection
Part Two: When Patagonia Was a Mecca for Wagon Restoration — Part 2: Craftsmen at Work (and Play)
Under his skillful guidance and watchful eye, Doug Thaemert and his crew of craftsmen produced work of such high quality that Thaemert had all the customers he wanted soon after moving his
wagon-building business out of the Museum of the Horse. To potential purchasers of this niche product, it was readily apparent that the Southwest Wagon and Wheel Works built not just wagons but a reputation for meticulous attention to detail and adherence to the highest standards in the business. As a result, Thaemert drew some very high-powered clients.
Among his most notable customers was the Anheuser Busch Company that commissioned Thaemert to build two completely new wagons to be drawn by the company’s famous Budweiser Clydesdales. Another prominent client was the National Park Service that trusted Thaemert to build an historically accurate Conestoga wagon that is now on display at the Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in Colorado. (See it on the park’s website.) Hollywood also came calling on Thaemert. He once restored a vintage Studebaker buggy and built two exact replicas for Michael Cimino to use in his 1980 movie, Heaven’s Gate, which was a box office bust but was later judged to be one of the greatest westerns ever made.
As the name implies, Southwest Wagon and Wheel Works specialized in making and repairing wheels for vintage vehicles. Marti Chase, who occasionally ”hung out” at the shop, and wheelwright Lee Gordon, described a time when the team had to install an oversize steel rim on a wooden wheel. The rim was so large (8” wide by 7’6” diameter) they had to start a huge circular fire outside the shop in order to heat the rim so it would expand, then carefully drop the wheel into the rim and let it cool so that it would contract precisely to conform to the wheel and tighten the spokes which themselves were made to fit the wheel at an exacting compound angle.
Although the team specialized in wheel-work, they were accomplished in every facet of building and restoring horse-drawn conveyances of all types. As skilled wheelwrights, woodworkers, blacksmiths, painters and carriage smiths, Thaemert’s full-time craftsmen (Showalter, Connolly, Volz, and Gordon) took immense pride in their work and were assisted as the need arose by a cadre of part-time or on-call workers such as Metal Joe Coniff, Murphy Musick, R.P. Hale, Brent Bowden, Anne Mihalik and Regina Medley, all of whom contributed to the firm’s outstanding reputation.
As its reputation grew, one of Southwest’s main sources of revenue was building or restoring wagons used by businesses for advertising and often featured in parades. One such customer, a wealthy dentist from Tucson, ordered a new wagon he intended to use to promote his dental practice. The job was well underway when his wife got wind of how much he was spending on the wagon and put a stop to the project.
Alas, this line of work dried up when the tax break for it disappeared and, along with the Reagan Administration’s cut in museum funding, may have contributed to Thaemert’s decision, in the late 1980s, to transition the business to a mail order business selling wagon parts.
As I sit with Richard Connolly in his blacksmith shop on Smelter Avenue he calls my attention to a set of old wagon wheels he worked on decades ago. Mounted above the door that gives entry to this fascinating workspace, these are the very wheels that first brought Connolly and Thaemert together some 40 years ago. They are a fitting reminder of a glorious era not so long ago during which this small town was home to arguably the most highly regarded wagon buildingand restoration business on Planet Earth.
Sadly, as we current-day Patagonians walk our streets and alleys, precious few visual reminders of this once highly touted, thriving business meet our gaze. Nonetheless, the memory of Southwest Wagon and Wheels Works and Doug Thaemert, its founder and guiding spirit, burns brightly in the hearts and minds of those fortunate enough to have been a part of this venture, while we who arrived too late for the show are enriched by those who continue to share their memories, thus allowing all of us to glory in the retelling of that bygone era.
Postscript: I recently visited the Hubbard Museum of the American West, the present day incarnation of Anne Stradling’s Museum of the Horse which she had arranged to move to Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico just before her death in 1992. Now operated by the town of Ruidoso Downs, the museum’s main exhibit hall still features many of the wagons restored for Stradling by Thaemert and his team and I was awed by the beauty of these horse-drawn vehicles. Well worth the time and modest entrance fee for its wagon display, the museum also does a great job of telling Anne Stradling’s life story which is in itself captivating and, of course, so significant a part of Patagonia’s history.