Meet the Board
Ashlee Ganoung, Executive Director/Treasurer
Ashlee Ganoung is originally from Virginia City, MT. Her interest and inspiration for stagecoach and wagon related topics was fostered by her grandfather, Lester Stiles, and his experience. Also she has received wonderful mentoring on stagecoach restoration and preservation from fellow board member Rawhide Johnson. Currently Ashlee and her husband reside in NW Wyoming.
(Founder)
Rawhide Johnson, Vice President
Ranch raised in Montana and Idaho, Rawhide grew up driving teams and fixing wagons as a normal days work. In Rawhide's youth, his father gave stagecoach rides commercially. This background, along with a love of stagecoach history, has led him to the teaching of ideas and techniques of stagecoach conservation and restoration. Through these concepts he hopes to help preserve the visual and reality of each vehicles history.
Rawhide serves on several boards, does independent consulting and currently is the Chairman of the Board for the Yellowstone Historic Center.
(Founder)
Gerry Groenewold, President
Gerry Groenewold is the Director of the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He is originally from Forreston, Illinois, a small farm town in northwestern Illinois.
He first became fascinated with horse-drawn vehicles when, at age 7, he visited relatives who ranch in Montana and saw their old Studebaker sheepherder’s wagon that was stored in the barn (and still is). While other kids were playing sports, Gerry grew up riding his horse, Sam, or driving Sam with a buggy he bought from a local farmer for $25.
His interest in stagecoaches and freight wagons grew over the years, along with his lifelong fascination with the history of the American West. In the 1980s, he and his family restored a severely fire-damaged stagecoach that had once belonged to Buffalo Bill. Over the last 30 years, he has dedicated an exceptional amount of time to researching the history of stagecoaching and freighting in the American West.
Gerry and his wife, Connie Triplett (a kindred spirit), live in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and have three sons (two of whom share a fascination with horse-drawn vehicles).
(Founder)
Doug Hansen
Doug Hansen, founder and owner/operator of Hansen Wheel & Wagon Shop established in 1978. He has worked as a wainwright and wheelwright since that time, specializing in the building and restoring of heavy wagons and wheels. Doug has made a point of researching and studying the original, authentic vehicles and performs all his work with special attention to following the original design and detail - to produce only authentic, quality workmanship.
His fascination with horse drawn vehicles brought about self study of their designs and qualities. He truly believes that traditional wagon making and its methods are his connection with the original artisans of the past, and his inspiration comes from the study of their work.
Doug's primary interest is in the realm of the western vehicles that traveled across the prairies of Dakota Territory, as well as the heavy commercial vehicles that kept our nation supplied. Iconic American vehicles such as stagecoaches, chuck wagons, freight wagons, and hitch wagons combine to make up his largest area of study.
Examples and contributions of Doug's work can be found in private collections, museums & corporate holdings. His company and its products have been featured in numerous articles, and have been displayed nationally and internationally.
Doug's reputation and experience has led to consulting work, evaluations, workshops, and speaking engagements, that he enjoys doing all across the country.
(Founder)
David Sneed
Raised on the popularity of the serial television and movie westerns of the 1960’s, David grew up on his parents' Quarter horse ranch in Arkansas. He spent much of his early years breaking, training and showing Quarter horses. While his collegiate studies focused on a broadcast and communications career, he continued his work with horses during the summers off. By his early thirties, David's western interests began to concentrate on the wooden wheeled icons he calls the ‘ultimate symbol’ of the American West. He reminds us that both the vehicles and industry make up a huge and virtually untouched aspect of early western study; rich with untold stories of personal and corporate dreams.
David’s passion for the legacy of the West has continued to grow and, today, he is the founder of one of the country's largest private archives of rare, original western vehicle literature and related ephemera. The collection spans more than a century of horse drawn vehicle manufacture and contains scarce imagery, specifications and other all-but-forgotten historical details of the workings of America's early western transportation industry. Focusing on the specific farm, freight, ranch, military and coach vehicles that built the western frontier of the United States, David is an avid collector, historian, and writer. His research and articles have been published by the American Chuck Wagon Association, The Carriage Journal, Farm Collector, and Driving Digest magazines as well as the Wheels That Won The West® website and numerous other traditional and on-line publications.
Complementing his study, David does consulting and authentication work and shares elements of his collection through several limited edition prints. Highlighted by rare 19th century imagery, these exclusive pieces have filled a crucial gap for western vehicle enthusiasts and today can be found in homes, businesses and museums throughout the world.
