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Level of description
Item
Title
D12024-1
Date(s)
- 1941-10-16 (Creation)
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Name of creator
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In October of 1941, Charles F.T. (Chen) Rowe runs toward the camera with Sanka, one of the horses that he boarded at the Point Defiance Riding Academy stables (pictured in background.) Using the old barn and pasture that had been the home for the park's herd of buffalo, the riding academy was founded in 1933. The Point Defiance Riding Academy was destroyed by a fire at 10 p.m. on August 20, 1964. Albert Schramm, stable operator, tried to chase the 15 boarded horses out of the flaming structure. The frightened horses stood huddled in a knot, when Sanka leapt forward and broke through a narrow Dutch door to safety. Twelve horses followed and two perished in the fire. Sanka was proclaimed a hero. She died in October of 1964 at the ripe old age of 33. (TNT 10/4/1964, pg. B-10 for the story of Sanka)
Horses--Tacoma--1940-1950; Point Defiance Riding Academy (Tacoma); Rowe, Charles Frederick Trendall;