COOS BAY — During its heyday, this vehicle ran on real horse power.

Though it may never again deliver grain or lumber, the green wagon represents the gathering of generations — in body and spirit — to resurrect a piece of history.

“It’s ready to get to work as it did in the 1890s,” said John Dubisar, 75, who is completing restoration work on the relic. “Of course you need a team of horses, and I’m not investing in that.”

For the past six weeks, Dubisar, the former president and founder of J.B.S. Construction, has worked with his grandson, John Browning, and two nephews to rebuild the wagon. A friend found its remnants in an Elkton barn earlier this year.

Retired for more than seven years from the underground utility construction business, the North Bend resident said he wanted something to occupy his time. He had built a similar wagon in the mid-1970s and jumped at the idea of taking on another.

“I was getting bored, I needed a project,” Dubisar said.

But with failing vision, Dubisar also needed help. He said he’s lost use of his right eye and about 50 percent of his left. So he recruited Browning and other employees from the family business to make sure he drilled, hammered and cut without losing an extremity.

“That’s the reason the young people really got involved. I’d measure twice and still get it wrong,” Dubisar said. “I’m just persistent. I’m not ready to give up. The only thing is I’m more careful with where I step and what I do.”

Browning hadn’t realized he’d be working on the wagon, until one day Dubisar asked him to lend him a hand for a few minutes.

“It turned into a monthlong project, but I was happy to do it,” Browning said. “It made me feel a lot closer to my grandpa.”

When the wagon’s 1898 undercarriage was pulled from his friend’s barn, Dubisar realized the project wouldn’t be paint by numbers.

“When we got it out of the barn, I almost cried because the wheels were rotten,” Dubisar said.

Undeterred, Dubisar returned to his late father’s long-idle blacksmith shop in North Dakota to pick up spare parts and a few memories to aid him in his work. As he built the wagon, Dubisar said he wished he had listened more closely to his father when he was a boy. Instead, he had to learn how to do it on his own.

“I never (thought) that I’d have to use what he was trying to teach me,” Dubisar said.

Repairing the wheels represented the most difficult part of the project. He and Browning dismantled the four wheels, replaced rotten pieces with parts from his father’s shop, and then banded it all together. The first wheel took about a day and a half to complete. The two men then spent a quarter of a day on each of the remaining wheels.

“It looks simple now that it’s finished,” Dubisar said, surveying his work.  

Browning agreed.

“It was a lot of trial and error on a lot of the parts,” he said.

In all, about 100 man hours went into reconstructing the wagon, which features about 70 percent original material. Dubisar explained that nuts and bolts and some other parts came from local businesses. Dubisar’s nephew Neil, a mechanic for J.B.S., also fabricated the metal parts.

Browning said he’d never built a wagon before. While it was an occasionally frustrating experience, it was worth the time.

“It was fun working with my grandpa, (but) there were a few times we butted heads,” Browning said. “Finally, I’d give in and do what he said and get it done.

“It was a good experience. Not many people from my generation can say, ‘I helped my grandpa build a wagon,’ and be able to experience what it’s like to make one of these. It’s actually a lot of work.”

Dubisar founded J.B.S. in 1964, several years after he moved to the area. Of its 12 employees, eight are family members.

Daughter Shelly Dubisar, who is Browning’s mother as well as president of J.B.S., said the project was good for her dad.

“He got so fired up over this wagon. It gave him something to look forward to,” she said. “I think it kind of took him back to his younger days.”

Dubisar said he plans to rest and admire his handiwork once it’s completed, but his daughter said that’s unlikely. He’ll probably rest less than a week before finding something else to tackle.

“I look for him to start another one,” she said.

The wagon will likely be placed on family property. While Shelly Dubisar admires the work of her son, father and other relatives, she said the relationships they developed were the most important part of the effort.

“I wish I could have gotten as close to my grandpa as my son has to my dad,” she said. “And my dad taught me to be a good worker and I’d like that to be instilled in my son, as well.”