Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

Lincoln carriage offered to Obama

Golden museum touts its links to earlier Ill. senator

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 5, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.
Updated January 5, 2009 at 6:49 p.m.

Text size  

Related Links

More Local News

More stories »

CORRECTION: This story mistakenly said that the carriage used by President Abraham Lincoln during his inauguration later became part of Wild Bill Hickok's traveling show. It actually became part of Buffalo Bill Cody's traveling show.

It carried President Abraham Lincoln to his inauguration and later became a part of Bill Cody's traveling show as a set piece before it ended up in this tiny corner of Golden.

The black carriage with red wagon wheels now sits in the Westernaires Museum - an icon of a time that no longer exists, when carriages and horses were the preferred modes of transportation, even for presidents.

Which is how Curator Jean Mensendick got the idea of asking President-elect Barack Obama's team about possibly pulling the carriage out of the museum and using it to carry the Illinois senator down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

"It has a nice connection with both of the men being senators from Illinois," she said. "It would be neat to see it be a part of history."

She contacted some Jefferson County Obama volunteers to find out how to get word of her offer to the president-elect's team. They soon got word to U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter's office to find out if it was a viable option.

Perlmutter's staff carried the idea forward to the Obama transition team.

"They are trying to figure out a way to use the carriage as part of the inaugural festivities but don't have any definite plans yet," Perlmutter spokeswoman Leslie Oliver said. "They are trying to figure out what they can do."

Oliver said it was unlikely Obama would ride in the carriage because of security concerns. It also poses logistical problems, among them the fact that it only seats four - including the driver.

Westernaires Director Glen Keller said he's not sure how it would get to Washington, although he would prefer a covered tractor-trailer or by train.

He said it's one of the museum's centerpieces, and his primary concern is that it stay intact.

He also noted that it would have to be inspected by a team to make sure it could do the job.

"It will roll," he said. "Though we don't roll it that much. It's pretty old."

Mensendick said it would be "a great honor" to have it serve in any role for the inauguration on Jan. 20. But she said she's OK if the Obama team doesn't decide to use it.

"It's here if they want to use it," she said.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story erroneously referred to Bill Cody as Bill Hickok.

Comments

  • January 5, 2009

    2:08 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    vendari01 writes:

    The Secret Service must be having nightmares...

  • January 5, 2009

    8:06 p.m.

    The_Punnisher writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • January 5, 2009

    11:43 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    cindyark2 writes:

    Thank goodness Obama won- our world is on its way to being a better place. The corruption is everywhere but I don't believe that Obama will stand for it. The truth hurts those that did not vote for him. I think that those that did not vote for him have the fear that he WILL do a good job and will have nothing bad to say about him and his administration.

  • January 6, 2009

    8:47 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    AC writes:

    Umm, Rocky.....

    Abraham Lincoln was never a US Senator. He didn't hold elected office when he was elected president, and had served only one term in the US House in the 1840s.

    How could you get this wrong?