Parade brings history to life with horse-drawn vehicles

Jackson City Park was the site of a parade Saturday, but not in a manner one might expect. Instead of horsepower under the hood of a car, the parade used a different form of horsepower to move around.

As part of the community's two-day bicentennial celebration, the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce hosted its Bicentennial Wagon Trail Parade starting in Jackson City Park Saturday morning.

The parade consisted of horse-drawn vehicles such as covered wagons, a hearse and other forms of carriages, Texas longhorns, horseback riders and miniature ponies.

There also was an antique tractor show at the park.

Katie Johnson of Jackson said she had never seen wagons like the ones at the parade outside of a museum.

People line the sidewalks as old-time horse drawn carriages head down High Street in Jackson, Saturday, July 5, 2014, during the Bicentennial Wagon Trail Parade. (Laura Simon)

"I loved it, though," Johnson said. "I think they've been pretty cool."

While growing up in the Chicago area, Arnold Kistner of Fruitland didn't see wagons except when they were on television, he said.

"It was pretty neat," Kistner said.

It was "interesting just to see the horses," he said. "The hearse was interesting."

Steve Stroder, who is in charge of Stroder Horse Drawn Funeral Service in Jackson, said his hearse is like hearses that were manufactured in the 1860s and 1870s.

People line the sidewalks as old-time horse drawn carriages head through Jackson on Saturday during the Bicentennial Wagon Trail Parade, above and left. (Laura Simon)

His hearse, however, is different in that it can haul a modern casket and is just a few years old, he said.

The parade headed to Washington Street near the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse. After that, the parade returned to where it started inside the park.

Shawn Royle of Gordonville said the parade compared "fairly well" to a parade in Ontario, Canada, he attended about five years ago.

"They're [the wagons] all pretty cool," Royle said. "They've done a very good job."

Beth Tipton of Jackson said she enjoyed the parade.

"I liked it," she said. "It's nice to see stuff from the previous times. The car show and all the activities so far have been pretty good."

Among the vehicles from the past at the parade was an authentic chuck wagon.

Junior Merick of Bloomfield, Missouri, in charge of the wagon, said it was manufactured in Ohio in the early 1900s and never has been painted.

"This is what feeds the cowboys if they're out moving the cattle," Merick said.

Typically, a chuck wagon carried supplies such as beans, flour, a coffee pot and any meat killed out on the trail, which then was prepared by the cook for the cowboys, he said.

Although the cook had more responsibilities than the cowboys did, a typical cook "got paid twice of what the rest of the cowboys made," Merick said.