For lovers of horse history and driving, an Alberta auction house is set to sell off one of the most extensive collections of carriages and sleighs in North America.
The collection was amassed over the lifetime of Lee Bowie, an Albertan who passed away in January at the age of 90. Bowie began collecting the carriages about 60 years ago. “It all started with a carriage he found out in southern Saskatchewan behind a barn, and it grew from there,” Greg Bowie, Lee’s eldest son, told CTV News. “He was the type of person that liked fixing things and he really enjoyed working with horses and dogs, so the collection sort of started out as a hobby.”
Some of the unique carriages include a Newfoundland taxi circa 1890 and a McLaughlin Cutter carriage. That company was once considered the largest manufacturer of buggies in the British Empire and would one day enter the automobile industry as part of General Motors Canada.