Horse Drawn Pumper - Drummond, MT
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 46° 39.914 W 113° 08.433
12T E 336251 N 5170188
Here we have one of three old horse drawn wagons hidden away in the bowels of the town of Drummond.
Waymark Code: WMTNF8
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 12/17/2016
Views: 2
Staffed by 24 volunteer firefighters and 4 non firefighting volunteers, the Valley Fire Department in Drummond is housed in a pair of buildings, one of which was donated by the Flint Creek Valley Bank of Drummond. We suspect it may once have been a bank. Adjacent is a newer building with two overhead doors, the other half of the fire department.
Tucked between the two buildings are three wheeled wagons, this one once possibly the pride and joy of the Drummond Volunteer Fire Department. Given that there is a small pump mounted on the rear, we will call this a pumper. It's not obvious how the pump was driven. Given the size of stationary engines in the era this pumper would have been used, there wasn't room for one of those by the pump. The pump may have been an afterthought, added later, when engines were smaller or when PTO power became available, but that seems a bit of a stretch. The driver sat on a wooden bench seat high at the front of the pumper.
We're guessing that this pumper saw service at least 100 years ago. Drummond was enough of a town to rate a post office by 1884, so the VFD probably wasn't established until the 1890s. With a channel steel frame, the wagon carries a water tank of a couple of hundred gallons capacity, at most.
