New Book Highlights North Tonawanda's Contribution to Sledding

Wendy Hyde of Hamburg in 1965 in an Auto Wheel Coaster wagon, made in the North Tonawanda plant.

A new book by Gordon Westover, in Sacramento, California entitled, "Coasting on Wheels: Vintage Toy Wagons," has a chapter on North Tonawanda's Buffalo Sled Co./Auto Wheel Coaster Co. operation and its wagons.

Westover had contacted North Tonawanda History Museum's Executive Director Donna Zellner Neal for information for his book in 2010. Westover uses three photos from the History Museum collection: an advertising blotter, colored, from 1915 when the company was using both names, Buffalo Sled Co. and Auto Wheel Coaster. A photo of employees of Buffalo Sled Co. on October 20, 1917, in front of the factory and a 1920 photo of youngsters with their Auto Wheel Coaster wagons and beanies provided by the Buffalo Sled Co. in front of the Benjamin Long Rand home at 257 Goundry Street. Benjamin Long Rand was Mayor of North Tonawanda from 1915-1918.

Auto Wheel Coaster began in Buffalo in 1889 as the Buffalo Sled Company and relocated to North Tonawanda in 1904. The company went bankrupt in 1968 and a fire destroyed the manufacturing complex on May 31, 1972. The 235-page book is published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, Inc. and retails for $63.99.