When the Jefferson County Fair and Rodeo opens Aug. 21, excited youngsters will surely rush to the round white building to the right of the entrance for a bracing ride on a shiny, colorful pony.
But few will be aware that they are spinning through an emblem of Montana’s proud history of ingenuity and persistence. “It is a true treasure to this community,” said Donna Gilmer of the nonprofit Boulder River Carousel group.
The story starts in the 1950s, when Dr. Arthur Westwell, superintendent of the Boulder-based Montana School for the Deaf and Dumb (later the Montana State Training School), decided the school’s students would enjoy an amusement park. Westwell tapped the school’s maintenance foreman, Harold Jessen, to build a ferris wheel, swan boat, and road-ready choo-choo train.
