By Veronica Beltran

you can still saddle up

Champ leaves the Northern to explore new pastures

Jan 17, 2020 | 1:41 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–He’s a memory to those who’ve grown up in Prince George and now, he’s also a historical artifact.

Champ the mechanical horse, from the Northern, is headed to The Exploration Place after calling Northern Hardware, home, since the 1950’s.

“Sometime in the mid-fifties he was purchased by Alex Moffat, from a gentlemen that wanted to buy a boat motor,” said Marilyn Blair, daughter of Harold Moffat (the second owner of Northern Hardware) “he didn’t have any money so he offered Alex a trade, and Alex was a great trader…so he (the gentlemen) traded the horse for a boat motor.”

“And apparently the story goes that he told this gentleman that he thought his horse would be running long after the boat motor had given out.”–Marilyn Blair

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And he’s still running, thanks to the caring hands of Peter Mueller, who has worked on Champ for the past 40 years, “usually it was just a coin that’d get stuck,” said Mueller.

Over the year’s Mueller saw many people ride champ, from children to adults–no one was left out. “We have sometimes two to three generations, they come tell me, ‘oh my grandfather rode this horse!’…we’ve had also a wedding couple come by aswell and they got to ride Champ,” said Mueller.

Now, just because Champ is leaving The Northern, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to saddle up and ride him again. After the museum determines the state Champ is in, they would like to potentially offer rides on special occasions.

“We are just deciding the best route to go, we will continue to charge the ten cents. We are just trying to decide, will he be open every day, or just on special occasions…should we bring in a replica, which we’ve already sourced out,” said Alyssa Leier, Curator at The Exploration Place.

Champ is one of the 130 artifacts that Northern Hardware has given to the local museum, including cash registers, historical photographs and more. The Exploration Place is planning a Northern Hardware exhibit in 2021, focusing on the history of the store.