A Letcher, South Dakota Stagecoach Will Soon Be Making Its Home at a Theme Park in Japan
Letcher, South Dakota will be soon be proudly represented overseas. Hansen Wheel and Wagon Shop was recently asked to create a smaller version of an American stagecoach for Fuji Safari Park in Japan.
Located just miles away from Mount Fuji, the park where the new pony-sized stagecoach will call home is near Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Doug Hansen of Hansen Wheel and Wagon says that the Old West area of the park will allow the children in Japan the chance to feel what it is like to be a part of the Old West in just a smaller, scaled-down size. The theme park's smaller sized stagecoach will be pulled by four miniature ponies.
Hanson Wheel and Wagon have been building historically accurate, full sized stagecoaches, covered wagons and chuck wagons for museums, private collectors, movies and theme parks for many years, but this is the first scaled-down stagecoach they have created.
Blueprints were created for the scaled down stagecoach and because of the leather suspension and intricate designs, the construction lasted about a year.
The smaller stagecoach is not the first piece of Old West transportation that Hanson Wheel and Wagon have designed and shipped overseas. They first shipped a vehicle to the Danish Immigrant Museum in Denmark 20-years ago.
After securing the stagecoach in a container, it will take about 30 days to reach its destination of Japan.