{"id":236828,"date":"2026-03-26T02:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236828\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:05:18","slug":"war-horse-camel-goat-and-cat-in-balboa-park-cool-san-diego-sights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236828\/","title":{"rendered":"War horse, camel, goat and cat in Balboa Park! \u2013 Cool San Diego Sights!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20160324_141536.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112089\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Almost a year ago, I posted a blog about the restoration of Balboa Park\u2019s beautiful carousel animals. I walked by today and found carousel caretaker William \u201cBill\u201d Brown and a smiling volunteer hard at work!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The carved wooden War Horse, Camel and Goat are at various stages of restoration, as you can see. Compare today\u2019s photographs with those I took in June 2025 by clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/coolsandiegosights.com\/2025\/06\/02\/restoration-of-balboa-park-carousel-animals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First up, here\u2019s the War Horse. The Balboa Park Carousel was originally built in 1910 by Herschell-Spillman, and, fortunately, there is a factory description that still exists. Bill intends to keep the restored version fairly true to that historical appearance.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_141426.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112093\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s an image of how a Herschell-Spillman War Horse appeared in the early 20th century\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_141433.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112095\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s how the restoration appears so far, with a lot of detailed painting still to go\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_141605.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112097\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_141610.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112109\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s a sketch Bill made of the Camel as it may look when finally restored.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, no record exists of how this carousel animal originally appeared over a century ago. The leaves atop the camel\u2019s humps would obviously be green.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_141616.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112099\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The painting of the Camel is getting underway\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_141636.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112101\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_142819.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112117\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Goat isn\u2019t quite as far along.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As you can see, a lot of sanding is required when restoring these carved wooden carousel animals, they\u2019re so very detailed. Lots of nooks and crannies.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_142015-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112105\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But when the restoration is complete, the animals are amazing! Look how the Persian Cat turned out!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324_142051.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112107\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Balboa Park Carousel is one of San Diego\u2019s great treasures. Thanks to all who are keeping it alive, vibrant, and the source of joy for many!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To follow my blog, find the \u201cFollow\u201d box in this website\u2019s sidebar. Or bookmark <a href=\"https:\/\/coolsandiegosights.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">coolsandiegosights.com<\/a> and swing on by occasionally!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(If you\u2019re viewing this on a phone, open my website\u2019s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost a year ago, I posted a blog about the restoration of Balboa Park\u2019s beautiful carousel animals. I&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-236828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-san-diego","9":"tag-san-diego-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}