He’ll Fix Your Wagon--and He Never Tires

Business is booming for 70-year-old wheelwright Brandon Houdashelt.

“That’s because I’m an endangered species,” Houdashelt said as he pulled down on the handle of a century-old buggy jack, lifting the back wheel of an 1884 John Deere wagon into the air.

“How many wheelwrights have you ever heard of?” he inquired.

Houdashelt flipped an antique buggy wrench over a hub nut, made a few turns with the peculiarly shaped tool and lifted the wheel off the wagon.

It was obviously much easier to remove a wheel from a rig in horse-and-buggy days than it is to change a tire today.

“They’re putting people on the moon, exploring space and here I am trying to get a wagon to go down the road,” observed the wizard of spoked wheels, a reminder of simpler times.

Webster’s definition of wheelwright is “one whose trade is building and repairing wheels.”

Houdashelt has spent half his life building and repairing wheels for horse-drawn vehicles in this tiny hamlet in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Fresno.

Benefits From Nostalgia

He repairs, restores and constructs wheels for stagecoaches, freight wagons, hearses, police patrol wagons, peddlers’ wagons, doctors’ buggies, popcorn wagons, Hansom cabs and more.

“Nostalgia is popular and I have benefited from it,” Houdashelt said. “Hundreds of people belong to horseless carriage associations all over America.

“Somebody has to take care of their wheels. Amish buggy companies in the East do a lot of the work. And, there are a handful of wheelwrights like myself scattered here and there across the nation.”

Tools of his trade are vintage late 1800s. His methods are the same as the old days and he has enough work to carry him through the rest of this year and them some.

His five acres are littered with old iron- and rubber-rimmed wheels with hickory spokes. Wagon wheels flank his long driveway. Wheels needing work lie against the outside of his shop and hang from the walls and ceiling inside.

A curing shed is filled with newly constructed wheels. Wagon wheels hang from the walls of every room in his house.

Houdashelt re-creates old wheels, charging $140 to $400 each depending upon size and work involved.

His customers come from throughout the West.

“Sometimes I am hired to restore an entire rig, but 80% of my work is wheels,” he explained.

It’s turn-back-the-clock time for the 19th-Century craftsman, a big wheel in his own wright.