Late 19th, early 20th century

More than 200 carriages and wagons from across North America show how people, goods, and services were delivered when pollution from vehicle traffic could be managed with a shovel. Rides behind horse-drawn wagons and close-up views of wheelwrights applying their craft maintain living reminders of the horse-and-buggy age.

It would be a shame for first-time visitors to Waterton Lakes National Park to exclude this first-rate, excellently curated museum from their itinerary.

The nucleus of North America's largest collection of horse-drawn conveyances was Don Remington's repair of an old sleigh to carry Santa Claus in Cardston's 1954 Christmas parade. That was the start of 33 years of collecting and restoring a final total of 49 vehicles, from fancy landau wedding coaches to a wooden street sprayer from the City of Fernie.

Remington donated his collection to the Province of Alberta in 1985, and Calgary's Glenbow Museum followed on with a permanent loan of its130 vehicles of historical importance. The provincially funded museum opened in 1993.

If significant life milestones coincide with your visit, Remington Carriage Museum will be pleased to rent carriages and liveried coachmen for weddings, anniversaries, or funerals.

A working wheelwright's shop demonstrates how delicate wooden hubs, spokes, and rims are clamped together by tight-fitting steel tire bands.

A stable, coach house, and a hitching yard show horses and horsemen in living action.

The one-site Carriage House Restaurant features Alberta beef dinners from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm Thursday through Saturday. The restaurant is open daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm for lighter fare.

Every day, year-round.

Summer 9:00 am to 6:pm; otherwise 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

The museum is located in Cardston on Provincial Highway 2 ,between Fourth and Fifth Avenues.

Cardston is a short drive from Waterton Lakes National Park northeast on Provincial Highway 5.