Nothing exemplifies our community quite like A Carousel for Missoula. Situated along our iconic river, the largely volunteer-run attraction, enchanting to kids and adults alike, has entertained and delighted generations of Missoulians.
The Carousel was the brainchild of Missoula cabinetmaker Chuck Kaparich. He pitched the City of Missoula on the idea back in 1991, after he had acquired a disassembled antique carousel frame and carved four horses.
“He realized he’d probably be 175 years old if he carved ‘em all himself, so he offered classes,” said John Thompson, who learned woodcarving from Chuck at the outset of the project and has been involved ever since. “During the heyday while we were carving all the horses we probably had 40 active carvers all working in a two-car garage.”
“One of the best things about the Carousel is it was done with all volunteers,” he added. The Carousel estimates 100,000 volunteer hours went into the creation. “Only about two people had carved before they started on the Carousel. It changed a lot of lives. Everybody parked their problems at the door and we all just worked together.”
Given varying skill levels, the work was divided up so that multiple people worked on each horse, which was then glued together from many separate pieces.
“We had people that did not carve at all, they only sanded,” John said. Chuck would have novices start with less essential details, working their way up to legs, then necks. “The best carvers were the ones who did the heads. Once you put the eyes in, they start talking to you.”
Unusually for carousels, all the horses are unique. More typically, a carousel would have a handful of repeated styles. They would also only be decorated on one side.
“These horses have a romance side and a revenue side, and the revenue is in a lot less detail in the carving,” said Jeff Stevens, another volunteer carver. “Usually, you’d put a lot less detail in the off-side. The detail side that faces out is called the romance side.”
Each unique horse has a unique backstory, too. “It’s just amazing the story on it,” John said. For example, four of the horses—Meriwether, Moonlight, Sir Franklin, and Snapples—are called the penny ponies because Missoula schoolchildren collected pennies to sponsor them.
“They had bake sales and car washes,” John said. “We designed their horses using an overhead projector, the little boys yelling they wanted armor, the little girls yelling they wanted flowers.”
John, who sketched all but six of the 38 original figures, said his favorite horse on the Carousel is Montana Appaloosa. He described the long process of designing the horse with input from Henry Bugbee, a professor at University of Montana, whose colleagues and mentees had banded together to sponsor the horse in his honor. But John’s favorite figure on the Carousel is the dragon. “Everyone in Montana thinks they know what a horse looks like, but you can do anything you want with a dragon,” he said.
The Carousel, housed in an ornate building that is itself whimsically carved, was completed in 1995. A few years later, the effort to add neighboring Dragon Hollow playground took shape.
“Kids can only ride the carousel so long,” John said.
“We gave them something else to do,” added Jeff, who was site captain and paint captain for the project.
Building Dragon Hollow was, again, a massive community undertaking: 3,500 to 4,000 volunteers built the original portion in 2001 in about nine to 10 days, working from dawn until well past dark.
It’s no coincidence that so many people involved in the original project are still around, sustaining that community feeling. Nowadays, the carving group meets on Tuesday nights, and most of their projects are not for the Carousel itself anymore.
“We’ve carved enough horses to populate a whole other carousel,” Jeff said.
The work of the carving group adorns carousels in Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, and Alberta, to name a few. A recent project involved carving a replica carousel pony to decorate the new Missoula airport building.
“We’ve done probably about 70 projects since we finished with the Carousel,” John added.
Also hanging around on Tuesday nights is long-time mechanic Mike Alvernaz, who returned from retirement to address mounting technical problems and train up his replacement, maintenance and safety engineer Gregor Banister. The Carousel’s mechanism dates from 1918, and keeping it running smoothly—almost year-round, which is unusual for carousels—takes time, dedication, a lot of specialized knowledge, and a little luck too.
“You can’t Google search any of this, you can’t buy any parts for it,” Gregor said.
Since coming on board less than two years ago, Gregor has been systematically inspecting the Carousel’s 16,066 parts. “I’ve gone through every bolt and every pin,” he said. He and Mike have also been putting together a procedure manual. “Eventually I want to add pictures and make it a real encyclopedia of this style of carousel…I started to realize how much the Carousel means to the community, and I felt a little obligated to be here and take care of it and bring it into the next generation,” he said. “I’m grateful I’m able to be a part of it and help bring it into the future.”
“It’s the best show in town,” John said. “There is never a bad day at the Carousel.”
Sidebar:
Five Fun Facts to Know about the Carousel!
- The Carousel ponies are made of basswood, which is durable but soft enough to be easily carved.
- Paint is the only horse that is painted with acrylic rather than oil-based paint.
- The Carousel canopy has 966 light bulbs, requiring 90 amps of power.
- The Carousel weighs 10.5 tons, fully loaded, and is 18.6 feet tall.
- Horses jump six times per revolution and the Carousel makes 6.5 revolutions each minute. The outside row goes 7.82 miles per hour.
“During the heyday while we were carving all the horses we probably had 40 active carvers all working in a two-car garage.” - John Thompson
"Everybody parked their problems at the door and we all just worked together.” - John Thompson