(Founder)
Ken Wheeling, Director
Ken Wheeling is a retired educator, having spent 34 years in public and private schools in New York State and Vermont. He has been a participant and lecturer for 25 years in the annual CANE Institute held at Dartmouth College each July. He was the Zoning Administrator for 30 years for the Town of Monkton, and continues to serve as a Justice of the Peace and the Town Moderator.
His interest in carriages began as a teenager, when he first saw them during visits to his grandparents' home in Lancaster, PA. He acquired his first book on the subject in 1956 and has put together a massive library and archives on the subject of horse-drawn vehicles. He writes professionally as Associate Editor for The Carriage Journal, voice of The Carriage Association of America, and has published elsewhere, most recently in the Overland Journal. He has published three books, two on carriages and wagons, Horse-drawn Vehicles at the Shelburne Museum (1972) and The Marshall Collection (2007). He was also Co-chair of the very successful Colonial Williamsburg/Carriage Association 2008 International Carriage Symposium, and will co-chair the 2010 version. He has been invited as a lecturer for the Western Carriage Symposium to be held in Santa Ynez CA in April 2009.
His interest in western vehicles stems from an appreciation of western history and the search for documentation and historical records of traveling in the mid-west and west. Focusing on the Concord coach, he has made an in-depth study of these vehicles, having examined and photographed 134 of the 156 known extant examples. He maintains detailed record files about all types of stagecoaches. He is also deeply interested in wagon research, documenting the histories of those companies which made major contributions to the wagon trade and to the ability of immigrants to travel into the western territories. Realizing that an understanding of the carriage building trade is dependent upon European influences, he has traveled widely in Europe, visiting over 49 museum and private carriage collections, studying 18th and 19th century vehicles.
(Founder)
Jeff McManus
Jeff McManus was born in Sheridan, Wyoming. His father was working on the Padlock Ranch at the time and Jeff was raised on ranches in Wyoming. He joined NSFWA in 2009 at the NSFWA Conference at West Yellowstone, Montana. There, he was asked to cook with his chuckwagon for the public in attendance at the conference. Jeff had a great time and was honored to be asked to give some history about a local stage and freight road in the Cody, Wyoming area during the 2010 NSFWA Conference in Cody. Jeff is employed as a Brand Inspector for the Wyoming Livestock Board. In his spare time, he enjoys trips with his team and wagon - and he has begun a collection of wagons. Jeff states "I strongly believe in and support the NSFWA, for it holds a great set of members with a vast knowledge of horse drawn transportation. Together we can fulfill our mission of 'Sharing The Legacy of a Transportation Empire'".
Greg VanCoevern
Greg VanCoevern is the owner and operator of Central Plains Business Forms, Inc. He has been a volunteer fire-fighter since 1991, and has served on several boards including: Saline County Rural Fire District #7, Saline County Fair Board, Saline County Crime Stoppers, and Central Kansas Harness Club. He has served as Superintendent of Horse Driving Shows, including the Tri-Rivers Invitational Draft Horse Show.
His interest in carriages began with the purchase of a John Deere 2-Seat Spring Wagon from an estate sale of his wife’s family. This spring wagon was the first vehicle he restored and it soon developed into a hobby. He has restored and built spring-wagons, a surrey, a baker’s cart, several show carts, phaetons, box wagons, buckboards, delivery wagon and a Rucker style civil war ambulance.
He has enjoyed driving horses, including ponies, mules, standardbreds, and draft horses, for the past 26 years using his collection of wagons and carriages. His favorite to drive is draft horses, especially Percheron Draft Horses. He has shown draft horses extensively throughout the Midwest as VanCoevern Percherons. A highlight was winning Amateur Team Class at the National Western Stock Show and competing in the World Percheron Congress. Greg and his family have been very successful competing in Vintage Vehicle, Costume and Nostalgia classes.
His experience with horse-drawn vehicles and driving horses has led to the opportunity to participate as an extra in several movies, including Ride with the Devil; Sarah, Plain and Tall; Winter’s End; and Skylark.
In addition to participating in horse drawn activities, Greg is involved in Living History at Fort Larned National Historic Site, Civil War Reenactments and has been a speaker about life in the Civil War/Indian Wars Cavalry. He is deeply involved in Santa Fe Trail and Smoky Hill Trail activities as well.
Art Lacerte
Coming Soon!
