NEW LIFE FOR OLD WAGONS --  A MAN REMEMBERED

by Pam North

Bill Cypher, born December 2, 1925, loved the old wagons of the West -
the horse and buggy was a well-remembered part of his childhood.  Born
in Bloom, Colorado, he grew up during the Dust Bowl on farms on the
state's eastern plains, where horses were as much a mode of
transportation as they were a means of farming the land, and repairing
broken-down wagons and buggies was part of everyday life.  Surrounded
by these elements, Bill absorbed and later drew upon the experiences of
his youth, turning them into a passion and a hobby to recreate the
past and keep it alive.  His venture into the skillful restoration and
authentic reproduction of the old wagons and buggies started small,
with a miniature wooden stagecoach that still sits today on the
fireplace mantel of his home in Cold Creek Canyon.

The transition from miniature to full-scale happened when the director
of the IdRaHaJe church camp called Bill to request the use of his
flat-bed truck to pick up an old stagecoach from a church in Denver
and deliver it to the camp.  Bill agreed, and in the process of the
project he noticed that the stagecoach was little more than some
boards nailed together and set on a wagon frame.  Bill thought he
could improve on it, and he got approval to make a few changes.  He
returned the finished stagecoach to the camp, where it was used for a
few years, then sent back to Bill for some repairs.  This time Bill
renovated it entirely, cutting it apart and reassembling it with such
success that it later caught the attention of a Wyoming camp director,
who asked Bill to make one for his own camp.  After locating a suitable
running gear, Bill completed the task, and the stagecoach was sent to
Wyoming, where it was used at the camp and for numerous parades, and
in New Mexico and Missouri for a wild west show and as a cowboy church
pulpit.

In the meantime, Bill also had been asked to construct several chuck
wagons; one went to New Mexico, one to IdRaHaJe, two to the Wyoming
camp, and one to a camp in eastern Colorado.  All of his projects,with
the exception of his final stagecoach, were donated to church camps,
for which he had developed a special fondness.

Bill relied simply on pictures, experience, common sense and his own
innate talent to produce the vehicles.  He and his wife, Natalie,
visited places in Oregon and California where stagecoaches and buggies
were made (to the tune of $45,000 for fiberglass bodies and $60,000
for wooden bodies) for movies. Over the years Bill built four
stagecoaches (the last one completely from scratch), five chuck
wagons, a doctor's wagon, a surrey, and a piano box buggy, and
repaired many other wagons and wagon wheels. It wasn't until Bill
built his last stagecoach in 2003 that he obtained any plans.  The
first were copies of some owned by the Smithsonian Institute (these
were incomplete), but another set from the Oregon State Historical
Society proved to be useful for his final project.

Bill's interest in buggies and wagons was fanned by the fact that his
uncle was a part of the last trail drive in Colorado (Bill's
brother-in-law had the chuck wagon used on that journey), and Bill
still had the parts from his family's buggy that he remembered from
when he was in first grade.  His retirement was filled with an
endeavor that his family also shared; sons, grandsons and a daughter
have all helped in his projects, and his wife had a part in the making
of the upholstery, window curtains and boot coverings.  They scrounged
for old parts, replicated the antique components when the originals
couldn't be found, and even substituted old conveyor belts for the
thorough brace systems when leather replacements were too expensive
for their budget. Bill's masterful restorations and original creations
were often featured in various publications over the years, and last
year the Colorado-based firm, Leanin' Tree, known for its line of
Western-motif stationery and other items, featured one of Bill's
renovated stagecoaches in the background scenery of one of its cards.

Bill was part of history in other ways.  Drafted out of high school
into the infantry, he participated in World War II's Battle of the
Bulge, spending Christmas of 1944 in a foxhole eating frozen rations.
He was shot in the chest in that battle, and sent to Marseilles,
France to recover.  He was later awarded the Combat Infantry Badge,
Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars. He worked at Colorado's Rocky
Flats, as a security guard and then a shop mechanic, retiring from
there in 1980.  He still found time to serve as a fireman, and was a
member of the team that set up the boundaries for the Coal Creek
Canyon Fire District.  He was one of the two remaining original
charter members of the Chapel in the Hills, and took an active part in
the planning and building of that church.

At Bill's death on October 18, 2006, he and his wife had been wed for
57 years, and had lived in Coal Creek Canyon for over 50 of those
years, building two homes over the course of their married life
together.  They reared five children, and saw fourteen grandchildren
and three great-grandchildren bcome part of their family.   He and his
wife were part of the original committee for the Coal Creek Canyon
Elementary School.  Bill Cypher and his family certainly have become an
integral part of the fabric and history of Coal Creek Canyon.