{"id":26108,"date":"2019-07-13T12:45:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T19:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/?p=26108"},"modified":"2019-07-13T12:45:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T19:45:47","slug":"studebaker-placerville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/studebaker-placerville\/","title":{"rendered":"One Last Time &#8211; Studebaker Returns to Placerville to Pay His Final Respects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/images\/studebak.jpg\" alt=\"img\" width=\"650\" height=\"339\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Left photo: John Studebaker wheelbarrow in El Dorado County Historical Museum | right: John Studebaker | Wheelbarrow Races at El Dorado Count Fair<\/p>\n<p>In June 2019 El Dorado County Fair marked the 75th Anniversary of the John M Studebaker wheelbarrow races named after John Studebaker, more famously known as &#8220;Wheelbarrow Johnny.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is an intense competition and participants train hard. The contestants traverse through obstacles such as mud pits, railroad ties, balance beams, humps and bumps, all while carrying a heavy load in their homemade wooden wheelbarrows. There usually are one or several competitors who even dress like Studebaker.<\/p>\n<p>Most people have heard the story of John Studebaker who &#8220;made his pile&#8221; building wheelbarrows for the miners and invested his fortune in the family wagon business (that became a famous car manufacturer).<\/p>\n<p>But few have heard how and why the millionaire returned to Placerville more than 100 years ago, to pay &#8220;his final respects&#8221; to the men who helped him get his start.<\/p>\n<p>According to historians Craig &amp; Franklin MacDonald, Ph.D., in April of 1912, 79-year-old &#8220;Wheelbarrow Johnny&#8221; (as his friends called him) made a sentimental journey from his Indiana home to Placerville. This time he left the East by ship, instead of wagon train. He came back to honor &#8220;his boys&#8221; and talk about old times at a gala party he threw in the Ohio House Hotel. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/history\/john-studebaker.html\">Read the story about Studebaker&#8217;s &#8220;Last Time&#8221;&#8230;<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Left photo: John Studebaker wheelbarrow in El Dorado County Historical Museum | right: John Studebaker | Wheelbarrow Races at El Dorado Count Fair In June 2019 El Dorado County Fair marked the 75th Anniversary of the John M Studebaker wheelbarrow races named after John Studebaker, more famously known as &#8220;Wheelbarrow Johnny.&#8221; It is an intense [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26109,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions\/26109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}