This video featuring museum volunteer and researcher Ron Krause shares information about the history of stage travel in our area, along with details about the museum’s Abbot-Downing and Company Passenger Wagon (5:17).
Fort Walla Walla Museum meets up with retired WWFD Captain Russell Kroum, who talks about the history of the city’s fire department and the story of the museum’s horse-drawn fire engine (9:58).
A colorful Abbot Downing passenger wagon entices visitors into Walla Walla’s colorful frontier history as soon as they enter the museum. Throughout the numerous galleries, other early modes of transportation can be seen, most driven at one time or another through the towns and farms of the Walla Walla valley. These range from the elegant to the workaday and include a “Southern Special” buggy, a fancy doctor’s buggy, a sport buggy or convertible, and several sleighs.
Many wagons are featured, including a heavy dray wagon, circa 1900, and a variety of buckboards. Finally, visitors will not want to miss the beautiful horse-drawn fire pumper purchased in 1904 by the Walla Walla fire department. It is displayed along with a hose cart and the brass poles and doors from the old fire station.
The museum’s collection of old-time vehicles includes a passenger wagon and buggies, sleighs, freight wagons, a covered wagon, a 1921 Dodge touring car, and a horse-drawn fire pumper purchased in 1904 by the Walla Walla fire department.