Ex-Trucker, Wheelwright Crafts Modern Carriages

In the foothills of the snow-peaked Sierra, away from multilane highways, smog or any evidence of urban life, Brandon Houdashelt quietly reconstructs the past.

The wagon wheels he builds are mostly for people who restore carriages, not for an alternative to the family car or pickup. People who make wagon wheels--called wheelwrights--are plentiful on the East Coast, particularly among the Amish in Pennsylvania.

But in California, where the automobile led to the state’s population boom in the early 20th Century, there are only a handful of wheelwrights.

“It’s about making something that was used in the past,” said Houdashelt, whose business is called the Sierra Buggy Shoppe.

He generally has a full workload from collectors and an increasing number of people who ride horse-drawn carriages as a hobby.

It takes some effort to get the 79-year-old retired trucker to shed insight into his trade. Maybe that’s because he’s been making wagon wheels so long it’s become second nature to him--a hobby so personal and solitary that it takes more than words to describe.

Lining wooden fences that lead to his workshop and modest home are dozens of wagon wheels, which give the property an Old West feeling.

Houdashelt works about six hours a day, although he admits his scheduled is flexible. His office hours--handwritten in red ink on a white sign in his dusty, wood-frame workshop--are an example of that.

“Open most days about 8 or 8:30, occasionally as early as 7,” the sign reads. “We close about 5:30 or 6, sometimes earlier. Some days we aren’t here at all.”

Houdashelt, who charges a minimum of $130 a wheel, can make a set of four wheels in two days.

“If I was doing this for a living, I’d starve to death,” he said.

Most of Houdashelt’s business comes from members of carriage clubs throughout California who celebrate horse-drawn transportation with leisurely rides, complete with period costumes. Some of the clubs are devoted to competitive driving as well.

Members of Hank Boyd’s Northern California antique carriage club sometimes look to Houdashelt when their wheels are damaged from riding unpaved roads.

“There are very few people around who do what he does,” Boyd said. “It’s a specific trade because the hub of the wheel has to fit the axle. Every wheel has to be custom-made. It’s very specialized.”