WETASKIWIN, Alta. – It’s taken almost 60 years for Stan
Reynolds to collect thousands of antique cars, trucks, tractors, signs, arrowheads and other bits and pieces of Alberta history.
It will likely take an auction sale each month for more than a year for Reynolds to sell off the extra antiques stuffed into sheds or the more than 700 cars, 300 tractors and thousands of pieces of machinery lined up in a row on the edge of town.
“Anything they didn’t need, we’re selling,” said Reynolds, who is holding the first auction of his antique collection Sept. 24.
Read Also
British Columbia farmers to receive increased AgriStability supports
B.C. farmers to receive bump in AgriStability compensations due to weather concerns, international trade instability
“I might as well let someone else have it if they want it. I’m
83 years old and haven’t got much time left.”
Reynolds isn’t closing up shop completely. He will still sell
industrial equipment parts from his Wetaskiwin office and there is a long list of airplanes and military vehicles that still need to
be bought, renovated and donated to a provincial museum.
“We’re not wrapping up,” said Reynolds.
“We’re selling main stock items because there is far too many
to expect to sell in the next 50 years.”
Reynolds started his collection in the 1940s. After the Second World War he opened a car dealership and large equipment operation. It wasn’t uncommon to haul a large piece of industrial equipment to
a client across the Prairies and on the back haul pick up a threshing machine, tractor or car.
In 1992, the provincial government got its pick of Reynolds’ prize antiques for the Reynolds-
Alberta Museum on the west side of the Wetaskiwin airport.
Reynolds has donated more than 2,000 antiques to the museum.
His own Reynolds museum, on the east side of the airport, was opened in 1955 and is also full of Alberta antiques.
He has also given many items to the local Wetaskiwin museum and the local Legion branch. Recently he gave the Royal Alberta Museum 75 military uniforms and 35 rare firearms. He also donated 75 antique folding school desks and other small
antiques to the Ukrainian Cultural Centre.
Money from the sale of the duplicate antiques, or equipment that doesn’t fit in the government collection, will be used to buy and
restore airplanes and military machinery that will then be donated
to the government.
Part of the agreement when Reynolds made the initial donation to the province was that the government would build a proper display building plus a restoration shop to carry on his work of restoring and preserving antiques.
Giving the antiques to the province to keep for future generations is what has kept Reynolds collecting and restoring for years.
“If I didn’t give it to them, I’ve wasted practically all my life working on preserving this stuff.”
He bought much of the equipment from scrap dealers or farmers who had hauled the equipment into the bush.
The first few auction sales will involve smaller antique items like coins, crocks and native artifacts he collected in anticipation of building a pioneer village.
In each sale will be a few tractors, threshing machines and other large pieces of equipment.
“When you have 200 threshing machines, you can’t sell them in a year. We have over 10 different makes of threshing machines.
“We quit picking them up five to 10 years ago. Threshing machines are not something a lot of people want.”
Next June, a four-day sale will be held just for the larger items like antique cars, tractors, mowers, rakes and equipment.
A parts auction will be held in May to disperse the thousands of new gaskets, pistons, horns, lights and other parts for a variety of cars from Model T Fords to newer antique vehicles.
Reynolds said just because he is starting to disperse items doesn’t mean he has stopped collecting. He still scans ads and auction flyers for valuable items
appropriate for the provincial collection.
