The Bickleton High School band played The Star-Spangled Banner and 225 spectators watched as ground was broken on the Alder Creek Pioneer Carousel Museum.
Bickleton's carousel is 101 years old and is used only one weekeend of the year (during the annual Alder Creek Pioneer Picnic and Rodeo in June). For years now, some citizens of Bickleton have been lobbying for a place to store the carousel horses and still be able to let the public view them.
"The horses are quite valuable now," said Barbara Clark, co-chairman of the Bickleton carousel committee. "In the past we haven't been able to let people know where the horses are stored."
They were afraid someone would try to steal the horses, she said.
The money to build the museum is coming from the Washington State Legislative capital fund. The carousel committee has $450,000 to spend and Clark said all of it will be used.
Mountain States Construction of Sunnyside will be building the museum in downtown Bickleton on Market Street.
Clark said as soon as the building permits are OK'd by Klickitat County, construction will begin. She figures that will happen sometime in early July. Work should be completed three months after it is started.
"The museum is for the storage of our antique carousel horses and for the history of the Alder Creek Pioneer Association," Clark added.
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