STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The cheers resound up and down Sun Valley Road and Main Street as Horace Lewis’ tall skinny ore wagons pass by.

But few people take the time to get up close and personal with the iconic freight wagons.

Kristine Bretall, the community engagement manager for The Community Library’s Wood River Museum did just that Thursday as she took locals and tourists alike around the ore wagons, which were stationed outside the Ore Wagon Museum.

The discovery of silver in the Wood River Valley drew miners to the area in 1879, raising the population to a bustling 2,000, she said. But it was typically not the miners who struck it rich but the people who provided the services, including timber to shore up mines and the shovels and picks to do the work.

Among those was Horace Lewis. The son of Isaac Lewis, one of the founders of Ketchum, he founded a freight company in 1884 that took ore from Ketchum to Kelton, Utah. As the Oregon Short Line began providing reliable service to Hailey, that cut off some of the trip.

But Lewis’ wagons were still needed to take supplies to mines, which were as far away as Bayhorse, and to haul the galena ore back to Ketchum. There, it was put on trains that eventually made it as far as where the Wood River YMCA is now.

The Lewis home was located in what is now the Elephant’s Perch with a stage stop in front and a mechanic shop down the road near the present-day site of Sun Valley’s horseman Center.

Lewis had 30 different rigs pulled by 700 mules at the height of his operation.

Mules were chosen over horses because they tend to be smart and calmer than horses, Bretall said. They were trained to ferry freight up and down the Trail Creek Road that Lewis built. It was no small feat as it boasted a 12 percent grade in those days, compared with today’s 7 percent grade.

Each unit featured five wagons pulled by 14 to 20 mules, and the mule closest to the wagon on the left side was in charge of the team.

Mules in the middle were taught to jump the chain when turning left or right, the driver indicating which way to turn by different number of jerks on the line.

But the lead mules also had to have the smarts to figure out their own way given that they might be a couple curves ahead of the driver on a road like the Trail Creek Road.

If a mule fell, they were trained to get on their back and to stay still until the driver rescued them, said Bretall.

The first Wagon Days Parade was held in 1958 to mark the 85th birthday of Katharine A. Lewis, the widow of Horace Lewis. And grandson Palmer Lewis gifted the majestic ore wagons to the City of Ketchum with the stipulation that they be brought out once a year.

The wagons, which were restored by a South Dakota wagon meister, are worth looking at up close and personal.

They not only carried necessities like water barrels but they also display fading marks, such as the notation “HCLewis.”