Riding A Round One Man’s Dream Gives Missoula Popular Carousel

It started when Chuck Kaparich, cabinet maker, hauled a wooden horse into the mayor’s office here. He had four others at his shop. His question: If he built a carousel, would the city stand behind it?

Now, two years after A Carousel for Missoula opened, it is a popular attraction in this northwestern Montana city of poets, writers, fly fishers, a university and lumber mills.

It is the first hand-carved U.S.-built carousel since the Depression. And the band organ, made in Bellefontaine, Ohio, is the largest in the country.

Kaparich remembered the grand carousel at Butte’s Columbia Gardens, once the largest amusement park west of the Mississippi, and a 1989 visit to the Spokane carousel. He had a spot in mind - the riverfront in Caras Park - before he met with the mayor.

After Kaparich’s meeting with the mayor and Missoula Redevelopment Agency, things took off. The city created a foundation and found a place to lay out a carousel. The high school opened its woodshop and hundreds signed up for classes. Volunteers came to his garage to sand, carve and paint.

Four years and $750,000 later, on May 27, 1995, Kaparich’s dream became reality. Thousands have ridden with “no mechanical failures, no injuries, and few people getting sick,” said executive director Theresa Cox.

All ages ride. Cox said 30 percent to 40 percent are adults - many elderly.

Some U.S. and world visitors come specifically to see the carousel. Many belong to organizations such as the American Carousel Society.

The Missoula Independent, a weekly alternative paper, voted the carousel “the best place to take out-of-town guests” the past two years.

The carousel building has a gift shop with carousel collectibles. Tours and parties are popular events.

Kaparich has moved on. “He wanted to build a carousel, not run one,” said Cox.

He is consultant for the Spirit of Columbia Carousel Project in Butte, opening in 1999, 100 years after copper king W.A. Clark bought land and built Columbia Gardens. The Butte carousel, inspired by Missoula’s, has hand-carved horses. “The beauty of the hand-carved horses, the architecture of the building that surrounds it and having something reminiscent of Columbia Gardens inspired us,” said Domingo Hernandez, Spirit of Columbia project president.

Everyone has a favorite among Missoula’s 38 hand-carved horses. Children love Paint by Larry Pirnie, known for neon cowboy art. Other favorites are Columbia Belle, the lead horse; Marguerite, often called the girlie horse; Bud, a Clydesdale pony; Pal’s Pal, named for a parrot that lived in the Garden City Floral Co.; and Montana Appaloosa, an Indian peace pony.

And now, some carousel trivia.

Each ride lasts 4 minutes, traveling 8 mph.

Two ponies, Pal’s Pal and Avalon, do not move up and down.

Horses are basswood, from linden trees.

Horses took between 400 and 800 hours to carve.

The carousel is wheelchair accessible.

Tails are authentic horse hair.

Since the carousel opened, admission has gone from 50 cents to $1 for adults.

A Carousel for Missoula operates daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. June through August, and 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. September through May. For more information, contact the carousel at (406) 549-8382.