I saw in a post on the AACA forum a few days ago that Stan Reynolds passed away on Feb. 9th. He was 88. Actually Mr. Reynolds was part of my connection to the DeVaux car.
In our potographs section I posted most of the DeVaux pictures. The one of the "Rusting DeVaux's" was taken at his collection in 1992. I had previously requested a copy of the list of cars, trucks, fire engines and steam tractors that he was liquidating.
I asked my wife if she wanted to go up to Edmonton to the biggest mall that was in Canada. She took the bait and off we went. Wetaskiwin is 35 KM South of Edmonton and I spent a whole day on the property (with her at the mall). No other public was there that day that I could see and Stan's forman opened two of the big hangers to let me in to see the cars. The property had rows and rows of cars and trucks outside also. On one side of the property were the steam tractors in a row.
The DeVaux's came from the Pollard collection. As the AACA posts say, he got some of his cars from Pollard.
When I went back 7 years later, it was thined out a lot. At least I got two out of the collection.
Gary
Gary:
I first became aware of Stan Reynolds in 1970. We visited Edmonton to see my sister and brother in law. They rented a very small (11 foot) teardrop trailer and also had a cartop sleeper. We ventured from Edmonton, came south and our first stop was Wetaskawin, at Stan Reynolds place. This was his original spot, a small building crammed with memorabilia, and outside a 100 acres or more of tractors, cars, steam engines, farm machinery and the like. I could have spent a week climbing over everything. Couldn't get at the cars, as they were behind a wire fence. I guess I could have climbed the fence, but I didn't. The most memorable thing I remember, was the hide of a huge grizzly bear and the skull. The story was that a native lady had shot this bear, using a boys' 22 Cal Cooey. The bear's skull showed a small patch with 5 holes in it. Fabulous shooting! and she would have had to reload as they were single shot rifles.
I have been back a couple of times since, both since the new building put up by the Alberta Government was built. Everything is spread out so much better, and the cars are restored. They also have a first class restoration facility on the premises. However, they will not let you out in the storage areas. I wanted to see their 1932 Frontenac, but it was in storage and no go.
I was pleased to see some of the equipment I remembered all painted up and restored. Particularly, a home made "walking" tractor that in 1970 was a candidate for the boneyard - today a working model They even hadd a video showing it moving. I can't imagine the amount of time and welding it took some farmer to make the machine. Now it is again running!!
Stan was a great man! We have lost a giant!
They don't make him like that any more.
Gord