SKELETON WAGON
Body and wheels painted red.
This light racing cart was found in Westford, Vermont and shows the webbed seat and pencil-slim spokes of the early skeleton wagon.
Rural communities here in Vermont have enjoyed harness racing for many years, and Bertha Oppenheim (Winged Seed) depicted the Fourth of July races held in the early years of this century in Ferrisburg, a small community just south of the Shelburne Museum. The brass band had been engaged far in advance; ice cream and lemonade were on sale in the refreshment tents; horses had been entered from as far away as Rutland and Manchester, Vermont—and even from across the lake in New York State. Hundreds of buggies and horses were hitched to fences everywhere and Ford cars were parked on the sidelines too. The racing carts, decorated with many colors, lined the track. The “trots” were exciting, but the free-for-all race was the climax of the celebration.
