FRIENDSHIP WAGON TRAIN

STAFF PHOTO BY RICK BUSSLER
John Davis of Byron leans on the Friendship Wagon Train truck waiting for the horse riders to arrive at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Meriden. He has coordinated the ride for 38 years.

It may have taken on a twist of the wild old west, but it was a week-long charity horseback riding and wagon event passing through Dodge and other counties across southeastern Minnesota. The time: 2026.
Horses and covered wagons traveled the back roads from Cannon Falls to New Richland from June 19-27. On June 24, they camped out at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna before hitting the road the next day across County Road 18 to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Meriden and ending that night in Waseca.
The journey is affectionately referred to as the Friendship Wagon Train, which was created 38 years ago by John Davis of Byron. In the early years, he rode for Camp Courage before splitting away to the Friendship Wagon Train in 1990.
As he nears 80, Davis still coordinates the ride which this year included 12 wagons, 13 riding horses and about 50 horse lovers. He creates the 135-mile route which changes every year. Horse riders use the slow-paced, 3.5-mile-per-hour journey to appreciate the rural Minnesotan countryside.
But they’re not doing it just for the riding. Each year the Friendship Wagon Train crosses the state to raise awareness and donations for Special Olympics Minnesota. “This is important. I have to do something right in life,” Davis said about the donations, which raise up to $35,000 every year.
The Special Olympics foundation provides athletic opportunities for children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. Davis said in the past they had raised funds for more localized camps, but they like the Special Olympics because it reaches a broader audience statewide.
Davis also fundraises in a sleigh ride event for Special Olympics in Rochester every year along with Olmsted County Sheriff Kevin Torgerson.
But Davis admits age is catching up to him.
“I’m going to be 80 and I’m wearing out,” he says wearing bib overalls and leaning on the special truck stocked with water for the horses and Porta Potties.
Cole Ulrich of Albert Lea has been taking part in the wagon train for the past 25 years. “It’s a family tradition,” he said, noting that he considers all the riders part of his family. “The whole wagon is a family train. We love each other very much.”
“This right here,” Ulrich said as he hugged another rider, “it’s the friendship. We’ve known each other forever.”
Ulrich added, “We love to ride.”
Riders come from as far away as Louisiana and Tennessee for the wagon train, but many come from close states including Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Michael Cunningham of Fairview, Tenn., couldn’t agree more. He has been a part of the Minnesota wagon for 23 years. “It’s the friendships we make,” he said. “At home (Tennessee) we have much better riding, but it’s the friendships.”
When the wagon train began in 1990, as many as 66 wagons and 1,500 riders took part in the train, said Davis.
While on the route through Steele County June 25, the wagon train pulled into the Rick and Darlene Ebeling’s Century Farm for a break. “This is awesome,” Darlene Ebeling said. “Once in a lifetime. They love this. It’s their bread and butter.”
After leaving the Ebelings, the wagon train continued west to St. Paul’s Lutheran where the church ladies provided them with lunch. For Davis, being at Meriden touched a sweet memory when the wagon train camped overnight there one time back in the early years.
Jolene Gundermannn of Waseca reflected on her 40 years of riding with the different trains. When she first began, she didn’t even own a horse. “We used a borrowed horse and slept in a station wagon,” she said, noting today she owns three horses and has been riding with the Waseca County Sheriff’s posse for 31 years.
She laughs about how they said after the first year, they would never do it again. “I don’t know why we keep coming back. It’s a lot of torture on us,” Gundermann said.
Now she can’t think of doing anything different.
“Just the fun of being together with the people,” she said. “We meet people from everywhere. It’s a great time.”