A Treasure

One person's trash is another person's treasure.

Sure pholks, we've all heard that phrase and some of us have stories to tell to prove that point.

And then there are legendary tales about somebody who has friend who also has a friend who knows somebody who found an old car hidden in a barn or under a tree in a cow pasture and the vehicle turns out to be a valuable classic.

Well, Visalian Sherry Wheeler can attest to both.

Sherry has a 1955 “Westerner,” a 13-foot travel trailer she has transformed into an eye-catching home away from home and could be worth up to one hundred times what she paid for it four years ago. Not only is it spiffed up and looks and functions just fine, it is rare, with perhaps only a couple dozen manufactured. Apparently there are very few still in existence.

But Sherry has no plans to sell her “jewel” which she has spent hundreds of hours of toil and more than a few hundred bucks to put it in pristine shape. To say she did not know what she had is a pretty fair understatement, according to some internet searching and reaction she gets when she takes her prize on a trip.

Sherry loves to tell the story and beams when mentioning that she is so glad she followed her instincts that it was something “I just had to have.”

The story begins in April 2004, when she helped a friend clean up his recently deceased uncle's property.
''In his cow pasture was this little trailer covered with mildew, moss and grass,” she says, adding that the friend indicated it was going to the dump. After all, it had been in the field for about 13 years.

“I went over and opened the door to look inside. You couldn't even get inside it was so full of trash,” she adds.

“But what I did see was the beautiful teak wood and this little porcelain stove. For some reason I wanted it.”

After agreeing on a price of $250, Sherry took her discovery home. Three and one half truck loads of trash, including the bedding and curtains, were taken out but everything else stayed, she said, explaining, “I wanted it to be as original as possible. It took me about three months of cleaning to get it clean. Then I went to work on the wood. It was dry and warped so I oiled it every third day for the about eight weeks, then sealed it with varnish.”

Attempting to match the décor with the name “The Westerner,” Sherry used a denim and red bandana theme with new curtains, bedding and bench cushions.

Despite its diminutive size, the trailer is big on amenities, boasting a full size bed, a cot bed overhead, closet, lots of cabinets, sink, ice box, four-burner porcelain stove/oven and a four-person dinner table which folds down to make a bed. In addition to the propane stove and a light source, it also has electric lights. The propane light wasn't there so it took Sherry about eight months to find a glass dome, which could take the heat, to fit.

Sherry did a lot of the outside work also but got some help in the painting which followed the original scheme with some minor adjustments. Window seals and wheel covers took some doing but eventually everything came together.

By September, it was time to launch with a trip to San Simeon. After pulling into her camp spot just as it was getting dark, Sherry spent her first night in her cozy jewel.

The first outside indication of just how great a find she had made came the next morning as she walked outside with her coffee and was greeted by four men walking around her Westerner. They had seen her pull in the prior evening and could hardly wait to check it out. After allowing the guys to see inside, one fellow said he thought it was a Shasta, a more common and very similar design and shape. But the Westerner nameplate convinced him.

While relating her story about her acquisition of her trailer, one of the guys asked if she knew how rare it was, especially in such great shape. The trailers were made at Westfield Inc. in Los Angeles and only for a couple of years.

When one fellow said he had never seen a Westerner and told her it was really “a jewel” Sherry said she replied “Yes, I thought so when I bought her.”

Miles can be reached at mshuper@valleyvoicenewspaper.com